Fundamentals_of_Facilities_Management

1. HISTORY OF FACILITES MANAGEMENT: The key to understanding Facilities Management (FM) in India would be to look at where FM has come from and how it has evolved especially over the last 30 years. The term in itself came about in the mid 1980s and has developed itself as the buildings people and environment have grown. The term is very broad as it covers a multiple disciplines, IFMA puts it this way: facilities management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology. This does not make the industry itself complex but diverse, effectively it covers both hard and soft services (or technical and non-technical services). In the west FM has developed alongside property management, as the two are seen as two separate and important disciplines within the same industry. These two disciplines interact with each other; this develops a primary key motive for excellent FM practice in customer/client service. The idea of FM is to allow the client to focus on his core business. No FM Company needs to be involved with this as it is an inhibitor to the success of FM in itself. The FM Agent focus’ on all those services that allow the core product to be delivered to its customer; this will vary from industry to industry. The client specifies what should be out-sourced and then requests through mutual agreement grounds for deliverables that ensures that these are met. 4 2. FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IN INDIA: Within India FM is a new phenomenon and as such careful consideration needs to be made in regards to what services are needed to be kept in-house and what needs to be out-sourced. One of the key reasons for companies outsourcing is the high standard that is achieved because they are hiring specialists to do it and the client can then really focus on their core activities. To be convinced about the non-core services, the client requires the support services to be of an exceptionally high standard. Most of the companies have in-house staff to handle all the support activities. Client staff tends to handle too many activities at one time for which they do not possess the skill and expertise and lose focus as to why the company is actually there in the first place. In most cases the in-house staff does not always have the authority to make the important decisions. The purpose of the client going for in-house staffing is to cut down on the costs; however, the core product will suffer because of this as the focus is too general for the client. If the company were to utilise the services of the professional facilities management companies, the quality of the core product will be intact. It will definitely be more economical in the long run, based on quality of service delivered. Since the services are provided based on the contract, FM Agents have more authority and they can decide on the terms well in advance, based on the requirements of each property. Most clients want a comprehensive package that would ensure consistent cost and quality and an FMS company ensures that this is maintained. 5 In terms of standard of service delivered both internally for the client and externally for the region, relationships need to be delivered; understandings communicated so there is either no duplicity of work being done or work wasted because either do not require the work to be done. An example of this is waste separation and removal. The FMS Company can go to the extent of separating the refuse and find that the municipality will just mix it back together again. The other key is education and training; not just the people skills but with Multi National Companies, municipalities and regions as well. The buildings they have are assets, and expensive ones at that, so employing the right people to look after these assets has far reaching consequences not just with employment but with the environment; sustainability comes to fulfillment in looking after the built environment in such a way that other people and generations get to enjoy it as well. 6 3. FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AND LOCAL CONDITIONS: Within South African Facilities Management has been around a bit longer. The industry covers both technical and non technical services and has in some cases taken on the roles of both Facilities Management and Property Management, as two separate disciplines within the same industry; still allowing the client to manage their core services, but taking on the non-core activities and driving optimization of finances, assets and people through teamwork and communication. The industry has grown simply because clients realise the importance of looking after their own assets and that cost-saving is a critical player in this regard. Considering the fact that there has been a recession, sometimes it not necessarily a factor just to cut back, but to streamline. Not necessarily down-sizing but to size for efficiencies. The professionals are already in place and in a recession this needs to be maximized. The client needs to focus on their core in these kinds of times and the relationships developed are key to effective rolling out of a BCP and other processes in these kinds of times. Service excellence and relationships has always been a key criterion to the effective success of FM and FM Agencies and will continue to be so as companies develop, countries grow, economies change. 7 4. CONCLUSION: The discipline of facility management and the role of facility managers in particular are evolving to the extent that many managers have to operate at two levels: strategic/tactical and operational. In the former case, owners need to be informed about the potential impact of their decisions on the provision of space and services. In the latter, it is the role of the FM Agent to ensure proper operation of all aspects of a building to create an optimal, safe and cost effective environment for the occupants to function in. This is accomplished by managing the non-core activities in both hard and soft services, for the client. The FM industry in India is at an exciting time in terms of growth. With careful planning, education, communication and sharing best practice, the industry will blossom. India has a culture of service and the key is to develop the strengths of the culture so the people, country and continent may benefit.