M-Space
From Business Intelligence
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[edit] Project Contact
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Julianne Walsh (orlyk@umich.edu).
[edit] Project Description
The Medical School manages over 2 million square feet of space (over 5,000 rooms), 60% of which is used for biomedical research activity. The increasing cost of operating and maintaining research space, as well as fierce competition for growth space, indicated a need for the direct management of space allocation and for quantifying, in relative terms, space productivity.
The Medical School Office of Space Management has leveraged existing data from different sources into a single tool that calculates space productivity based on a clearly defined metric. The tool (M-Space) offers a flexible format, allowing users many choices for displaying data within the application, as well as the ability to download data for further analysis.
[edit] Business Need
- Organize and unify space allocation data to improve decision making capability regarding use of Medical School space.
- Establish a space policy, criteria for measuring space utilization, and benchmarks for comparison.
- Bring research space ratios up to a productivity level where indirect costs cover space costs.
- Achieve a fair, equitable, transparent system of space management.
- Increase space productivity to improve response time for space requests and improve reallocation time for vacant space.
[edit] System/Application & Data Sources
M-Space uses data from the M-Pathways Financial System; from the Space data set and the Financial data set, which are part of the U-M Data Warehouse; and from the ArcGIS geographical mapping system.
[edit] Project Purpose, Scope, & Deliverables
- Our application for the Data Into Action Award will describe the Medical School’s ongoing process of managing research space through the development of performance metrics, the setting of benchmarks, and the creation of reports and graphics to support fact-based management decisions.
- Provide information needed to manage space both on a day-to-day, operational basis, and at a strategic level.
- Create a Research Space Policy, which set guidelines for allocating space to units based on a space productivity metric for the Medical School, which is:
- $IDC expenditures per net assignable square foot of Medical School research space ($IDC/sqft)
- The data needed to support this metric included:
- Average operating cost per net assignable square foot for Medical School space
- Expenditure dollars by unit and by investigator
- Space occupancy by department and by investigator
- Establish a space utilization benchmark, which is based on operating costs plus a standard participation for capital improvements and depreciation, and measure each department's the space productivity level against the benchmark, which helps the unit and the administration focus on opportunities for improvement.
- Develop data presentation tools to show overall lab and room productivity and support fact-based space allocation decisions.
[edit] Audience/Users
- Dean and assistant deans
- Department chairs
- Facilities managers
- Facilities staff
[edit] Project Sponsors/Partners
- Medical School
[edit] Duration/Timeline
This project began in January 2007 when a small team was created to address Medical School space management more proactively. The team's work resulted in the development of the M-Space Tool. Within two years, the project team developed the M-Space application and the ArcGIS geographical mapping system that significantly changed how valuable research space was managed in the Medical School. Other U-M schools and colleges are turning to the Medical School's space productivity model for ideas for how to manage their research space, and plan for anticipated future needs.