Facility management

In business, facility management is the management of buildings 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.

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 on demand in order to do business in a "hotel" environment.

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, process 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.

Spelling

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.)'

See also

• CAFM
• Computerized Maintenance Management System
• 1:5:200

External links

• International Facility Management Association
• British Institute of Facilities Management
• Tradeline, Inc. - Facility Managment and Facility Planning Resources