Facility management

In business, facility management (or facilities management) is the management of building, estates which encompasses both building fabric and services. The services are sometimes considered to be divided into "hard services" and "soft services." Hard services includes such things as ensuring that a building's air conditioning is operating efficiently, reliably, safely and legally. Soft services includes such things as ensuring that the building is cleaned properly and regularly or monitoring the performance of contractors (e.g. builders, electricians). The term "facility management" is similar to "property management" but often applied only to larger and/or commercial properties where the management and operation is more complex. Some or all of these aspects can be maintained by data-rich computer programs.

Role

It is the role of facility management to ensure that everything is available and operating properly for building occupants to do their work. The facility manager generally has the most influence upon the quality of life within a facility. Facility management may range from the small scale (e.g. single small building custodial services) to the large scale (such as Johnson Controls' operation of Chrysler manufacturing) or even on an international scale (e.g. global service provision to a multinational corporation). Some facility management companies (e.g. Regus) have grown to simply provide environments which other organisations may rent "Office space" on demand in order to do business in a "hotel" environment. Facilities Management is also provided by larger property managers such as CLUTTONS who act on behalf of their Landlord/Owner Clients.

Definitions

One definition provided by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) is::"A profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, processes and technology."

Another broader definition provided by IFMA is: "The practice or coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization; integrates the principles of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering sciences."

In the UK and other European countries facilities management has a wider definition than simply the management of buildings and services. The definition of FM provided by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and ratified by BSI British Standards is::“Facilities management is the integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities”.

The British Institute of Facilities Management has formally adopted the CEN definition but also offers a slightly simpler description::"Facilities management is the integration of multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace".

In Australia, the term Commercial Services has replaced facilities management in some organisations. Commercial services can also define services other than just looking after facilities, such as security, parking, waste disposal, facility services and strategic planning.

Technology of building automation

Administrative vs. Technical Management

The support of administrative facility management through information technology is identified as Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM), Facilities Management Systems, or Computerized Maintenance Management Systems.

The collection of monitoring and supervising devices, control and regulation systems, management- and optimisation facilities/mechanisms in buildings within technical facility management are identified as Building Automation (BA). The goal is to accomplish functional processes in the overall industry independently (automatically), according to pre-adjusted values (parameters) or to simplify their operation and monitoring. All sensors, actuators, control elements, users and other technical devices in the building are interconnected in a network. Workflows/sequences can be summarized in scenarios. Characteristic feature is the decentralized structure of control units (DDC) as well as the integrated networking via a bus system (usually EIB/KNX or illumination (DALI))

Movement to technical management has been rapid in some industries while other industries still rely on the antiquated administrative approach. Industries with more linear structures and processes typically are more inclined to implement technical systems because ongoing management of these systems can be maintained by a top down organizational structure. Industries that are not as linear have tended to be slow adopters of technical management because of the belief that the system cannot be implemented or maintained effectively. Industries like commercial office and retail often tend to have the most challenges in implementing and maintaining technical systems because their organizations reflect a great deal of diversity with owners, brokers, managers, and tenants typically being from different organizations with disparate interest and priorities. Recent trends have shown a dramatic increase in the use of technical management largely due to research demonstrating the tremendous cost savings of converting to the technical approach. In addition, technical management providers who are capable of matching the organization's processes, constituencies, and provide comprehensive setup and maintenance support throughout the life of the system have delivered significant advantages and reduce the number of early project terminations and under utilized or "orphaned" systems [http://books.google.com/books?id=1QocqKlXzTgC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=cmms+failed+implementation&source=web&ots=AMl_2naRbj&sig=tq7bO8oJIqvEG1o8-lZpl1nkwEg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA125,M1] .

Components of best in class systems may include:

*Certificate of Insurance [http://mybuildingsuccess.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=6&id=15&Itemid=64]
*Incident Tracking
*Project Management
*Preventive Maintenance
*Automated & Mass Communications
*Visitor Access
*Security
*Fire & Life Safety
*Accounting

Orthography

In the United States both 'facility management' and 'facilities management' are widely used, while 'facilities management' is preferred in the UK, Canada, Australia and English-medium businesses in several European countries.In the US the 'facility management' department of public or government origin are called '(State/County/Cities Name) Department of Facilities Management', while if the 'facilities management' is part of private entity it might be called 'Facilities Management Department/Division of (ABC Corporation/Company/LLC/etc.)

ee also

*CAFM
*Computerized Maintenance Management System
*
*Community Based Facilities Management
*Building automation

External links

* [http://www.ifma.org International Facility Management Association]
* [http://www.bifm.org.uk British Institute of Facilities Management]
* [http://www.boma.org The Building Owners and Managers Association]
* [http://www.mybuildingsuccess.com MyBuildingSuccess.com]
* [http://www.118FM.co.uk The UK Directory for Facilities Management]
* [http://www.fmassociation.org.uk Facilities Management Association]
* [http://www.bomi.org Building Owners and Managers Institute International]
* [http://www.peoplecube.com/products-resource-scheduler.htm Scheduling Software Program]
* [http://www.pratt.edu/newsite/index.php?group_id=37&div_id=3118/ Pratt Institute - Facilities Management Department]