Print   Email   RSS

Deciding Which Facility Is Best

April 13, 2006

	Visited: 175
	Not rated
	Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding

Assuming you have done all your homework and have effectively conducted a search that has narrowed down your choice to a few properties, how do you decide which facility is best? We suggest two general methods of evaluation that can be used.

A nonnumeric method. This process is simple to describe, but not so simple to do. For each separate property, consider how that property would (or would not) meet each of your facility needs, and consider the relative importance of each such need. Then compare your results for each facility, and decide, on the whole, which property most completely meets your business needs. The biggest danger in using this method is that it lets you over-focus on some items, while under-focusing, or ignoring others. If you're generally the optimistic type, you may have the tendency to over-value the property with the biggest positive aspects, even if it also has more important negative aspects. The contrary may be true if you are generally a pessimist: the existence of a few relatively negative features in a property may obscure its other, more important positive features.

A numeric scoring system. The following numeric scoring system uses everything that was considered in the nonnumeric system, but adds scoring elements in the hope of making its results clearer and more objective. The idea is to first assign a value (say from 1 for very poor, to 10 for very good) based on your evaluation of how well the property fulfills each of your facility needs. Then you assign a value (say from 1, low, to 10, high) to how important this facility need is to the operation of your business. Finally, you multiply these two numbers for each facility need, and add up the results. The resulting answer for each separate facility can give you some idea of how well-suited the various properties are for your need.

To illustrate this method, this is a simplified example property "X":

After you compute the score for property "X," you would make similar computations for property "Y" and property "Z". Theoretically, at least, the property with the highest score would be best suited as your facility.

One possible weakness to the numeric comparison is that it could lead one to over-inflate the relative worth of the property earning the highest score. If for instance, if property "A" receives a total of 460 points, and property "B" receives 450 points, does it really mean that "A" is better than "B"? Probably the two are close enough that this 10 point spread doesn't really have much significance.

If you decide to use a numeric evaluation system, we strongly advise that you assign values for column #2 (importance of need) before you start to look at individual properties. If you do it the other way, you may have the unconscious tendency to assign higher "importance of need" priorities to items that the property you favor does well in.

The best course of action may be to use both methods: do the numeric computations, but never lose sight of your more general feelings about the overall worth of a property for your intended use.

 Feedback   Mail To A Friend   Submit Article   Add To Favorites