In an industry that requires careful management of physical property operations, personnel, and finances, facility managers (FM) can play key roles in providing the necessary directions for successful real estate management. These include participating in site evaluation and acquisition, understanding the principles of property management, and most importantly, aligning real estate management strategy with organization’s business plan.
As the industry has become increasingly specialized, the roles of facility managers (FMs) are considered important as to ensure a satisfactory final product in terms of project management and coordinating the proper design-build process. One of the responsibility that FMs have in project management role is to ensure that operational requirements are met within the budget and on schedule.
This chapter covers the information on the facility emergency and security management. It discusses about the importance of having a strong understanding of physical security from a facility manger’s point of view. I would like to explore more about the following issues: (1) challenges in preparing for and responding to worst possible emergency scenarios, and (2) how effective planning and response is achieved by cooperation and participation of individuals, and the facility staffs.
When it comes to planning from the facilities management, facility managers need to 1) determine the strategic and annual planning in order to prioritize the goals, 2) work on space planning to support the organization’s objectives and reflect its culture, and 3) have better understanding of funding needed for operations, and maintenance of the facility. Facility planning must proceed from organization’s strategic business plan that describe the future the organization sees for itself. While it is rare for facility managers to be directly involved in the strategic business planning process, they use business planning information as input to strategic facility plans and provide feedback that contributes to future strategic business plans.The role of planning in facility management is significant and ways that facility planning work vary, depending on the requirements of the organizations. Facility planning is necessary 1) To maximize facility contributions to business objectives, 2) To forecast future space needs (type, quantity, location), and 2) To provide a basis for annual capital and operating budgets. There are some issues and questions to be clarified regarding the process and skills needed for facility planning, including the following:Financial forecasting is necessary in the process of financial planning to estimate the budgets needed. A number of forecasting techniques are used such as regression analysis, exponential smoothing, and simple projections. The issue here is that each company has its own method of forecasting, and requires different techniques for budgets for operations and maintenance. Since it’s the estimates that financial forecasting, facility managers need to be cautious and consider the needs of each organization when making the estimates.In complex business situations, simple mathematical calculation is usually inadequate for meaningful planning. Analysis of company plans and industry forecasts requires skills in financial analysis. It is the question of how facility managers analyze the financial budget required for operation and ability to justify projects economically and to make a right decision. In other words, it is the question of ability to analyze the strategic business plan and the skills needed in financial analysis, forecasting, and budgeting.The first question regarding space planning is what mechanisms are used to forecast their needs for space and use space efficiently? And how facility managers contribute to the core business of the organization and develop alternative scenarios for the demand for space? The role of space planning seem to be more suitable to traditional architectural space planning skills. The question here is how the facility managers help to convert strategic business plans into facility plans to fit the needs and goals. ?Facility managers faces many of the challenges when it comes to facility planning, which requires good understanding of organization’s business plan along with ability to analyze the financial budgets, and spaces needed. It is important for facility managers to have skills to extract the big picture and make a right decisions to support organization’s business planPlanning, Programming, and Budgeting
Facilities management is rapidly developing as a discipline, which embraces many essential areas of the built environment. For the last two decades there has been a significant growth in the profession to the extent that there is the need to be clear on its roles both in the industry and organization. This paper tries to find the solutions to the questions raised from the ‘The facility management handbook 2010(Cotts, D., Roper, K., Payant, R.) in regards to the scope of facilities management and its role, along with the personality and leadership skills needed for the performance and the success of facility management.This paper, firstly, finds why facility management is needed in modern businesses and discusses what their roles are. Secondly, finds the status of facility manager in organizations, and discusses how personality and skills of FMs influence on core business of each organization. Finally, concludes with what defines the success of facilities management.Advancements in infoe of work, demanding a fundamental rethink in the management and use of traditional facilities and associated infrastructure and services. The focus has been more on the issue of effectively managing the infrastructure to support a growing trend of working anytime and anywhere. Facility managers today are critical in this sense to support the range and diversity of infrastructure and services and manage the projects and operational assets over their economic lifecycles. They are generally considered in-house administrative activities rather than a service to provide outside. FM has emerged because of a requirement of core business activities in changeable and competitive environments.Though the facilities management supports the core business, many corporations have reduced their facilities management function. Downsizing occurred partly because of personnel costs and some of the roles of FMs have been replaced by outsourcing. However, there is an increase in demand today for FMs in thled to an increasing involvement in strategic facilities planning, where the need to align demand for functional space by effective management of current supply is now seen as prudent business resources management.The personality of facility manger is one of the critical element that will lead to the success of the FM profession. From the understanding of the facilities management, it is not just about managing the facilities. It is also about managing personnel and taking care of things that need to be done. Some facilities managers are in the back office with little interaction while others may deal with client requests and potentially meeting with even more people. Understanding the personality traits of a facility manager can ensure the right fit for an organization’s unique set of goals and objectives. In addition, FMs will or has to face leadership challenge, and develop a depth of leadership and good succession planning to perform well on managing and operating the facility.Facifor effective facilities and services. The role of the facility professional will likely to expand to embrace strategic planning, and management of operational services as well. There will always be overlap of activities between the numerous ‘professions’ that service the construction and property industry. Market forces will ultimately decide which profession or combination of services can offer the solutions to meet the business challenges. In this sense, the growth of the facility management is another evolution to meet market demand for better delivery and management of facilities and services.In summary, facilities management can be defined as activity that support the primary objectives of organizations. Today, the scope of facility management has been expanded, involving various existent professions that can support core businesses. Because of competitive character of marketplace, there is a clear trend in organizations outsourcing their facilities management functions. On the oramatically, and a role of facilities management that deal with the new environment has become more critical.Facility management requires multiple disciplines and integrates people, place, process and technology to ensure the functionality of built environment. Some of the issues discussed above such as FM’s reputation and leadership skills needed to stay abreast of changing environments, need to be addressed and improved by implementing the skills and leadership philosophy in a variety of private and public settings. The Facilities managers must think strategically and be able to demonstrate added value to the core needs of business and property. There are opportunities out there for those working in facilities management to be ambitious and push for a more strategic role for FM within their company. The future of facility management profession is well-demonstrated by Raymond and Cunliffe (1999) as: “Continually redefining the role of facilities management may be the key to a successf