Article 2 June 2026

Insights Interview: Operational Excellence

Interview with Joe Flanagan on Operational Excellence: how we deliver better, faster, smarter

  1. Tell us about your role and the areas you specialise in.

I’m an FM Account Director with Mitie, responsible for the delivery of hard services across large, complex estates. I specialise in planned maintenance, statutory compliance, asset management and operational excellence, with a strong focus on life‑safety systems, HVAC, fire and critical infrastructure. My role is about ensuring services are safe, compliant and resilient, while continuously improving performance for our clients through strong processes, data and collaborative working.

  1. Why is Operational Excellence so important for our clients right now?

Operational Excellence so important because FM clients need estates that are safe, compliant and resilient, delivered at a predictable cost. Operational Excellence in FM ensures planned maintenance is done right first time, risks are controlled, assets perform as intended and services remain reliable even during disruption. At Mitie, it’s how we turn complex estates into well‑run, compliant environments that support our clients’ core business every day.

  1. What are the biggest challenges you see in this area day‑to‑day?

The main challenges are maintaining PPM compliance, managing ageing assets, and ensuring statutory inspections are completed without disruption. Balancing planned maintenance against reactive issues, while keeping systems optimised and assets compliant to standards such as SFG20, is a daily operational challenge.

  1. How do you and your team approach these challenges?

We focus on strong PPM governance, accurate asset data and compliance‑led processes. Our teams prioritise planned maintenance in line with industry best practice standards such as SFG20, maintain clear visibility of statutory inspections, and use performance data to manage risk proactively. This disciplined approach allows us to balance reactive demand with compliance, reliability and cost control across complex estates. Also, our teams go the extra mile whether it’s keeping things running smoothly in a safe environment, attending, and resolving urgent H&S and emergency issues, looking for new ways to do things better or fixing problems, going the extra mile for our colleagues and customers and keeping our promises is in our DNA.

  1. Can you share a recent real‑world example where this made a difference?

A recent example was a targeted fire safety and PPM compliance programme, where clear asset data, structured planning and governance allowed our teams to identify and address non‑compliant items. By prioritising planned works, coordinating engineering, fire and H&S teams, and tracking progress through structured reporting, we provided solutions to ensure compliance efficiently with minimal disruption and reduced ongoing risk to the estate.

  1. What’s one thing you wish more clients understood about this topic?

That planned maintenance, repairs and compliance are preventative investments are not optional costs. When PPM is prioritised and aligned to industry best practice standards, it reduces risk, avoids expensive failures and protects asset life. The real value of Operational Excellence in FM is that problems are prevented before they impact safety, service or budgets.

  1. What do you enjoy most about your work or what motivates you in this area?

What motivates me most is seeing a job well done properly knowing that systems are safe, compliant and performing as they should. There’s real satisfaction in taking a complex operational challenge, putting the right structure and controls around it, and seeing consistent results delivered by the team. Ultimately, it’s about pride in the work ensuring Our customers’ business is our business, protecting people and assets, and knowing the service is making a positive difference day to day for all our clients and customers. Also to emphasise a key Mitie value every day that “We are built on integrity and trust.” Integrity and trust are at the heart of all we do. We are the face of the company. We treat others as we would like to be treated and we should be proud to work for Mitie.

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