Facility management
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Facility management is an interdisciplinary field primarily devoted to the maintenance and care of large commercial or institutional buildings, such as hotels, resorts, schools, office complexes, sports arenas or convention centers. Duties may include the care of air conditioning, electric power, plumbing and lighting systems; cleaning; decoration; groundskeeping and security. Some or all of these duties can be assisted by computer programs.
It is the role of the Facility Management department to coordinate and oversee the safe, secure, and environmentally sound operations and maintenance of these assets in a cost effective manner aimed at long-term preservation of the asset value.
The term "facility management" is similar to "property management" but is typically applied to larger commercial properties where the management and operation of the buildings is more complex.
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[edit] Role
It is the role of a facility manager to ensure proper operation of all essential building services. These services can include:
- Normal power
- Electrical Substations
- Switchgear
- Emergency power systems
- Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems
- Standby generators
- Environmental conditions
- HVAC-R
- Building monitoring systems
- Automation systems
- Monitoring systems
- Life/Safety systems
- Sprinkler systems
- Smoke/fire detection systems
- Gaseous extinguishing systems
- FM-200
- FE-25
- Halon
Along with building services, dealing with office spaces can also fall under the responsibility of the facilities department.
[edit] 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.
A single or multiple buildings located on a single plot of land is referred to as a "Site". Multiple sites located in a single metropolitian area, but used by the same legal entity, are referred to as a "Campus." A Facility Management department may be responsible for a site; a campus; or, a regional area with multiple sites or campuses which may be a mix of owned and leased facilities. A Facility Management department will normally exist to manage the owner-occupied, physical assets of a company; whereas a Property Management department will normally exist to represent the only leased spaces. A Facility Management department is focused on cost effective, long-term utilization and value preservation of the owned assets while a Property Management department is typically focused on short-term lease returns.
[edit] Technology of building automation
[edit] 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 [1].
Components of best in class systems may include:
- Certificate of Insurance [2]
- Incident Tracking
- Project Management
- Preventive Maintenance
- Automated & Mass Communications
- Visitor Access
- Security
- Fire & Life Safety
- Accounting
[edit] 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' departments of public or government origin are called '(State/County/City's 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.)
[edit] See also
- CAFM
- Computerized Maintenance Management System
- 1:5:200
- Community Based Facilities Management
- Building automation
