P1 Facility Maintenance Operations: Specialized Skills Embedded Teams

TODAY, the P1 Service Facility Maintenance Operations (FMO) division is thriving with nearly 200 employees, six large customers, and new staff to help build the division and bring on new clientele.

But FMO didn’t start that way – it grew from a fundamental need at one of P1’s large healthcare customers. The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS) needed a partner that could provide a more specialized, integrated level of facility service.

That’s how the FMO division was born – with a mission to: leverage the knowledge and expertise of the entire P1 organization to provide comprehensive and effective facilities management solutions that drive the highest quality for customers’ total cost of ownership across all business segments including: healthcare, municipalities, arts and entertainment, manufacturing, logistics, and academia.

P1’s “power of one,” - including support departments and single-source expertise P1 can put at the customer’s disposal - made the partnership a success, leading to more customers.

It all started with TUKHS in 1999. "We were in their facilities every day – we knew their facilities better than anyone,” Vice President Dave Beebe said. “It began with mechanical plumbing, and evolved into other mechanical and electrical services.”

Dave says FMO’s success is driven by the P1 model, which is not like any other in the Kanas City metro area.

“Our FMO model is different than anyone else out there in the Kansas City market.,” Dave said. “We are not plugging in service techs where needed at a facility. Our model is to provide full-time on-site P1 staff that are facilities only."

Dave says the first responsibility of these embedded FMO employees is maintaining the facility. Just like with any facility, emergency needs will come up. The FMO teams are the emergency responders ready to access and stabilize the emergency, which may need a more specialized service provider like P1 Service to assist with the customer’s needs.

FMO leverages the P1 Service expertise for technical preventive maintenance items that require a high level of knowledge, and special tools for things like chiller maintenance and critical room validations.

“Most other facility maintenance providers in our markets do not have their own in-house capabilities to supplement these specialized needs, and would have to contract with others to help them provide these services,” Dave said.

Dave notes the takeaway here is that P1 FMO is designed to bring a true P1 team approach to our customers, giving them access to all P1 Service and Construction capabilities.

After TUKHS, Saint Luke’s Health System approached P1 with the same request: to bring on a more specialized, embedded facility partner.

Dave was already working for Saint Luke’s, and helped foster that connection. 

Saint Luke’s was a big opportunity – large enough that P1 partnered with Johnson Controls (JCI), who would hold the main FMO agreement with Saint Luke’s Health System.

Not all customers approached P1. In 2007, P1 went out and sold the program to Catalent. “Catalent was a true sales opportunity,” Dave said. “P1 was doing a fair amount of service work at Catalent and worked closely with their Kansas City branch leadership team on the benefits of partnering with P1 FMO.”

In 2012, P1 had an advocate at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. He proposed to the board that they consider bringing on an outside facility maintenance provider. In an open bid competition, P1 was selected.

The relationship with Kauffman - and the city’s desire to elevate the  maintenance and upkeep of the garages - led to the City of Kansas City Missouri Parking Garages partnership in 2019.

SPECIALIZED SKILLS EMBEDDED TEAMS

Dave says FMO’s success is driven by the P1 model, which is not like any other in the Kanas City metro area.

“Our FMO model is different than anyone else out there in the Kansas City market.,” Dave said. “We are not plugging in service techs where needed at a facility. Our model is to provide full-time on-site P1 staff that are facilities only."

Dave says the first responsibility of these embedded FMO employees is maintaining the facility. Just like with any facility, emergency needs will come up. The FMO teams are the emergency responders ready to access and stabilize the emergency, which may need a more specialized service provider like P1 Service to assist with the customer’s needs.

FMO leverages the P1 Service expertise for technical preventive maintenance items that require a high level of knowledge, and special tools for things like chiller maintenance and critical room validations.

“Most other facility maintenance providers in our markets do not have their own in-house capabilities to supplement these specialized needs, and would have to contract with others to help them provide these services,” Dave said.

Dave notes the takeaway here is that P1 FMO is designed to bring a true P1 team approach to our customers, giving them access to all P1 Service and Construction capabilities.

“A customer may only need a handful of P1 FMO onsite engineers. but each of those engineers has access to any P1 division, which in turn has the expertise to help with any facility needs,” Dave said.

In 2023, FMO added a new partner, the Midwest Transplant Network (MTN), to the list of customers. This partnership was once again the result of the positive work the P1 Service technicians were already doing at the MTN facility.

The P1 Proactive Solutions team was also able to show MTN how P1 offers a better solution than what the facility was using at the time.

The steady growth of FMO in both customers and personnel has created a need for more oversight, and, in 2023, some new talent joined the FMO Division.

A CHAMPION FOR THE PEOPLE

One of the new team members is FMO Program Administrator Jen Kohl, who joined P1 in May of 2023.

“With nearly 200 FMO employees, it is critical that we take care of our people and are always ready to fulfill their needs as well as those of our customers,” Dave said.

In her role, Jen will help with the day-to-day FMO-specific HR needs, which Dave notes are critical for FMO employees.

“Jen’s role is not to be HR, but to act as a liaison, taking care of our FMO employees from a truly ‘personnel’ aspect – finding the positions, making sure they’re onboarded and have what they need daily to be successful."

Prior to P1, Jen worked in law enforcement for 15 years as a police lieutenant, and also has experience in HR.

“I enjoy the human contact that comes with this role” Jen said. “I really like being able to go on site, and learn more about what our associates do every day.”

With her previous law enforcement experience, Jennifer says she is used to being a “rover”, so the opportunity to get around and work directly with associates at the various facilities suits her.

“FMO associates need a dedicated individual – a go-to person who can help connect them with HR or whatever they need, so they can get answers and have issues resolved much quicker,” Jen said.

BUILDING THE FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE CUSTOMERS

FMO Manager Bryce Tullis joined the team in August of 2023.

Bryce works with Dave to maintain current accounts, but his primary role will be setting up new customers, like MTN.

“In the months I’ve been here, I’ve primarily been getting MTN started from the ground up, hiring a facility manager, assessing and addressing needs, and getting a CMS built,” Bryce said.

Previously, Bryce was a facility manager for WalMart on the supply chain side, working out of Topeka and traveling around the U.S. building different facility maintenance teams.

Congratulations to our new FMO talent, and cheers to many more years of growth and success.