Facility Management

Facility management is the coordination of the physical workplace with the

people and work of an organization. It is the integration of business
administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering sciences.
In the most basic terms, facility management encompasses all activities
related to keeping a complex operating. Facilities include grocery stores,
auto shops, sports complexes, jails, office buildings, hospitals, hotels, retail
establishments, and all other revenue-generating or government
institutions.

Responsibilities associated with facility management typically include a

wide range of function and support services, including janitorial services;
security; property or building management; engineering services; space
planning and accounting; mail and messenger services; records
management; computing, telecommunications and information systems;
safety; and other support duties. It is the job of the facility manager to
create an environment that encourages productivity, is safe, is pleasing to
clients and customers, meets government mandates, and is efficient.

DIFFERENT BUSINESSES AND THEIR DIFFERENT

FACILITY NEEDS
The term "facility" is used to refer to a broad spectrum of buildings,
complexes, and other physical entities. "The only thread common among
these entities is the fact that they are all places," wrote Alan M. Levitt
in Disaster Planning and Recovery: A Guide for Facility Professionals. "A
'facility' may be a space or an office or suite of offices; a floor or group of
floors within a building; a single building or a group of buildings or
structures. These structures may be in an urban setting or freestanding in a
suburban or rural setting. The structures or buildings may be a part of a
complex or office park or campus."

The key is to define the facility as a physical place where business

activities are done, and to make facility management plans in accordance
with the needs and demands of those business activities. After all, the
facility needs of a movie theatre, a museum, a delicatessen, a plastics
manufacturer, and a bank are apt to be considerably different, even though
there will likely be certain basic needs that all will share (furniture, office
space, air conditioning systems, light fixtures, etc.). Good facility
management is concerned with addressing those needs in the best and
most cost-effective ways possible. Indeed, facility management
encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, including the following:
● Monitoring organization efficiency. The coordination of personnel, machines,
supplies, work in progress, finished products, and deliveries must all be
done if your plant is to be successful.
● Ensuring that the business receives the most it can for its facility-related
expenditures (this is often done through standardization of company-wide
needs so that high-volume purchases of necessary products can be made).

Real estate procurement, leasing, and disposal (or facility construction,

renovation, and relocation).
● Ensuring that the divergent processes, procedures, and standards present
in a business complement rather than interfere with one another.
● Monitoring all aspects of facility maintenance and upkeep so that the
business can operate at highest capacity.
● Tracking and responding to environmental, health, safety, and security
issues.
● Ensuring facility compliance with relevant regulatory codes and regulations
● Anticipating future facility needs in areas as diverse as fluorescent light
procurement, new space for expanded assembly lines, automation, and
wiring for new computer networks.
● Educating the work force about all manner of standards and procedures,
from ordering office supplies to acting in the event of a disaster.

THE EVOLVING CHARACTER OF FACILITY

MANAGEMENT
Facility management has traditionally been associated with janitorial
services, mailrooms, and security. Since the middle of the twentieth
century, facility management has evolved into a demanding discipline.
Factors driving the complexity of the facility manager's job are numerous.
For example, facilities have become much larger and more complicated,
often relying on computerized and electronic support systems that require
expertise to operate and repair. Personal computer networks, sophisticated
telecommunications systems and other technological tools have
significantly increased the requirements of facility management in the past
20 years.

Of course, many other factors have impacted on the challenges of facility

management in recent years. For example, the newfound corporate cost-
consciousness that emerged during the 1980s has generated an emphasis
on operational efficiency. Writing in IIE Solutions, Steven M. Price
summarized the facility manager's situation thusly: "Facilities professionals
are being asked to contain costs while achieving maximum beneficial use—
that is, to achieve more with less." In addition, philosophical changes such
as increased reliance on teamwork, cross-functional teams, and
telecommuting have created new spacing and infrastructure demands.
Finally, the responsibilities of facility managers have continued to broaden
into all areas of facility upkeep, including insuring that the business adheres
to regulatory requirements in such areas as handicapped access,
hazardous material handling and disposal, and other "safe workplace"
issues.

The end result of new technology, efficiency pressures, and government

regulations has been an expansion of the facility management role. By the
1990s, facility managers were often highly trained and educated and
prepared to wear several hats. Depending on the size of the complex, the
manager will likely be responsible for directing a facility management and
maintenance staff. In addition to overseeing the important duties related to
standard maintenance, mailroom, and security activities, he or she may
also be responsible for providing engineering and architectural services,
hiring subcontractors, maintaining computer and telecommunications
systems, and even buying, selling, or leasing real estate or office space.

For example, suppose that a company has decided to consolidate five

branch offices into a central computerized facility. It may be the facility
manager's job to plan, coordinate, and manage the move. He or she may
have to find the new space and negotiate a purchase. And he or she will
likely have to determine which furniture and equipment can be moved to
the new office, and when and how to do so with a minimal disruption of the
operation. This may include negotiating prices for new furniture and
equipment or balancing needs with a limited budget. The facility
management department may also furnish engineering and architectural
design services for the new space, and even provide input for the selection
of new computer and information systems. Of import will be the design and
implementation of various security measures and systems that reduce the
risk of theft and ensure worker safety. The manager will also be
responsible for considering federal, state, and local regulations. He or she
will need to ensure that the complex conforms to mandates associated with
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), clean air and other
environmental protection regulations, and other rules. The ADA dictates a
list of requirements related to disabled employee and patron access with
which most facilities must comply, while clean air laws impose standards
for indoor air quality and hazardous emissions. Similarly, other laws
regulate energy consumption, safety, smoking, and other factors that fall
under the facility manager's umbrella of responsibility.

FACILITY MANAGEMENT IN THE FUTURE

Analysts have suggested that evolving business realities in the realms of
process improvement, cost containment, speed-to-market accelerations,
 quality control, and workplace arrangements and concepts will all have a
big impact on future notions of facility management. The challenge for
facility managers will be to integrate knowledge workers into a dynamic
business environment of global competition, technological developments,
security threats and changing values. Writing in IIE Solutions, Steven M.
Price, in the IIE Solutions article entitled "Facilities Planning: A Perspective
for the Information Age" laid out four primary precepts that will likely form
the underpinnings of future financial management planning:

1. Understanding the evolving nature of knowledge-based business—"The

new workforce and the content of its work is migrating from a bureaucratic
control of resources and the movement of materials through a process
toward a highly flexible and networked organization whose added value is
exploiting specialized knowledge and information to solve complex
problems," wrote Price.
2. Understanding workspace trends—Price and other business analysts
believe that computing and communications technologies are fundamentally
transforming the workplace landscape. As shared jobs, telecommuting,
home-based businesses, flexible work hours and other trends make further
inroads in the business world, facility management philosophies will have to
keep pace.
3. Understanding how new technologies have removed old restrictions on
conducting business—This, said Price, basically entails recognizing that "the
removal of physical limitations caused by transportation and
communications technology has changed the scope, strategy, and structure
of the business world."
4. Understanding "Job Factor" basics—Price noted that IBM and other
companies have developed facility management philosophies that study the
interaction of all job factors, including those of physical environment and job
content.

CONTRACT FACILITY MANAGEMENT

Increasing numbers of large businesses are choosing to outsource their
facility management tasks to specialized facility management companies
that operate the complex for the owner on a contract basis. This
arrangement has become more common in part because of the increasing
scope and complexity of facility management. Companies that hire contract
managers prefer to focus on other goals, such as producing a product or
providing a service. Many of these firms find that outsourcing facility
management duties to a specialist reduces costs and improves operations.

Contract facility managers may be hired to manage an entire complex or

just one part of a large operation. For example, some companies hire
contract managers that specialize in operating mailrooms or providing
janitorial services. In any case, the company expects to benefit from the
expertise of the manager/management firm it hires. A contractor that
manages data processing systems, for example, may bring technical know-
how that its employer would have great difficulty cultivating in-house.
Likewise, a recreation facility owner that employs a facility manager
specializing in the operation of sport complexes may benefit from the
contractor's mix of knowledge related to grounds keeping, accounting and
reporting, and sports marketing, among other functions.

Besides expertise and efficiency, several other benefits are provided by

contract facility managers. One such benefit is the reduced liability to
owner's or occupant's for personnel. By contracting a firm to manage one
of its factories, an organization can substantially reduce its involvement in
staffing, training, worker's compensation expenses and litigation, employee
benefits, and worker grievances. It also eliminates general management
and payroll responsibilities—rather than tracking hours and writing checks
for an entire staff, it simply pays the facility management company. In
addition, a company that hires a facility management firm can quickly
reduce or increase its staff as it chooses without worrying about hiring or
severance legalities.

Whether a small business chooses to outsource or maintain internal control

of its facility management processes the ultimate goals are the same. As
Raymond O'Brien commented in Managing Office Technology, "both the in-
house facility management department and outsourced services must
recognize that the facility management business is changing. While,
traditionally, interior planning has been driven by preconceived notions of
what is appropriate, business today increasingly is not being conducted in a
traditional manner or in traditional locations'¦. Changing roles, combined
with changing technology, drives the environment of the future."

Although he concurred that the field of facility management is in a state of

flux at the moment, O'Brien argued that quality facility management could
become an even greater advantage for attentive businesses in the future:
"[Facility management] offers those with entrepreneurial spirit enormous
opportunity. Whether working within a corporation or as an outsourced
service provider, imaginative facility managers can find myriad ways to
improve service to the company or the client while creating an interesting,
challenging position for themselves."