by Brianna Crandall — August 17, 2015—The Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM), the authority on retail, multi-site facilities management, recently surveyed the retail industry to better understand work order management practices and their impact on retail store maintenance operations.
The PRSM Association 2015 Benchmarking Report: Work Order Management Practices, completed in June, collected information from retailers and suppliers to understand how and which various work order metrics are captured and monitored regularly. The goal was to understand how metrics are used and identify potential benefits of industry standardization.
Some key findings include:
- 93% of retailers who use metrics gained from computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) to make decisions report improved vendor accountability and communications.
- 82% of suppliers and 93% of retailers believe CMMS standards would benefit the industry.
- Suppliers track IVR compliance rates, acceptance times, arrival and completion times, travel costs, customer complaints margins and net promoter scores.
- 70% of suppliers use data insights to advise clients on ways to save money or time and more than half use data to drive down costs and evaluate technician performance.
More than one-half of multi-site retailers connect with their suppliers online through a third-party CMMS to manage work orders. One-fourth use an in-house CMMS, while 17% use a vendor/supplier, implemented CMMS. Only 7% of retailers still manage work orders manually using spreadsheets, e-mails, etc.
“Work order metrics can be used to drive down costs, identify efficiencies and set the stage for cross-functional analysis. Based upon this report we see opportunities to improve system integration, standardization and confidentiality as keys to the future in work order management,” said Patricia Dameron, executive director, PRSM Association.
