Stefanie Frawley, Director of Property at TMX
Businesses with an industrial property footprint need to focus on what they do best, whether that is manufacturing, retail or transport.
While many businesses seek the expertise of a portfolio manager to help manage and get the most out of their assets, the traditional property portfolio management sector has not kept pace with the wider supply chain industry.
Over the last decade, supply chains and the retail landscape have become much more complex and nuanced, with industrial properties now highly advanced and sophisticated.
Traditional portfolio management services of database monitoring and tracking of critical dates does not cut it anymore.
To keep up with the rapidly evolving supply chain sector, portfolio management must encompass supply chain strategy and the optimisation of the overall network.
This new approach requires a different set of analysis that considers the whole operations of a business, from network strategy to the design of the facilities, not a single lease or upcoming critical dates.
Managing complex industrial facilities
The proliferation of automation and advanced systems in industrial properties have seen these assets become much more sophisticated and complex.
Businesses are now taking on significant capital investment in their industrial properties to create greater efficiencies in their operations.
While many businesses are signing short term leases to create flexibility in their operations, we enable businesses to commit to longer term leases and capital investment in automation through designing solutions that future-proof their operations.
With these long commitments, the property needs to be managed in a way that continually sets up the operations for success.
Portfolio management should no longer just be about annual reviews and benchmarking, it needs to be able to understand the warehouse operations and find areas of continuous improvement. This could be identifying new ways to optimise operational flows or adopting new technologies into the warehouse design.
Optimising the whole operations
Industrial property has fundamentally changed, it is now more than ever intertwined with optimising operations.
The review of a property should go beyond assessing whether a business renews their lease or finds a new solution, it is an opportunity to review their whole operations.
In this era of rapid changes and advancements in supply chains, this review period presents a prime opportunity to assess the network strategy and identify areas of continuous improvement.
Areas of continuous improvements could span across all components of an operation, from improvements in warehouse design to a freight and logistics diagnostic and inventory planning optimisations.
In conclusion, portfolio management has evolved to become more than just about maximising the value of an asset from reducing property expenses. It is an opportunity to work the asset harder to create more efficient and optimal operations, which will ultimately provide a greater experience and service for a business’ end customer.
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