Space Utilization Study
Overview
Real Estate is the second largest corporate expense for most companies and space decisions can have a major impact on your company’s return on investment to share holders.
- Is our facility being utilized to the maximum?
- What is the percentage of unoccupied workspaces?
- Can we add more people in the same space?
- Do we have enough conference space?
- Is it the right type of space for collaboration?
- Are we a good candidate for “alternative officing”?
 Process Overview & Objectives
- Document how existing workspace is being utilized throughout the day
- Track efficiency by building, floor, neighborhood or department over a set period of time
- Provide access to data and user defined reports via a WEB interface
- Determine how people are utilizing the current workspace and conference rooms
- Automate the data collection process to eliminate paper forms and manual entry
- Create “real-time” reports based on the criteria you select
 Survey Methodology
- Measurements take place during normal business hours over five business days from Monday to Friday.
- All Workstations and conference rooms are monitored.
- The data collector monitors all workstations and conf rooms four times a day.
- The daily observation period occurs between 8am and 5pm typically.
- Employees will be observed but not disturbed by the data collectors.
- Six activity categories are recorded and tracked for each workstation monitored four times a day over a one week period.
 Data Collection Route
The first step is to identify which specific workspaces and meeting rooms to monitor. These will remain constant during the study. A “data path” will be established for the data collector to follow for each collection run.
Attribute Import
 With input from the client, Firefly SMS will determine attribute information for each workspace such as building / floor, department and workspace status type. This will allow reports to be run by selected criteria.
 Data Collection
We can provide the Data Collectors with a wireless Web PDA to enter the observation data. A typical observation will document the status of each workspace:
1. Unoccupied
2. Occupied
3. Working on Computer
4. Telephone Conversation
5. Paperwork
6. Meeting in Workspace
 Reporting Criteria
 Data entered on the PDA is submitted directly into the Wave Web based report writer for immediate use. Pull down menus allow you to create reports based on the criteria selected.
Reports
Reports are generated in your choice of three formats; PDF, HTML or Excel spreadsheet.
Graphical Summary
Workspace Occupancy Summary by Hour of the Day
Summary:
- 57% of the workspaces on average were unoccupied with no sign that the person was in the office
Implications:
- Opportunity for resource sharing
- Distributive work
- Hotelling
- Shared Workstations
 Impact Analysis
Occupancy rates captured during the study may warrant additional floor plan studies to consolidate space or to increase occupancy rates.
Officing and other space reduction concepts:
- Reduce space to eliminate vacant spaces
- Create distributive work community
- Transform current environment to facilitate and encourage work anywhere mentality
- Develop non-traditional affordances and variety of settings in which to conduct business
- Right Space
- Right Technology
- Right Environment
- Create Collaborative Spaces
- Technologically enabled
- Flexible to the meeting type
- Adaptable Room size
- Adaptable Furniture
 How do we start?
Firefly provides:
- All routing plans and data collection PDA’s needed for the for data collection process.
- An orientation with data collectors to explain the process and path the survey team to utilize to obtain the measurements.
- Quality control of the measurements and reporting process.
Client provides:
- Management support / endorsement for the onsite team.
- Security access to the site during normal business hours for data collectors.
- Communication to employees explaining the Space Utilization Study. It is important that they understand who is walking through the office and what the purpose of the data collectors.
For further information about the Firefly Space Utilization Study please contact us.
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