Building performance appraisals top agenda for facilities management

Facilities management remains the critical cog in the overall maintenance of buildings and communities, one that can impact the safety, health, and wellbeing of the residents.

But as the service charge debate heats up and maintenance of communities comes under stronger scrutiny, balancing costs with efficiency, and offering green, sustainable solutions remains a tightrope for FM companies, as clients increasingly challenge the value of FM.

In light of this, Ali Al Suwaidi, a leading FM specialist and board member Middle East Facility Management Association (MEFMA), spoke about a few key FM trends that will help deliver on these expectations of FM companies and their clients.

Performance evaluation of buildings

Monitoring and benchmarking service levels has long been the mainstay of service level agreements (SLAs) for evaluating the performance of facilities management companies.

However, Ali suggests that for lowering costs and increasing efficiency, one needs to go beyond service evaluation and start looking at building evaluation.

Citing it as a practice that is going to gather much more steam over 2017, Ali states that Performance Evaluation of Buildings can significantly help reduce inefficiencies.

Performance Evaluation of buildings is a critical tool to identify how well a building is performing on various energy parameters. Using performance evaluation, one can isolate and pinpoint where exactly the consumption is happening, how much of it is wastage, and work towards drastically reducing these costs.

For example, a cleaner might be using excessive water to wash restrooms or idling the vacuum when cleaning lobby areas.

“We need to benchmark building performance to ensure we are very effective in maintaining it. For example, you need to be very detailed about how much water is used and where is it used. Is it the cleaner who is consuming more water in the bathrooms or is it the housekeeping? So you have to have a predictive type of analysis for your operation, like running a X-ray on cost and efficiency” adds Ali.

Integrated facilities management The other trend Ali highlights is a transition from Total Facilities Management (TFM) to Integrated Facilities Management (IFM). He feels IFM is about adding greater value to the facility management role.

Modeled on embedding the FM provider into the client’s business, with a view to finding smarter and more cost-effective ways of doing things, IFM goes beyond just executing FM duties. It enables FM providers to proactively suggest data-driven improvements to clients, unique to their core business needs.

“The trend is more towards IFM than TFM now.The objective is integration with the clients business, and providing intelligence. It is the pro-activeness of improving the service providers, rather than just providing the whole service spectrum,” explains Ali.

Closing the awareness gap

In terms of what can be done to make things better, Ali feels greater awareness initiatives is the trend going forward. People struggle with a vision of FM that is limited to the upkeep of buildings and communities.

However, Ali feels it is important for clients and end-users to understand FM beyond just a “maintenance” function. Raising awareness about the impact FM can have on the not only the building life-cycle but also on enhancing the overall quality of life of residents, can help bridge the understanding gap and make them see the long-term value and benefits of FM.

“The most important step closing the awareness gap.We need to make people understand the different levels of FM, the different levels of execution. There are three levels, which most people are not aware of. It is the operational, which is the day-to-day providing of the service.”

Then there is tactical, which is taking a critical look and enhancing the facility operation.The next is the strategic level, where we link the FM strategy to the organisational strategy.

So, what do these trends bode for facility managers and end users?

At the core of benchmarking is a commitment to continuous qualitative and quantitative improvement in facility management based on the performance evaluation findings.

Facility managers that prioritize energy and water efficiency and monitor building performance using the benchmarking process can most definitely see significant results.

On the end-user side, these trends will eventually help FM companies effectively identify areas of wastage against industry set benchmarks, and help eliminate or reduce those inefficiencies.

Furthermore, this could either lead to either decreased charges, or to a redistribution of funds to improve otherwise neglected areas, and achieve healthier communities and buildings.