Centralized Space Database Improves Strategic and Operational Planning

A total systems approach to space management is allowing the University of Michigan Medical School to make better-informed and more objective decisions in planning for growth within 4 million gsf of existing facilities in Ann Arbor, Mich. The space management system—which continues to evolve and expand since its deployment in 2008, and recently became a University best practice—increased annual space productivity by 4.18 percent and generates an estimated yearly savings of $300,000 through improved operational efficiencies. It has also proven instrumental in integrating the acquisition of 2 million sf of former Pfizer R&D facilities, which doubled the Medical School’s space footprint in 2009.

Julie Walsh, director of space management for the Medical School, attributes the success of the initiative to the guiding philosophy of centralized space management and fact-based decision-making. The comprehensive approach blends policy, objective information, and stakeholder engagement, supported by defined utilization criteria; continuously updated, validated space data; and a faculty committee for policy and peer review. Ultimate decision-making rests with the Medical School dean. Technology that provides multi-organizational geospatial information, complete with visualization capability, is an integral part of the toolkit.

“It is not just a matter of mapping and reporting tools, but committees and people trained to understand the information we gather and disseminate to make decisions,” says Walsh. “It is a lot of work to build a smoothly functioning operational system. It must be staffed appropriately, with many different talents: architects, programmers, analysts. That has been our path to success.” 

A Centralized Space Database

Facing rising maintenance costs, shrinking funding sources, no new construction, and competing requests for growth space, the Medical School recognized the need for a more global perspective to support occupancy, move, and renovation decisions.

“All space is not created equal,” says Walsh. “There is limited supply and huge demand. Some is nice, some needs a facelift. Space is very location dependent. Everyone wants to grow. Politics enter the picture, so it’s very important to have guidelines to figure out who gets space and where people should be.”

As Walsh and her team fleshed out the total systems concept, they modeled space management as a structure supported by four pillars: space policy (metrics and benchmarks, memoranda of understanding); space protocols (audits and training, web reports); geospatial information system (GIS); and gemba (on-site walks). 

GIS, the third pillar, is a technology-enabled solution that marries the Medical School’s business information with its geographical information. The software component is ArcGIS, developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). The centralized system, complete with data security and access controls, has transformed the formerly labor-intensive process of assembling space data, which is often out of date by the time it is entered, into a dynamic, on-demand visualization scheme with automated analytic capability. The result is fair and equitable decision support for strategic and operations planning. It has also proved invaluable in day-to-day tactical planning.

Data tracked in the space database include the physical room type and characteristics, the functional group assignment (departments, programs, cores), the actual occupants, and the activity taking place (teaching, research, administrative).

M-Space and M-GIS

According to Sucheta Kulkarni, geo-spatial information manager for the Medical School, two of the system’s reporting tools, M-Space and M-GIS, are the most widely used of the web applications. 

“M-Space is the daily report on space assignment, utilization, and productivity metrics,” says Kulkarni. “Using this report, our departments can look at room assignments, occupants in their spaces, grants tied to the spaces, room usage, and dollars per square feet. This allows us to look at space productivity at an investigator and department level.”

M-GIS is the on-demand report of geo-located business information, customized to support the use of business analytics, such as available space, and offering advanced search functions. Based on JavaScript and developed in-house, M-GIS was rolled out in early 2014. It is already providing critical space information to roughly 150 users throughout the Medical School, from space planners to business and financial analysts, department chairs, and staff in the dean’s office, notes Kulkarni. 

“You can visualize, navigate, and query all within a single platform,” she explains. “The buildings are organized by different campuses. By selecting the campus drop-down choices and the floor navigator, users can pick a floor to view. They can look at room assignments by department, or zero in on room use by turning on the room-type layer. The search tool can locate a specific room, a person, or even available space. Users can decide to work with either preloaded floorplan PDFs or create their own custom maps.”

To ensure the integrity of the space data base, it is updated continuously, as opposed to conducting space surveys once or twice a year. Whenever a change occurs, it is entered into the system by a designated “space surveyor” in the appropriate department or unit. The surveyors are all trained and supported by the central Medical School Space Management team.

“This way, the dean always has current data in front of him,” notes Walsh.

Evolution and Feedback

The total list of data points has expanded over time as data integrity improved.

“First, we collected only the basic room type data and grant data to satisfy federal reporting requirements,” says Kulkarni. “Then we put systems in place to collect occupancy data on an ongoing basis. Verification occurs by spot-check.”

Feedback on the recently launched M-GIS has been very positive.

“I think the best endorsement was from our former CAO James Bell, who found this tool so simple and easy to use that he didn’t think twice before using it,” says Walsh.

In addition to its widespread use, GIS has generated “significant efficiencies” in space planning and management at the Medical School.

“We have made an impact to the bottom line at the same time,” Walsh continues. “Having access to the business information in such an easy-to-use manner has freed up our staff time. It has brought more productivity and efficiency improvement savings to the school. That is significant, because now our staff can use their time for planning decisions instead of just spending time chasing the data.”

Real-World “Testimonials”

The concrete benefits of the centralized space management system have been apparent in several planning scenarios, perhaps most noticeably following the 2009 purchase of the $108 million Pfizer R&D center by the University and the Medical School. The “game-changing” acquisition was intended to create the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), a new collaboration hub for interdisciplinary and translational research. It also happened to coincide with the drop in state and federal funding, putting the proposed expansion in question.

“The funding situation slowed down our plans for growth,” says Kulkarni. “It also posed an interesting challenge for us.” 

The space management team turned to the GIS to explore how to make the most efficient and productive use of the added facilities.

“Using GIS and the space data available at the time, we were able to model scenarios for building activation timelines,” says Kulkarni. “We could evaluate building readiness in the context of the whole site. The tools allowed us to plan and model expected growth and determine optimal locations and adjacencies for our programs and departments. We were also able to designate growth space that other schools and colleges could use.”  

For example, GIS data was instrumental in identifying a north campus facility for a new biomedical engineering program being developed in a partnership between the Medical School and the College of Engineering. 

“As a result of our analysis, the College of Engineering was able to come to NCRC and occupy an entire building,” says Kulkarni. “We were also able to offer space in some of the buildings to other schools that potentially needed them. The anatomical sciences program was able to offset some of the expense of building new facilities by moving instead to NCRC at 40 percent less cost.” 

“Having the confidence in the data and the way to frame it led to these strategic decisions,” adds Walsh. “We realized some big wins and generated revenue for activated space very quickly, ultimately fulfilling our vision of creating a vibrant community at NCRC.”

One of the less expected contributions occurred during an after-hours emergency in a medical department. The facility manager was able to respond to a flooding incident simply by logging on to M-GIS, pulling up the floor plans, and looking at the impacted space to identify the occupant. With this information in hand, the manager quickly contacted the occupant and relayed details of the developing situation.

“The 24/7 availability of the self-service model really helped cut down the response time for this emergency situation,” says Walsh.

GIS capabilities also facilitated experimentation with a renovation tracking scheme to inform capital investment decisions. Co-developed by the space management team and the Medical School facilities department, the project produced a rich historical data set of renovations that had taken place over the past 30 years—whether painting a room or a total gut and remodel. 

“This pilot project enabled us not just to visualize but to analyze all the renovations in our facilities, which helps us with capital planning and forecasting and significantly improves overall renovation tracking,” says Walsh.

Similarly, the GIS has high value for the University’s animal use and care group, both in record-keeping required for regulatory compliance and utilization analysis. Highly specialized and expensive to operate, the vivariums traditionally have been scattered all over campus. Merging all space details into one central system gives the care group an overview of the current state and enables them to track occupancy rates by animal population and by building. The ultimate goal is to develop a plan for consolidation, optimizing existing space and lowering overall costs.

Other areas expected to benefit are hazardous materials tracking and operations planning for energy usage.

On the Horizon

The ability to see both research and clinical space at the same time in the same portal is a huge accomplishment, according to Kulkarni. The team is about to embark on an in-depth evaluation of Medical School office space utilization and is fielding inquires about the new system from other schools and colleges on campus. They recently launched a first-ever partnership with the hospital group, inputting their data into the GIS platform, and an agreement to provide further services to the College of Engineering is in place. Collaborations with other siloed environments will follow.

“Our team is taking the lead on the initiative to create a centralized platform to deliver space-based analytics,” says Kulkarni. “It will be based on consistent data standards and it will allow us to see the total picture to develop coordinated solutions to what are often very complex space problems.”

Noting that, for the moment, system ownership will continue to reside in the Medical School, Walsh concludes, “It is a great time to be doing space management at Michigan.”

By Nicole Stahl

This report is based on a presentation at Tradeline’s Facilities for Academic Medical and Allied Health 2014 conference.