Facilities Management

Innovation and Performance

Keith Alexander, Brian Atkin, Jan Bröchner, Tore Haugen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781134356898
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Facilities Management sets out a new framework for the discipline of facilities management which challenges many of the norms and which sets out new methods for optimising the performance of a business. Successful facilities managers need a range of skills and need to be able to devise a range of innovative strategies for the future of the organisations in which they work.This new book follows on directly from Keith Alexander's ground-breaking textbook Facilities Management and focuses on four new themes which have been identified as keys to the new strategy: organisational change and learning, innovation, performance and the knowledge workplace.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Keith Alexander, Brian Atkin, Jan Bröchner and Tore I. Haugen

1.1 THE SALFORD SYMPOSIUM

The agenda for the First International Research Symposium on Facilities Management, organised by the University of Salford on behalf of the European Facility Management network, EuroFM, and held in Salford in April 2002, sought to encourage the sharing of theoretical and practical knowledge amongst researchers, and to focus on the workplace as a broad theme. The aim of the Symposium was to strengthen the theoretical foundations, to advance knowledge and to promote research into facilities management.

The event brought together leading researchers in facilities management from around the world and provided an opportunity for discussing research proposals, methods and techniques, for debating theoretical perspectives, and for reporting research in progress, research projects and their findings. Ongoing postgraduate research was also presented at the International Postgraduate Conference, University of Salford, immediately following the Symposium.

The Symposium provided an opportunity to explore Facilities Management as a strategic discipline and to develop ‘the workplace’ as a concept from a research perspective, as well as considering perspectives on the workplace of the future in order to identify the need for innovation and performance. In line with the objectives of the EuroFM Network, the Symposium also sought to identify links from research into practice and education.

At the outset of the Symposium, key concepts and definitions were clarified in order to provide a framework for discussion in an interactive event and to address the nature of workplace knowledge. This introductory chapter reflects the keynote presentations delivered at the Symposium by Peter Barrett and Keith Alexander, both at the University of Salford, and by Tore I. Haugen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim). The chapter also sets out the structure underlying the programme for the event and introduces the
four main parts of the present volume.

1.1.1 The EuroFM research agenda

The Salford symposium followed on a workshop held in Copenhagen in June 2001, which focused on flexibility in relation to workspace and office buildings. The May 2003 Symposium in Rotterdam has presented another opportunity for researchers and practitioners to take part in the further development of the facilities management research agenda in order to create scientifically based education and professionalism in Europe.

The EuroFM Network promotes interaction between research, education and practice in forming and developing the knowledge base of facilities management in Europe. The EuroFM network has been active over a period of fifteen years, and in 1990, it held the first European conference in facilities management in Glasgow, with the aim of developing facility management research and education into a more mature activity.

As part of the work with the EuroFM strategic plan, a workshop was held in Vienna in August 1999. The overall theme for the Vienna workshop was:Where do we want to be in five years ’ time? A Research Network Group was formed within EuroFM to enable it to be the leading international think tank and international knowledge base on facilities management in Europe. The major role of the research group is to establish an active research network in Europe reflecting an integrated approach to facilities management research, practice and education. The group is responsible for arranging a research forum as part of the annual EuroFM conference, and for being a generator of European research projects. This means being active in formulating the future agenda for facilities management research in the European Union, and for securing necessary documentation and information exchange between scientific research and development in practice.

The majority of the members of the Research Network Group are drawn from research organisations and educational institutions, but input from, and close cooperation with, practice are vital for adequate and high quality research and development work. Together with the Educational Group, the Research Group creates a network for collaboration between graduate facilities management programmes in European countries, and forms a link between the EuroFM members that are national organisations and the Research Group Projects.

EuroFM research activities have included collaborative research with FM Centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden, and with other research organisations and educational institutions working in the area. European funded research like the Office and the Workspace projects (see Chapter 6) and the EuroFM Benchmark project are results of this network activity.

Since the first conference in Glasgow in 1990, we have seen a shift from amajor focus on buildings and technology to a stronger focus on management of facilities in a dynamic, life long perspective. New research programmes and projects in several European countries reflect this change.

Facilities management research and development projects in EuroFM focus typically on the integration of all support activities, in time, with the core business. Facilities management research is about organisational processes (maintenance and operation of the facilities management services) and about the development and change of facilities as an integrated service. EuroFM has identified a number of relevant research topics in facilities management as its basis for further work:

facilities management strategy (i.e. mission and business),

facilities management structure (i.e. organisation and process),

workspace design and management,

facility concepts for accommodation,

KPI/benchmarking,

asset management (at the corporate level),

operation and maintenance management,

service management and quality,

outsourcing—contracting out,

e-commerce in facilities management,

marketing of facilities management,

total quality management (TQM),

information and communication technology,

life cycle value/profit,

environmental strategies, and

post occupancy evaluations (POE).

Over the years, there have been several EuroFM publication channels for research: the International Journal of Facility Management, the EuroFM practice books 1996 –1999 and Symposium Proceedings, as well as EuroFM reports, such as the 12–volume set of reports from the Workspace Thematic Networks Project under Brite–EuRam III (EuroFM, 2001). Beginning in 2001, the major information channel has been the EuroFM web site http://www.eurofm.org. Here, members of the EuroFM member organisations can access recent information from the three different network groups: Practice, Education and Research.

1.2 KEY CONCEPTS

1.2.1 Strategically integrated facilities management

In his keynote introduction to the 2002 symposium, Peter Barrett drew upon basic concepts from earlier research (Barrett, 1995; Barrett and Baldry, 2003) to provide a framework for discussion. He defined facilities management as ‘a strategically integrated approach to maintaining, improving and adapting the buildings and supporting services of an organisation in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of that organisation’.

Barrett argued that facilities management needs to embrace strategically orientated, continuous improvement and proposed key features of effective facilities management systems. Drawing upon systems theory, he suggested that such systems should be ‘objective-nested, client/stakeholder orientated, minimalistic/holistic and evolutionary’.

He introduced a generic model for facilities management systems based on a combination of systems theory and information processing perspectives, and illustrating the range of continuing interactions, which are involved in facilities management. This generic model shows how an ideal facilities department would interact with the core business and the external environment. The model differentiates between strategic and operational facilities management, highlighting the need to consider both current and future situations. Barrett underlined in a corporate setting the central integrating role of facilities management functions, which guide and inform the links between primary and secondary business objectives and inform and positively support primary and secondary business activities.

Alexander (1996) and other authors acknowledge the need to consider facilities management at four levels: corporate, strategic, tactical and operational. At a corporate level, senior managers with responsibility for facilities must contribute to service planning, formulate policy and undertake scenario planning. This requires a full understanding of the corporate culture and the levels to which responsibility and authority are devolved. Next, at the strategic level, managers carry responsibility for effective business planning of the facilities services, leadership of the team and the development of proposals for developing facilities. At the tactical level, the facilities manager ensures service quality, manages value and implements risk management strategies. The facilities manager ensures operational control through auditing and monitoring performance. Responsibilities for delivering an innovative service should be effectively delegated to service providers. Finally, at the operational level, the facilities manager is responsible for the operation and maintenance of buildings and for the delivery of the services.

Recognition of these levels of activity will explain and clarify the different interpretations of the concepts, methods and techniques of facilities management and can help to resolve confusion that might surround its development and application.

1.2.2 Workplace

In his introduction to the Symposium, Keith Alexander sought to clarify the workplace concept and to relate to discussions about the nature of workplace knowledge held at previous EuroFM conferences in Brussels (1994) and in Barcelona (1996).

For the purpose of the Salford Symposium, the workplace concept was interpreted broadly to relate considerations of ‘the physical settings in which work happens, to the services that support people in those settings and, perhaps most critically, the management processes that enable their effective use’. These relationships need to be considered in the context of particular organisational contexts (culture) through cycles of time.

The concept of workplace embodies many types of work activity, not only the administrative and clerical work conventionally found in offices, but also healthcare, education and industrial production, in a variety of settings and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Also available from Spon Press
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• PART ONE: Organisational Change and Learning: An Introduction
• PART TWO: Innovation and the Innovative Workplace: An Introduction
• PART THREE: Performance: An Introduction
• PART FOUR: Towards Knowledge Workplaces: An Introduction
• Appendix: A European Workplace Knowledge Network
• Index