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Medical School GIS Space Management Tool

Project Contact

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Julianne Orlyk Walsh, (orlyk@umich.edu).

Project Description

The Medical School has leveraged Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology to create a powerful tool that merges space data and graphics to help it manage over 1.4 million square feet of space (over 5000 rooms).

Business Need

• Enhance previous methods of providing space management data -- spreadsheets and the University floor plans, which contain only the room number.
• Create metrics for space utilization and manage Medical School space accordingly.
• Provide information for Indirect Cost Recovery negotiations.
• Identify available space for recruitment or retention for the Dean.
• Provide benchmarking against peer institutions.

System/Application & Data Sources

The tool uses text data from the Space Management data set in the U-M Data Warehouse. This information is added to the Medical School tables that populate the graphic plans. Then the Medical School uses GIS technology (ArcGIS applicationl) to merge the text and graphic data. Monthly updates maintain the currency of the data that the GIS tool provides.

Project Purpose, Scope, & Deliverables

• Combine information for each room such as physical attributes, activities taking place, and occupant names with the University’s graphic floor plan.
• Enable facilities managers to provide a wide range of space information very quickly in graphic form.
• Identify capacity and space utilization issues to improve planning for future occupancy and space utilization.
• Reduce response time for space information requests.
• Help to identify data entry errors for improved data quality.

Note: The Medical School GIS Space Management Tool was recognized as a leader in Space Management by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), and it received positive recognition from the University of Michigan Facilities Users Network. Also, the Ross School of Business is adopting the Medical School’s technology for the start-up and operations of its new 270,000 sq. ft. building.

Audience/Users

• Facilities Managers
• Department Administrators

Duration/Timeline

Many staff members use the Medical School Space Management daily, and it continues to be extraordinarily helpful in planning and managing our valuable space assets. Plans for the future include showing space productivity metrics by room, using real-time data, and automatic monthly deployment of updates.