Introduction to Facility Management

Hester van Sprang, Bernard Drion

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000358742
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

Introduction to Facility Management is a comprehensive introduction to the dynamic and diverse field of facility management (FM). It answers questions such as: What is facility management? What does a facility management professional do? How can we classify facility management products and services? How do you set up a facility management organisation? How do you manage service processes using a master dashboard? Reflecting on current events, the book defines new and exciting roles for facility management professionals.

This first international edition of the bestselling Dutch Basisboek Facility Management describes global trends and developments and international FM-standards and practices. With contributions of thought leaders, such as Diane Levine, Jens Schlüter, Michiel Bakker, Elizabeth Nelson, Nicolas White and Susanne Balslev Nielson, Introduction to Facility Management

• is the first international book on facility management, which is supplemented and commented on by facility management teachers and practitioners;
• intriguingly and enthusiastically describes the full scope of the FM-profession;
• provides a theoretical framework and insight into FM-practice.

1
What is Facility Management?

• What is facility management?

• What are the responsibilities of the facility manager?

• What is the position of facility management within an organisation?

• What are the roles of the facility professional?

• How has the profession developed over time?

• What is the added value of facility management?

• What determines the added value of facility management?

Expert Column

Facility management, meeting the demands of a continually changing environment

Facility management is the integration of people and business processes of an organisation with its physical workspace impacting the triple bottom line of economy, equity, and environment. Meeting this demand is critical to the energy efficiency of the built environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the economic productivity of buildings, and providing efficient workplaces.

Business activity and the workplace infrastructure available greatly influence organisational workplace strategies. How people interact with their physical work environment can offer insights into what is happening within organisations through spatial and resource allocation and the interrelationships of staff and visitors within a facility.

The world of work is changing and so too is the nature of the workplace and the field of facility management. The function, design, location and operations of facilities have undergone a significant transformation in recent years. This process is continuing as the world of work is increasingly global, networked, distributed and virtual due to exponential advances in technology, a more integrated global economy, and requirements for sustainability solutions. Such change requires the facility manager to react quickly and decisively to the demands of a shifting environment.

We know that the workplace of the future will be much different than it is today, just as we can easily observe the radical changes in how and where we worked in recent decades. But how much different will work be is the big question, and how do we deal with such change? Seeking these answers will require different ways of thinking, new tools and openness to new ideas. This includes the design of the workplace to reflect the impact of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, the internet of everything, robotics, and a cultural revolution in the way we work. With the increase in facility management degree programs around the world, this book shows students how facility managers support business leaders who are constantly challenged to delivering higher value more efficiently.

Diane Levine, MCR
Executive Director, IFMA Foundation

1.1 Introduction

Describing clearly what a dentist or a bicycle mechanic does is much easier than explaining what the work of a facility manager involves because all over the world, a dentist and a bicycle mechanic do more or less the same things. The latter cannot be said of facility managers. Facility management occurs in all kinds of forms and all sorts of ranks and positions: from a concierge at a secondary school to vice president Real Estate at a multinational. Moreover, the term facility management is far from being commonplace in all countries. In Switzerland, for example, the discipline is called object management. In the United States, in addition to the term facility management, the terms property management and operations and maintenance management are used. In France and the United Kingdom, the discipline has undergone a name change. The British Institute of Facilities Management has changed its name to The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management because it believes that workplace management better indicates the scope of the discipline. The French professional association ARSEG has replaced the term facility manager (director/responsable des Services Généraux) with work environment manager (director de l’Environnement de Travail). In this book, we use the terms facility management, facility manager and facility professionals.

What the facility manager is responsible for, and how the business unit facility management is set up differs per country, per industry and even per company. You can be a facility manager in the service of an organisation, but you may also work as such through a hired commercial service provider. Others work as consultants, specialists or independent entrepreneurs. Moreover, the term, let alone the profession, is far from universally known. Just ask facility managers if they recognise that they always have to explain what their job entails at parties and other occasions.

The so-called elevator pitch is an excellent way to simplify this explanation. Suppose you meet a very important person, from whom you would like to receive a rewarding assignment, in the elevator. You only have thirty seconds to get that person interested in what you can deliver before the elevator arrives at its destination. What you say in that short time can also serve as an answer to the question of what you are studying or which profession you are in:

‘I make sure you can do your job better.’

You bet that’ll spark the interest. Try it if you like.

A well-known anecdote showing the importance of supporting processes is the following. In 1962, President Kennedy announced that the United States would put people on the moon and bring them back safely. Not long after that, Kennedy went on a work visit to NASA, where he saw a cleaner walking with a broom. He interrupted the tour, walked up to the man and said, “Hello, I’m John Kennedy. What are you doing?” The cleaner replied, “I’m helping to get a man on the moon, Mr President.”

And he was right. After all, whereas in the past the facilities department was mainly seen as a cost driver, it is now clear that the facilities function has a significant impact on employee satisfaction, the organisation’s image and the degree of sustainability of its operations, to name but a few. More and more studies are showing the effect of workplace designs on employee productivity. For example, t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• 1 What is Facility Management?
• 2 Social dynamics that shape work and work environment
• 3 Experiencing the work environment
• 4 The functioning of the facilities organisation
• 5 Quantifying Facility Management
• 6 The future of the Facility Management profession
• 7 Research in Facility Management
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements