Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities

This paper focuses on the potential of programming as a link between design and facility management. Not well understood and usually avoided, the promise of programming as a key activity is presented as a dynamic and flexible tool for identifying client-user facility expectations and requirements in the entire project-delivery process. In this context, facility management is proposed as a strategic resource and partner together with all the parties involved. Hinging on the design perspective, an analysis of the current practice and a modified framework are introduced, which suggests relying on facility management data, feedback, and involvement throughout the project delivery process.

With increasing evidence that sustainable design and construction results in more energy-efficient, lower-cost, less environmentally damaging, and more occupant-friendly facilities, organizations have begun to seek guidance on integrating concepts of sustainability into their capital programs. A growing number of guidance documents have been developed to support these sustainability efforts. While these documents contain a broad spectrum of information on sustainable buildings, they are not necessarily written or organized suitably for stakeholders associated with the postconstruction phases of the facility life cycle. This paper presents a critical parametric analysis of nine such documents intended to educate facility decision makers on sustainability. The analysis revealed that these documents, with some exceptions, do not address all of their intended audiences equally, with most information focusing on designers and owners and comparatively less information targeted to others such as facilities managers. Given the crucial role facilities managers play in ensuring the ongoing sustainable performance of facilities, there is a need to modify or extend existing guidance documents to better address the needs of facilities managers.

Leading manufacturers are shifting towards innovation strategies where goods and associated services are developed jointly. A similar approach to construction would imply stronger input from facilities management into design. The purpose is to investigate paths for integrating the development of facilities design and services, assuming that the determining force is economic efficiency from the viewpoint of facility owners. Current organizational contexts for facilities managers are identified. Design is seen to reconcile supportive and protective features of facilities. Transaction cost reduction, as caused by the progress in technologies that allow remote monitoring of systems and components, is highlighted as an integrating force for manufacturers and service providers. Integration possibilities associated with current information technology tools related to computer aided design, building automation and computer aided facilities management are reviewed. Integration often has to handle portfolios of old and new buildings in multiple locations. Finally, the need for a strong design element in the education of future facilities managers is identified.

This paper discusses recent research on the benefits of facilities management (FM) in the hospitality industry and how the application of FM can contribute to the derivation of value by users, hotel owners, and employees. The paper also discusses the research instrument used, which is comprised of a survey questionnaire and the repertory grid technique. The term, practice and research into FM, has been more prevalent in environments where constructed facilities form part of the non-core activities of the organization. In hotels, a very large proportion of the product relates to the management of the core activities that center on built facilities. There is a need for life cycle planning of these facilities, their capacity, use and proactive maintenance policy, as well as the resources needed to cope with changing demands. Factors such as life cycle costing, productivity, performance values, and legislative change drive FM. This paper argues that owners/owner managers in the hospitality business, who are more proactive in the management of their constructed facilities, achieve higher occupancy rates, profitability, and repeat of business.

The primary focus of this paper is the physical resource base that supports any business: corporate operational real estate assets. In order to achieve the much-needed alignment between business strategic direction and its real estate infrastructure, the organization’s strategic intent must clearly reflect its facilities requirements in its strategic business plans. The significance of the strategic role of real estate assets to corporate performance can be seen in a recent influential research report by The Industrial Development Research Foundation in which corporate real estate assets are termed the fifth resource, after the traditional resources of people, technology, information, and capital. Based on a comprehensive survey of published literature and a series of in-depth interviews of corporate real estate/facilities managers, an integrating resource management framework was developed to model the nature of interactions between strategic business planning and operational asset management in an organizational setting. The proposed framework is grounded on an understanding of the nature and demands of core business requirements from which the requirements for real estate and facility services provisions are derived. The study supports the view that research efforts aimed at improving management effectiveness of the operational real estate asset base should be channeled to provide models or frameworks that promote understanding of all parties involved in the process.

Successful deployment of the facilities management (FM) function for any major development will depend upon the ability to identify, communicate, and manage opportunities to help support an organization’s business objectives at the earliest possible time. This implies a more holistic view for the FM function as reflected by strategic facilities management, and also the ability to address its requirements at an early enough stage of the development process. The paper presents a case from a major hospital development where considerations of such an early role for FM was applied at the design stage and discusses some of the impacts of this approach. Essentially, a shift in the consideration of major developments as construction projects to FM services provision. This orientation makes the development of the scheme one of designing for FM.

This paper presents the development of a generic framework for asset maintenance management. The framework has been presented in the form of an ${\mathrm{IDEF}}_0$ process model. The process model served to illustrate the interaction and dependencies among a diverse set of knowledge areas. In this framework, outputs from one management process become inputs to another in a subsequent hierarchy. The structure of the framework model exhibited the characteristics of flexibility and robustness. Updates in knowledge can be accommodated within the framework through incorporating new management processes and/or activities, as well as establishing new sequencing logic for these processes and/or activities. In a supporting effort to the development of the framework model, the writers have objectively reviewed the general capabilities of three commercially available software applications that are known within the asset management (AM) industry. These three applications, while encompassing a wide selection of capabilities, represent a typical selection of information technology (IT) tools and techniques that are widely used in strategic AM practices. The objective of this review is to study the operational characteristics and functionalities, and to assess the capability of software interoperability, of a representative sample of IT tools known within the AM industry.