“Facility Manager Role in Facility Life Process“
The increasing need for facility life management is fundamentally grounded on the rapid depreciation of infrastructures and buildings that inadvertently leads to the deterioration and disruption of business cycles. This in turn creates inefficiency and high opportunity cost tendered to the company and firms. Thus, the need for facility management is seen as an inevitable part of creating, expanding and company growth through preservation of facilities. Moreover, the demand of facility management necessitates a facility manager that can be both fundamentally effective and competent in rendering the services demanded by the facility life process.
Several considerations need to be taken as crucial factors by the facility manager include: the uniqueness of the firm or company, the long-term implication of the facility plan and more importantly, the strategies that would best address the particular issues confronting the organization. These strategies would then be critical in the facility managers’ operationalization of the program and the concerns that arises from it. This paper will deal with the role of the facility manager in the facility life process particularly in the strategic level and the operationalization of the strategies; the issues confronting them and the challenges ahead.
Facilities Management is the process by which an organization’s physical assets are used and maintained so that their life cycle costs are minimized whilst sustaining maximum asset performance (Davenport and Quinn, August 2002). Professional facilities management commences with the development of appropriate strategies that relate to an organization’s corporate strategy and mission. For the purpose of this paper, the definition coined by the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), which defines FM as “the multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment, and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace. Effective facility management is vital to the success of an organization by contributing to the delivery of its strategic and operational objectives”, will be adapted.
Moreover, facility management is inherently embedded in the business cycle as evidenced by the module designed by Weng Lee. It demonstrates the link between the facility management and the business life cycle. Facility Management forming a supporting framework that interconnects between the businesses drive factors (people, process, place) and the businesses out factors (market, information, product) to enable the business to function in the most effective way to achieve its business goals and objectives.
Figure 1: The Link Between the Facility Management & Business Life Cycle (Lee, 2000)
Facility management thus is involved not only in the preservation of infrastructures but is essentially in the core locus of the business- in the dynamic interaction and programs underlying the goals and production of the personnel and the company. Thus, while facility managers’ responsibility is specified to a specified area, the spillover effect that their job creates and its implications for future company objectives are great. Moreover, the output is also directly affected by the manner by which facility strategies are devised and operationalized.
The table below shows the Role of the facility manager in the facility life process: from the conception of the plans until the building and construction and its implications on the business.
Six Areas of Facility Decision (CISC Functional Map)
A. Formulate Premises, Strategy for Use, Development and
Improvement
F. Contribute to the Competitiveness and Operational Effectiveness of Organizations
B. Design Proposals for the Use, Development and Improvement of Buildings and Facilities
E. Facilitate the Use of Property, Systems, Environment and Supporting Services
C. Construct, Commission, Maintain and Modify Buildings and Facilities
D. Resource and Control the Use, Management and Improvement of Buildings and Facilities
The Role of Facility Manager in the Planning Stage
The Planning stage (Stage A as cited from CISC) commissions the facility manager to perform two important duties: formulate strategies for the environment and formulate policies and control arrangement. The former involves the three factors: the monitor and review of environmental changes and needs, formulation of strategies for environmental change; and implementation and modification of policies for the environment. Moreover, the latter includes the formulation and modification of policies for the environment and the devise of the support policy implementation.
These duties implies that the facility manager needs have a holistic view of his/her role as being extended not only within the company but rather on the environment and the other factors as well. Moreover, planning requires a manager to have a long-term vision on what the company needs and the viability of attaining such goals.
For instance, the proactive evaluation of a new product and manufacturing process at the design stage, i.e. before losses occur, is of paramount importance (Grossmith and Chambers, 1998). Ideally, these activities should occur with a fundamental need to support the productivity and profitability goals of the organization. This is in conjunction with the need to provide a safe and healthy work environment. Ideally, management wants these upgrades to be simple, fast and of a relatively low cost (Grossmith and Chambers, 1998). Consequently productivity and quality penalties associated with these concerns must continue throughout the life of the production program with a concurrent reduction of profits. Putting the focus on the big picture in building and facility management and engineering yields greater shareholder value, safety, efficiency, cost reduction, and overall economy of operation (Smith, Porter, Wessel, Seth, Stymiest, and Neitlich, 2002 ).
The Role of Facility Manager in Strategic Level
There are several issues that need to be considered in the formulation of strategies conceived in the planning stage. While the planning stage is more general in nature, the strategy level is more specific. It addresses specific issues as the requirements and factors in the construction of the buildings, designs and preparing of documents for the construction and commissioning of procurements. These areas are addressed within a strategic facility plan; the formulation of this plan follows the typical planning stage, but employ coherent techniques in order to develop sound solutions and best practices performance for the business. According to Brian Atkin and Adrian Brooks (2000), the process steps for developing and FM strategy can be outlined are as follows: a brief and assessment of objectives. They argued that the key to success within FM strategy is to understand what the business wants to achieve through this strategy, either as direct output or by using the FM strategy as vehicle for initiating greater change within the business. This task must not be underestimated, as it is often the most difficult part of any strategic planning.
Thus, the facility manager must perform the following (as cited from CISC): identify requirements and factors, which will influence potential developments, which includes the formulation, and agreement on a brief which meets client, user and community requirements and a survey the physical characteristics of the natural and built environment. After which, the facility manager must map the physical characteristics of the natural and built environment, investigate the physical characteristics and contextual factor and then assess the financial factors affecting development and the procurement and resource utilizations factors affecting development.
Moreover, a facility manager is also tasked to prepare and assess design recommendations and solutions, which include the planning of the design process; the development and testing of the project design promotions and the presentation and agree on project design solutions. After the subsequent process, the manager will prepare documents for procurement, contract and production. This includes the coordination the production of documents and preparation of procurement, contract and production documents.
As outlined here, the role of a facility manager is further complicated by the fact that strategies are met with problems in the financial constraint that the project may offer. Some companies are not prepared to cover expenses that are needed in designing the best strategy of facilitating the company. More often than not, this is where the problem lies.
The Role of Facility Manager in Operational Level
There are essentially three main types of services, which are listed below (from the Introduction to Facility Management, Module 1): (1) Implementation, this process covers the implementation of the strategy brief. Decision-making and effective communication within the organisation are vital components at this stage, to allow comprehensive understanding of the FM role and services that will allow for successful contribution to overall business delivery. (2) FM operational services: This cover the operational aspect of estate and property management, which include maintenance planning and implementation, estates and property rationalisation, energy efficiency studies, health and safety in the workplace and environment assessments. (3) FM operational management: This FM management service involve supply chain management, contract management, process performance measurement and technical audits, change control, cost management, operational risk monitoring, benchmarking and improvement planning.
The facility manager is involved in the three stages and tasks in this phase (Stage C, D, E of the Six Areas of Facility Decision). This includes the task to provide facilities and materials for construction works, construct and maintain structural fabric and provide infrastructural and environmental landscaping. Moreover, the manager installs and maintains components and services. In the Resource and Control the Use, Management and Improvement of Buildings and Facilities phase, the facility manager must initiate projects for the development, improvement and the use of the built environment by securing contacts for supply of professional services, goods and materials and implementing and coordinate construction projects. Further, they are charged with the procurement, deployment and control of resources for projects. Further, they have to control projects for the development, improvement and use of the built environment.
On the last stage of the operational level, the facility manager facilitates investment, appraisal, agreements and use management relating to property and is in charged with the operation and maintenance of systems and services.
Post-operational level concerns include: procurement, deployment and control of resources within the organizations, development and implementation strategies for recruiting, developing and enhancing the performance of human resources and the development, monitoring and improvement of organizational products, services and systems.
The Role of Facility Manager in Non-core Activities
The Course Module 1 defines the non-core support services as all the activities that are carried within the organization to support the primary functions within the business. These activities are generally categorized as soft and hard services. The following list demonstrate the different FM service lines that can exist within organisations:
§ Support services: photo copying, printing, post, consumables, filing & archiving, imaging.
§ House services: catering, reception, telephone operators, cleaning, meeting rooms, conferencing.
§ Property services: M&E maintenance, Fabric maintenance, reactive repair, utilities, project management, business continuity and development.
§ Workspace services: furniture, space planning, relocation, security, health and safety.
§ Information services: data network, systems integration, software development.
These activities are also essential in the productivity function of the company and in addressing the issue of a more conducive workplace. Further, the facility manager must take into consideration that these non-core activities are the fundamentals in the motivation of employees and in the growth of the company.
Processes and Operational Issues
The accommodation of an organization in its buildings and supporting facilities is but one of the concerns of senior management. But facilities often frustrate the objectives of an organization contributing to inefficiency and diseconomy, staff discomfort and dissatisfactions, and to organization inertia and business constraint Nutt, 1993). According to Nutt (1993) the traditional approach to facility briefing has lead to a short-term view of both user and organizational needs.
Life Cycle Briefing: The Role of Facility Management
OPERATIONAL BRIEFING
1
FM
3 2
The approach limits client opportunities for the future; it reduces management options, and risks the long-term “use viability” of buildings and facilities. The incorporation of traditional briefing practices and experiences within an integrative strategic briefing approach promises four major benefits (Nutt, 1993):
(1) the establishment of a secure briefing framework, covering the whole cycle of facility decision, to meet the contemporary requirements of facility users and clients;
(2) strategic briefing procedures for new build initiatives so that future facilities are more robust to functional change and have greater adaptability potential than in the past;
(3) a dynamic and more responsive use of existing facilities with strategic briefing techniques to support the management of uncertainty
(4) the development of new generic types of building and facility, which are intrinsically more manageable than in the past, to support multiple uses
FACILITY MANAGERS: Challenges and Prospects
There is a need for a competitive pool of facility managers in the world today. There are two implications of this occurrence: first, there is a relative shortage of competent facility managers that are capable of promoting and designing programs that could both enhance the business profitability of the company and at the same time cover the short-term losses that may ensue; and the problems that facility managers encounter in designing strategies and in its operationalization.
Facility management practice has been largely dependent on the designing of strategies and methods after careful assessment of the needs and the improvements that could be done in the company. However, there are limitations on their part. Foremost of which is the lack of proper training and education for most facility managers. This area is a relatively young field and at most scholars are yet to formulate much needed paradigms and researchers that could best address specific issues in the workplace. Moreover, most company managements are still hesitant in fully implementing this strategy because of the short-term costs that it may give to the company. For small companies and unstable firms, this may mean a severe blow to their financial means.
Further, the structural impact of instituting facility management is both undesirable and costly for managements. It is in lieu with the cost and the personnel adjustments that they have to go through. Furthermore, companies still have to conduct trainings and seminars to inculcate environmental preservation to personnel. This would lead to business interruptions translating to reduce profit.
REFERENCES:
Davenport, Katie and Hensel, Deborah Quinn, Survey Shows Most Facility Managers Support Green Workplaces, International Facility Management Association, November 15, 2002
Facilities Management Awareness: presentation by Weng Lee, Head of Property and Facility Management Department at EC Harris, 2000.
Grossmith, Edward and Chambers, Gregory, The Role of Ergonomics in Process Design, Product Design and Design for the Environment, CPE Ergonomics Resource Group, CTD Resource Network, Inc., May 1998
Nutt, B, McLennan, P., “Facility Management: Risks and Opportunities”, Blackwell Science, 1995
Nutt, B., “The Strategic Brief”, Facilities, Vol 11, No. 9, 1993. MCB University Press, pp 28-32.
Smith, Paul, Porter, Bill, Wessel, Roger, Seth, Anand, Stymiest, David and Neitlich, Mark, Facilities Engeineering and Management Handbook, National Park Service Training and Development Division Essential Competencies, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 2002
Total Facilities Management Brian Atkin and Adrian Brooks, 2000.
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