Case study 2 February 2020

Queen Margaret University

Challenge

The vision of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh is to be a university of ideas and influence. Outward looking, they are responsive to the changing needs of society and make a real difference in the world.

Their large campus comprises a number of different types of buildings and facilities, all of which are in need of ongoing maintenance and repair to ensure they continue to provide the best possible learning and living environments for students and staff.

The University’s student residencies are also utilised as a hotel during the summer period which only allows a two-week timeframe for planned preventative maintenance and improvement works. This increases the complexity of their maintenance provision.

Solution

Mitie were initially awarded the contract to provide hard facilities management services to the University in November 2014 across the academic buildings, lecture halls and sports facilities.

Utilising our resident team of engineers, fully supported 24/7/365 by our local mobile engineers, specialist technicians and tradespeople, we self-deliver the building maintenance services across the campus. This includes planned preventative maintenance, reactive, and small works. Specialist subcontractors are used for services such as passenger lifts, fall arrest equipment, generators, ups systems and the closed protocol access control system.

Our dedicated on-site Contract Manager and maintenance team ensure that services are performed to the highest standard with minimum impact or disruption to the University, students, staff, visitors or environment.

Due to excellent performance and our ability to remain flexible, our remit has grown beyond the academic facilities to encompass the major student accommodation facilities. We also managed the extensive upgrade projects worth over £1million to bring the accommodation up to standard. 

Outcome

We have implemented a ‘find and fix’ maintenance strategy on the contract which has reduced the volume of reactive call outs (by approximately 12%), costs, disruption and risk to the University campus. Our first-time fix rate has also increased with more asset knowledge and effective site stocks.

We have continually supported the University team with the building management system, energy and planned preventative maintenance strategy to enhance resilience, operation and support areas of improvement. This has included the addition of remote building management system support and remote monitoring from our Service Operation Centre to support when issues occur and minimise reactive callouts.

Utilising our Direct Audits system linked to our operatives Mi-jobs app, we support the University in asset/compliance/life cycle management and future planning of asset replacements. We work closely with the University facilities team to improve energy savings across the campus. This includes optimising building management system controls and providing energy awareness training to our operatives to identify energy saving opportunities.

And as a committed service provider to the University, we have also implemented our in-house market-leading technology across the contract at our own cost. When we began working with the University, the asset register was incomplete and was a paper-based system. Utilising Direct Audits linked to our operatives’ Mi-Job app, we now provide extensive real-time details on compliance, asset management, and service demands. We continue to develop our technology solution, including our Edison App and Connected Workspace solution, to further enhance the University campus.   

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