Past, Present & Future of FM: by KHS Engineering Topics

Past, Present & Future of FM – Global & UAE Review

“Facility Management (FM) is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety and efficiency of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology” (IFMA). FM is also defined as the “Organizational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business” (ISO). In other words, FM is about managing and controlling an extensive range of activities with the basic theory of providing assimilated supervision on strategic, operational and service level to synchronize the delivery of the established support services. This needs proficiencies and distinguishes FM from the isolated provisions of one or more services.

The final objective of FM is to guarantee the functionality of the prime activities in the facility. The domain of FM contains;

§  Property portfolio management

§  Asset management

§  Operations and maintenance management

§  Energy and environmental management

§  Space planning-allocation and management with long term planning

  

Facility Management Domain
Soft Services				Hard Services
Cleaning Services	Support Services	Catering Services	Security Services	Property Services
Ø Special Cleaning Ø Periodical Cleaning Ø Segment Cleaning	Ø Labor supply services Ø Welfare facilities Ø Back Office & Front Office services Ø	Ø Events catering Ø Contract catering Ø Vending services Ø Confectionary services	Ø Physical security Ø Surveillance Ø Technical installations Ø Workplace emergency management services Ø Consulting services	Ø Building Maintenance Ø Landscape maintenance Ø Environment management Ø Energy (Utility) management Ø Damage control

Growth of FM Industry: Global & UAE

“The global FM market size is expected to grow from USD 34.65 billion in 2018 to USD 59.33 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.4% during the forecast period” (Newswire, 2018). “UAE FM Market by service, by application, by in-house Vs outsource, by organized Vs unorganized, Competition forecast & opportunities, 2013-2023 is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 9% through 2023, on the back of increasing number of construction projects in both commercial and residential sectors in the country” (Markets, 2018).

These statements from the completed market researches, confirm the rapid growth rate of FM industry globally and in UAE. The significance of having a proper structure for asset management and maintenance was globally highlighted three to four decades ago; with the rapid development in building construction industry in order to provide luxurious and sustainable spaces with the use of complex systems. This opened the path for better asset management process and the evolution of FM industry was initiated.

According to Azman Mohammed, Abdul Mohammad & Buang Alias (Mohammad Nor, Mohammad, & Alias, 2014) who completed a research on FM history and evolution, Today many literatures have recognized the industry of FM as an emerging discipline that is getting recognition by the day in every corners of the world. Furthermore, they concluded their research with the statement “FM will continue to strive for its place in the market and industry as its roles expand in every direction of business management”.

In-line with more recent research findings from Techsci Research (TechSci, 2018), the FM industry in UAE is shown a rapid growth from 2010-2011. The Global financial crisis in 2008 influenced very badly on most of the countries, including UAE who had energy based economies. Even though UAE had rapid growing in real-estate industry at that time, the impact created a break to consider other segments in the economy. Tourism has been identified as another sector, which can be a potential money spinner for the UAE economy. The unique quality of the services offering; is the key to success in tourism industry and in order to provide that a proper FM strategy is must.

The requirement of having a detailed maintenance regime including various specialists’ support on complex systems, management of periodical maintenance programs, developed regulations and guidelines (by Government entities) to comply and to maintain higher quality services are the key governors which keep the FM industry nowadays at a higher demand in UAE.   

     

Core Business & FM

Any organization must perform effectively in order to achieve their objectives. For that well-managed sites and buildings are essential to confirm better working environment for their employees with trouble free services which are key objectives of FM. Therefore, FM is offering real added value to the organization’s core business. Researches way back in 1994 stated that the role of FM should be defined by the relationship of facilities to the core business of an organization in which success is measured by the degree and quality of support they provide to achieving key business objectives or goals. Even the statement was made by decades ago, by considering the modern organization’s operation there is a direct link between FM with the successfully achievement of their objectives. In other words, FM is fueling the organization’s operation towards to meet their objectives.

Optimization of utility costs is one of the key topic, which became popular over the last decade in UAE. Government of UAE along with their utility services providers (Dubai Electricity & Water Authority – DEWA, Abu Dhabi Distribution Company – ADDC, District Cooling Services providers – EMPOWER: Dubai & TABREED: Abu Dhabi) introduced detailed guidelines to comply by various end users to optimize utility usage in-line with UAE national strategy to reduce CO₂ emission by 15% by 2021 (Bitar, 2015). Also various organizations in UAE, themselves start look for innovative methods to optimize the utility usage as the same absorb considerable amount of their operation budget. The position of having a better FM strategy is arisen as the utility cost create a substantial impact on business success in UAE. The department of FM or maintenance management in any organization traditionally considered as a business unit only with expenses.

With the comprehensiveness of FM and it’s  functions, Atkin & Brooks (2005) argue that in the pursuit of nourishing and succeeding the business objectives, an organization should holistically emphasize on the strategic potentials of FM as an integrative and codependent discipline, that aims to accomplish the following aspects; support people in their work and activities; improve individual well-being; enable the organization to deliver effective and responsive services; allow for the future change in the use of space; provide competitive advantage to the organization’s core business and enhance the organization’s culture & image. Altogether, with the combination of innovative FM strategies along with utility saving (energy saving) concepts, today most organizations consider their FM departments as a business unit which influences positively on the revenue.    

  

Theories, Standards & Associations of FM

The theories for industry and the profession of FM is a combination and development of administrative management theory, asset and asset life cycle management theory, behavioral management theory, management science theory and organizational environment theory. FM principles has been eventually in need for theory development for both research and practice. In past several decades, the revolution of integrated life cycle management of built asset made the FM one of the most fast-growing profession in global construction industry (Chen, 2015). Similar conclusion was provided by Price (1999) in his research paper that the patterns in FM should be developed with best practice and in-line with new organizational theories. He also concluded that the challenge in the future of FM industry will be to combine organizational, people, asset and environment in order to create theories and practices. Quality assurance and Engineering are two segments within the FM domain. Therefore, relevant standards and theories such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization), NFPA (National Fire Protection Association Standards), ASHRAE Standards and etc. are applying and following in FM.

 

 

With the vision of recognizing the excellence in FM below listed different associations are formed globally. Today all below associations are join together and working towards a common vision of “global recognition of the FM profession”.

ABRAFAC: Facility Management Association for Brazil and South America, which was established in 2004.

BIFM: British Institute of Facility Management a United Kingdom based professional association for the facility management sector, which was established in 1993.

EURO FM: Facility Management association for Europe established in 1993 in Netherland.

FMA: The National Industry body of facility management, representing and supporting professionals and organizations responsible for operational management Australia’s built environment. Established in 1988.

FMANZ: The Facility Management Association of New Zealand, represents New Zealand’s community of facility management professionals and support education, networking and knowledge sharing for members and member organizations. Established in 2008.

HFMS: Hungarian Facility Management Society, established in 2005.

IFMA: International Facility Management Association – IFMA is the world largest and most widely recognized international association for facility management, which was established in 1980 in USA.

MEFMA: Middle East Facility Management Association established in Dubai, UAE in 2009.

SAFMA: The South African Facility Management Association, which was established in 1998.

 

The development of standards in FM began in 2004 when a European initiative was launched to develop facilities management as a professional discipline (White, 2013). The current listing of these key standards for FM are as below.

BS EN 15221-1      -           Facilities Management: Terms and definitions

BS EN 15221-2      -           Guidance on How to prepare facility management agreements

BS EN 15221-3      -           Guidance on Quality in Facilities Management

BS EN 15221-4      -           Taxonomy, Classification and Structures in Facilities Management

BS EN 15221-5      -           Guidance on Facilities Management Processes

BS EN 15221-6      -           Area and Space Measurement in Facilities Management

BS EN-15221-7      -           Guidance for Performance Benchmarking in Facilities Management

 

Work towards the regional development of the FM industry in terms of profession, innovation, technology, productivity and sustainability are the key terms that all of above listed worldwide FM associations are today involved in. Sharing the information and knowledge through case studies, seminars and training programs, provide initial and essential support to the new firms to establish in the industry are the other objectives of these associations.

 

References:

§  https://www.ifma.org/about/about-ifma

§  https://www.iso.org/standard/68167.html

§  https://www.techsciresearch.com/news/2877-5-trends-to-look-out-for-in-uae-facility-management-market.html

§  https://gulfnews.com/business/uae-should-reduce-co2-emission-by-15-by-2021-1.1497037

§  Atkin, B. and A. Brooks (2005), “Total Facilities Management”, 2^nd Edition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.