FACILITY MANAGEMENT

Facility Management

Facility Management

Introduction

Facility management is defined by the International Facility Management Association as a profession that entails a number of disciplines specifically designed in order to make sure that the working environment is functioning properly by interlinking people, technology, processes, and place. This definition of Facilities Management clearly describes the overall nature of this discipline and the contribution of other factors in it. The British Institute of Facilities Management describes it as a business discipline of professional and strategic importance.

Prior to this definition, People would consider Facilities Management as the miserable connection inside the real estate, Architecture, Engineering, and construction (AEC) section. This is because it is seen from traditional perspective of merely cleaning, repairing, and maintenance. But according to the modern definition of Facilities management, besides real estate management, this discipline also encompasses financial management, change management, safety and contract management, and human resource management. Whereas besides merely repair and services maintenance, it also implies domestic services and utilities supplies (Burke, 2008, 654).

Facilities management not only encompasses the provision, maintenance, and services management but it should ensure that it supports workers and their jobs and operations, ensure the well-being and safety of the individuals, allow the firm to deliver efficient and effective services, enable the firm for space management in the future, add to the firm's corporate culture and provide the firm with a competitive edge in the market (Cappelli, 1997, 26).

Facilities management as a profession, is thus concluded as crafting a workplace environment so in order to make it favorable enough to carry out the firms foremost operations and activities, taking an interconnected perspective of the services network, and utilizing these facilities and services to support the value delivery and the core business, in order to delight the customers (Chirgwin, 2000, 138-143).

Facilities are managed by people organized to engage in activities that maximize worker productivity and minimize the facility impact on occupants and nature. Through the work of these facility organizations or departments a built environment is created and maintained which benefits individuals and society. It is important that facility management organizations function as efficiently and effectively as possible. Facility management encompasses several functions managed under various organization structural designs. The structuring of these organizations managing facilities is evolving and changing as business dynamics, business technologies, and building technologies change. The drivers of these changes and conditions that facilitate the changes are the subject of this research. Due to a multitude of reasons facility organizations seem to be under constant change. This may be due to the relative newness of the FM profession or other factors. It may be the increasing demands being placed on facilities, such as higher occupancies, configuration changes, and rising energy costs. It may be due to changing building technologies and the technologies used in the buildings (Christiansen, 2000, 548). All organizational change impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of the facility functions, at least temporarily. It has been proposes that FM organizations should be constantly evolving and ...