Workplace Strategies and Facilities Management

Rick Best, Gerard de Valence, Craig Langston

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781138135147
• eBook ISBN: 9781136348167
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

This book provides comprehensive coverage of issues that facility managers in the property industry need to understand and apply in the pursuit of value for money over the life span of built facilities. The authors introduce the fast-growing discipline of facility management, examine the core competencies that facility managers should possess and study different contemporary drivers of change. The book emphasises the need to consider facilities management issues at the pre-design stage of the construction process, rather than only when the building is completed, in order to maximise value for money.

Continuous improvement

Rick Best

University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Craig Langston

Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

Gerard de Valence

University of Technology Sydney, Australia

DOI: 10.4324/9780080521299-1

1.1 Introduction

C-l-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this out of the book, he goes and does it.

(Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickelby, chapter 8)

The rather novel approach to education adopted by Mr Wackford Squeers embodies an equally novel approach to the management of the facility known as Dotheboys Hall. It also illustrates the two sides of facility management that are discussed and compared in the rest of this book, the operational (the practical business of keeping the windows clean), and the strategic and/or tactical (the integration of the occupants, their work environment and the business functions of the organization). In fact, the system employed by Mr Squeers fits quite snugly into the definition of facility management adopted by the Facility Management Association of Australia (FMAA, 2002):

Facility management is the practice of integrating the management of people and the business process of an organization with the physical infrastructure to enhance corporate performance.

Corporate performance was undoubtedly enhanced from Squeers' viewpoint and the physical infrastructure integrated with the business process; however, the students (i.e., the ‘customers’), who were expecting an education, were naturally less than pleased with the system.

In Dickens' time the coining of the term ‘facility management’ (FM) was still more than a century away but at least some of the functions of the facility manager were obviously carried out by people, whether they had a job title or not – windows were cleaned, equipment was serviced and repaired, roofs were re-thatched, supplies of candles and coalwere ordered and stored, and so on. These were tasks of an operational nature, related to keeping a facility (probably a building) running and in reasonable repair. The poor conditions in which many people worked, in premises that were badly lit, largely unventilated, and with inadequate or non-existent plumbing and sanitation, did little more to promote the efficiency, productivity, comfort or good health of the occupants than the harsh regime of Dotheboys Hall did for the education of its students.

Today, FM is emerging as a discipline in its own right, and it embraces much more than the operational concerns of plumbing and lighting, and even more than the provision and maintenance of a productive and comfortable work environment. Increasingly the focus of FM is on the strategic management of facilities, with facility managers devoting their attention to a very broad range of concerns including human resource management, real estate portfolio management and quality management, as well as the more traditional operational concerns that relate largely to building maintenance.

Throughout the following chapters many authors argue that if FM is a true value-adding pursuit within a corporate framework then it must be primarily concerned with filling a strategic role, i.e., facility managers must be pro-active not reactive in their approach, and be able to forecast the needs of their organizations and make forward plans that will support the aims of the organization in the future. Clearly this is about more than window cleaning and plant maintenance schedules.

A number of common themes and catchphrases emerge: alignment with corporate goals, strategic planning, sustainability, change management, space management, value-adding, churn management, and so on – all these arise in the discussions provided by various authors as well as the more prosaic concerns of building maintenance, office design and financial management. Two main themes, however, become clear: there is considerable debate about what FM is, although most at least seem happy to agree that it is very broad in its coverage, and, if FM is to contribute as fully as it can to any organization and have its value recognized, then it must do more than keep the air-conditioning running and the carpets clean. These themes are explored in various ways by the contributors and the breadth of the topics that they cover gives some idea of the complex nature of FM.

1.2 Competencies and areas of expertise

Facility managers come from a range of backgrounds and given the diversity of concerns that the discipline covers, some specializations are inevitable – it is unlikely that many people will have qualifications and experience in, say, services engineering, human resources management and corporate real estate, yet these are only a few of the areas that are routinely brought together under the collective banner of FM.

An examination of the competencies required of those who wish to be certified by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA, 2002) reveals the breadth of knowledge and experience that a successful applicant must have if they are to become IFMA certified facility managers. There are eight broad competencies areas (e.g., Operations and Maintenance, Real Estate, and Human and Environmental Factors), 22 competencies (e.g., oversee acquisition, installation, operation, maintenance and disposition of grounds and exterior elements, Manage real estate assets, and Develop and manage emergency preparedness procedures) and 127 ‘performances’ or work tasks relating to thecompetencies in detail. The scope is very broad and ranges from the very practical concerns of building repairs to the more abstract concerns of strategic facility planning such as evaluating the effects of economic change on real estate assets.

The FMAA has adopted a different approach to accreditation, having set up three levels of certification that reflect the varying emphasis on the operational versus the influential. The three levels (Parts 1, 2 and 3) are defined as follows:

• Part 1 – practicing FM (operational concerns outweigh strategic concerns)
• Part 2 – managing the practice of FM (operational and strategic roughly equal)
• Part 3 – leading the practice of FM (strategic outweighs operational).

The FMAA competencies are grouped somewhat differently to those of the IFMA but naturally cover much of the same ground. The broad categories are:

• use organizational understanding to manage facilities
• develop strategic facility response
• manage risk
• manage facility portfolio
• improve facility performance
• manage the delivery of services
• manage projects
• manage financial performance
• arrange and implement procurement/sourcing
• facilitate communication
• manage workplace relationships
• manage change.

The range of skills and knowledge required of facility managers, if they are to successfully carry out all of these functions, is quite alarming as it includes everything from computer networking and mechanical engineering to human resources management theory, occupational health and safety legislation, contract negotiation, future financial planning (e.g., budgeting, life costing, discounting), subcontract administration, construction management – the list is endless. The perfect facility manager may be someone who is a services engineer with majors in project management and law, with great charisma and interpersonal skills, coupled with certificates in accountancy, real estate and an MBA, not to mention a keen interest in the protection of the environment.

1.3 Key concerns

At the heart of modern FM is the concept of continuous improvement. Any organization should be striving to improve its operations, whether from the point of customer satisfaction, increased productivity, better quality of output, better environmental performance or any of a host of other performance indicators. The facility manager's role embraces all of the concerns to some degree as the physical facility (building, workplace, office, complex, space – ‘facility’ covers many alternatives) must accommodate and support the organization's activities in ways that allow the organization to service its customers in the best possible way. That concept of customer service (together with customer satisfaction) can be seen as the key driver of FM, given that the ‘customer’ maybe an external entity (i.e., the classic customer who buys goods or services from an organization) or equally the employees who occupy the organization's space, or the organization itself. It is every bit as important that the facility serve the occupants as it is that it serve the customer or client who does business with the organization.

Within this framework the facility manager must seek to add value to the company's operation through a combination of strategic and operational activities covering all parts of the organization's business. These activities, apart from being divided into strategic and operational, may be grouped according to whether they are concerned with the physical aspects of the facility (e.g., maintenance planning, energy auditing, upgrades, refurbish-ment, retrofits), human concerns (e.g., recruitment, productivity, communications, change management, dispute resolution), business-related activity (e.g., corporate real estate management), operations management (e.g., outsourcing, security), and so on. Naturally there is a good deal of overlap between the various branches of FM, and also some blurring of the boundaries between the functions of FM and those of other departments or units within organizations, such as finance, human resources and IT.

1.3.1 Sustainability

It is now trite to say that concern for the natural environment has become of increasing importance in recent years – it is obvious that environmental awareness has become a vital concern for people in all walks of life in most parts of the world. This concern is changing the way that we do many things and FM is no exception. As we move slowly but inexorably towards to the goal of sustainability a combination of legislation, public pressure and corporate expediency is making it imperative for facility managers to look for more environmentally friendly materials, technologies and procedures to use in their work. Environmental assessment of buildings and their performance, and measurement of greenhouse emissions and energy usage are becoming more common and legislation in various parts of the world will doubtless make these procedures mandatory in most places in the near future.

1.3.2 Information and communications technology (ICT)

It is equally trite to point out that microchip and computer technology has changed forever the way that many things are done in the developed world. Apart from reducing the drudgery of many repetitive tasks it has enabled the globalization of business and given unprecedented access to knowledge and people for anyone with the wherewithal to purchase a personal computer and an Internet connection. The application of ICT to FM has given facility managers the tools to monitor, record and respond to events in areas under their control more quickly, and even to install systems that can monitor and respond remotely and automatically. It also provides a range of software tools that give the facility manager the power to collect, store and manage a great deal of useful data about their facilities, and to use that data to do a myriad of things such as tracking the location and condition of tangible assets (e.g., furniture or computer hardware), recording the maintenance history of plant and equipment or even spaces in buildings or wholebuildings, keeping employee records, recording and analysing energy usages – hardly any part of the FM function does not have a computer or at least an embedded microchip involved at some point.

1.3.3 Outsourcing

Outsourcing refers to any situation where an organization contracts with another organization for the provision of a service that could equally be provided by a person, unit or department within the organization that requires the service. Typical examples are the provision of security services (including surveillance systems and access control as well as the more obvious provision of security personnel on site) and catering and laundry services in hospitals, where it is no longer common for the hospital to have laundry and kitchen facilities on site, and instead these services are taken care of by external organizations.

A large part of the functions of many facility managers is the management of outsourced services – monitoring the level of service, selecting providers, negotiating, managing and reviewing service contracts, and so on. Not all outsourcing has proved to be as successful as the promoters of the concept have claimed; while it is established and seems to work well in some areas, such as those mentioned above, in some other areas the same cannot be said. Provision of ICT functions by external providers is one example of a less than successful outcome of outsourcing and there are several reasons for this lack of success:

• slow response to problems – it is recognized that one measure of success in FM is how quickly problems are addressed and resolved, e.g., rectification of air-conditioning problems – when there is a problem with a computer system, users expect a rapid and effective response, and this often cannot be provided by an external provider as well as it can by a dedicated IT manager within the organization; logging a call with an outside company is not the same as calling someone you know in your organization and asking for assistance.
• lack of understanding of the organization's business – IT professionals are experts in IT, not in the business activities of the organization who hires them, and this can lead to frustration for both parties as one knows what they need from the point of view of their business operation but does not have the expertise to implement it, while the other has the expertise but not the experience to apply it to the specific situation that arises in a particular business setting.

1.3.4 The building/occupant relationship

In the period 1927-32, Elton Mayo, a professor at the Harvard Business School, conducted a long series of experiments at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago, aimed at determining whether changes in the workplace promoted improved worker productivity (Accel-Team, 2001). These experiments followed an earlier study on the effect of lighting levels on productivity, which suggested that there was no detectable correlation between the two. The conclusion drawn by Mayo suggested...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Continuous improvement—Rick Best, Craig Langston and Gerard de Valence
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Index