“EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT: KEY TO ASSETS VALUES SUSTAINABILITY”
Being a Paper Presented at the One-Day MCPD Seminar Organized by the Enugu State Branch of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers on the 23rd July, 2015
At
Oakland Events Centre, Ebeano Tunnel, Enugu, Nigeria
BY:
ESV (Chief) P.C.OZILI (JP), M.Sc, FNIVS, FCAI, FSL, FICML, chMC
July, 2015.
1.0 OPENING BRIEF
I wholeheartedly thank the Executive and MCPD Committees of the Enugu State Branch of NIESV for the wonderful opportunity given to me to talk to ourselves on a topic that had generated a lot of controversies and confused many including seasoned professionals who scramble for clients (private institutions of higher leanings, corporate organizations, stadia, hospitals, etc). The modernity of facilities management as a profession compounded the matter.
However, I see this assignment as a challenge as well as opportunity for us to brainstorm, exchange ideas vide contributions, questions and answers and thereafter resolve the nagging issues in Facilities Management. This paper is meant to provoke discussion and arouse interest on Facilities Management and thus give room for further research to fill in the missing gap, if any.
2.0 ABSTRACT
Facilities Management is a relatively new profession in developed countries and it is now gaining grounds in developing countries including Nigeria. Its introduction in Nigeria as a multi-disciplinary profession in 1995 generated a lot of controversies and confused many includes seasoned professionals. When facilities are effectively managed with recourse to new ways of organizing and structuring maintenance works, their useful lives are prolonged. Correspondingly their values are sustained. Professionalism being one of the tools required for effective assets/facilities management would bring out the adored overall benefits of effective facilities management within acceptable standards. Therefore, the main thrust of this paper is to provide descriptive and analytical answer with typical example, to the question – How can facilities be effectively managed to sustain assets/facilities values? Additionally, it examined the essentials of facilities management ranging from definitional insights, its history, goal /objectives, services aspects and facilities cost elements and as well as what EFM is all about. It also stressed on the need for maintenance culture with recourse to Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM). It also dealt with the tools/requirements, the benefits and challenges of effective facilities management; and finally ended with summary/conclusion.
Key Words: Effective Facilities Management, Assets Values and Sustainability.
3.0 HISTORY OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:
3.1 TRADITIONAL FM PRACTICES
Our fore-fathers practiced informal and localized facilities management by way of evolving rationalization and space sharing in the market places, village squares and shrines facilities of mono or multi-purpose use or value. Though great and effective these practices were, they were informal and localized in scope devoid of professionalism but geared towards preserving the qualities and enhancing the economic useful lives of the facilities. With the incursion of western civilization, new trade, new ideas and technology cropped up and later formalization and organization of professions started.
3.2 MODEN/FORMAL FM PRACTICES:
Facilities Management is relatively a new profession and it is gaining ground and popularity in Nigeria. It was first conceived in USA some 30 years ago and had since gained ground in advanced countries of Europe, Japan and Australia. It took time to gain ground and be imbibed in the United Kingdom (UK). Forty (40) concerned Facilities Management professionals in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA came together in October, 1980 to pioneer and found the National Facilities Management Association (NFMA) and the fast growth in scope and membership necessitated the change of name to International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) in 1987. The modern FM practices stemmed from the economic pressures on organizations to improve operational efficiency.
Modern FM practices are enjoying rapid spread in the developing countries of Africa including Nigeria. Nigerians began to hear and talk of FM just in the early 1990s. The Nigeria chapter of IFMA was founded in 1995 by courageous multi-disciplinary professionals. The proponents of FM present it as a co-ordinated and integrated approach to all problems of business and property management; while those with opposing views see it as a momentary incursion of a brief span into other disciplines survival reasons, or mere change of nomenclature (PM or FM). The IFMA, Nigeria chapter was formed during the hay days of the Petroleum Trust fund (PTF). However, one thing that is certain is that FM is yet to attain a strong professional level in Nigeria but in USA, UK and Asia and especially China, it is a booming profession. However, real estate practitioners have now added “Facilities Managers” to their letter heads, complimentary cards and bill boards. Other professionals in the built-environment such as Engineers, Builders, Architects, Town Planners, etc have also added same to theirs.
4.0 DEFINITIONAL INSIGHTS
4.1 FACILITY: Simply put, facility can be described as anything built, purchased or installed to make operations easier or to serve a special purpose. For example, a hostel (building), built for the use of students may be regarded as a facility. Same applies to a refinery, petrol station, stadium, Enugu sports club, railway station, airport, hospital, public toilet, ICT equipment, etc.
4.2 FACILITY MANAGEMENT AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:
Facility management and facilities management means same thing and can be used interchangeably depending on one’s inclination either American or British orientation.
In a simplified form, Facility Management or Facilities Management as it is commonly called in American and Europe respectively, may be defined in three (3) ways to assist built-environment operators- Buildings/facilities owners, occupiers/users and professionals to understand what Facilities management is from the onset.
- “Facilities Management is all services required for the management of buildings, real estate to maintain and increase their values”.
- “Facilities Management is the means of providing maintenance, support project management and user management during the building life cycle”
- “Facilities Management is the integration of multi-disciplinary activities within the built-environment and the management of their impact upon people and the work-place”
These three definitions seem to sound suspiciously close to property management (PM). Of course, Facilities Management is developed from PM and two of them are fundamentally linked. However, it is obvious that FM has a wider definition than the traditional property management services. The difference is that FM is not just managing the property but also the people, their work (business) and the environment.
4.3 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT – DEFINITION I:
IFMA (International Facility Management Association) defined facility management as “the practice of co-ordinating the physical work-place with people and work of the organization. It integrates the business administration, architecture and the behavioural and engineering services”
4.4 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT – DEFINITION II:
A later definition by the same IFMA is “a process that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built-environment by integrating people, place, process and technology”.
4.5 TYPES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
There are two types of facilities management, namely; “hard” and soft” services. Examples are:-
| HARD SERVICES | SOFT SERVICES |
|
|
ADDITIONAL FM SERVICES:-
|
|
ASSET
|
|
Functionality |
|
Physical condition |
4.6 ASSET DEFINED:An asset is a resource controlled by an entity as a result of past events and from which future benefits are expected. In Asset Management practice, the integrated performance is reported as shown in figure I below: Regular inspection and assessment or required maintenance cost and reliability
|
Financial Performance |
How effective is the asset? Indicators include user satisfaction and level of availability when required
|
Utilization |
|
Integrated Performance report |
Indicators may include the cost of operating the asset and maintenance related to capacity How intensively is the asset used? Hours of operation, cycles, mileage etc.
Figure 1: Integrated Performance Report Format.
Source: Ozili (2014): Overview of Asset Management: A Case Study of EEDC.
From the above definitions it is obvious that FM revolves around adoption of co-ordinated and integrated approaches to maintaining, improving and adapting buildings, infrastructure, work-place, environment, systems and services to support the core operations and processes of an organization in order to achieve strategic objectives of the organization.
4.7 ASSETS VALUES
Assets values are worth of assets/facilities arrived at by the application of relevant variables perceived to be related to future returns by comparison with similar assets determined by professionally qualified and registered Estate Surveyor(s) and Valuer(s) with legislative empowerment to place values on assets as per the provisions of Decree No. 24 of 1975 (Now cap E13, LFN, 2007). Assets could be real as well as financial in portfolio management, acquisition analysis and in corporate finance.
4.8 TYPES OF ASSETS
- Financial assets – Investments, cash at hand, etc.
- Moveable assets – Motorized vehicles, furniture, fillings equipments, etc.
- Fixed assets – lands, buildings, injection substations, transformer-in-circuit, etc.
- ICT assets – software and information stored on the company’s computer systems.
- Bundle of knowledge and expertise developed/acquired vide formal training and on-the-job experience.
- Personnel/Labour Force – The staff (internal customers) that work for an organization are the greatest assets.
- The customers (external) – Kings and Queens whose needs are being met by a company.
- Goodwill, trademarks, etc. Intangible assets.
4.9 EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (EFM) DEFINED
Effective Facilities Management (EFM) may be defined as the down-to-earth or the totality of managing, controlling and planning of facilities from the view point of procurement/installation to disposal with the purpose of getting good return on investment(s).
Effective facilities management is achieved when facilities are well – managed and well-operated/used in a better way that would enhance good service delivery and increase the useful economic lives of the facilities.
4.10 EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES:
Effective facilities management objectives include:
- To prevent premature break-downs.
- Prolong the useful lives of facilities/assets lower maintenance costs of the facilities/assets.
- To ensure the upkeep of the facilities/assets by correcting defects while they are still at minor stage.
- To manage the facilities/assets to achieve safety and environmental purposes.
- To achieve best practices.
4.11 SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is a modern concept that focuses on inter-generational equity with social, economic and environmental indices. The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (UN – WCED) vide the Report prepared by Brundtland in 1987 defined sustainable development “as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
The pillars model of sustainable development or the Triple Bottom line (TBL) concept of social, economic and environmental issues is as illustrated below:-
FIGURE II SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPT
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Social |
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Economic |
|
Environment |
|
SUSTAINABILITY |
Fig II Authors’ Illustration after O’ Riordan et al (2001) and RICS (2007a), page 10.
Sustainability is to ensure that all business, public service, natural resources, the economy and communities have the capacity to continue in the future. Hence, we have environmental, social and economic sustainability.
4.12 ASSETS VALUES SUSTAINABILITY
Assets values sustainability may be regarded as the assets values that are well – maintained and sustained in their present optimal uses/states with effective management that would reduce maintenance costs and avoidance of incessant break-downs that may disrupt the utilization/operation of the assets/facilities within their useful economic lives, thereby minimizing the role of decreasing their values.
From the above assets values sustainability definition, four (4) things worthy of note are as follows:
ü The essentiality of facilities/assets management
ü Good maintenance culture would prolong the economic lives of the facilities/assets
ü Objectivity of judging failure and success
ü Normative nature of assets values sustainability makes it difficult to pin down analytically.
5.0 MAINTENANCE AND MAINTENANCE CULTURE
5.1 MAINTENANCE:
Maintenance is facilities/assets conditions monitoring. It is the planned works which include periodic facilities and equipment inspections with the main objectives of prolonging the lives of equipment/assets and avoiding break-downs/disrepairs/deterioration. However, the classical definition of maintenance relating to building and its appurtenances is “work carried out or undertaken on a property/facility to keep or maintain its value. Or “a work undertaken to keep, restore, and improve every facility, that is, its services and surrounds to currently acceptable standard and to sustain value and utility.
5.2 CULTIVATION OF MAINTENANCE CULTURE
The cultivation of maintenance culture should commence with change of mindset and attitude to promote continuous knowledge and skill enhancement, and performance improvement in maintenance activities. Maintenance culture is important to elevate maintenance performance which would directly lead to enhanced facilities performance. It is an alternative for maintenance awareness among all stakeholders in maintenance management (Engineers, Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Quantity Surveyors, Builders, Artisans, Vendors and staff of the organization).
Maintenance culture is needed in every organization. The effectiveness of maintenance depends on the human factor to increase knowledge, skill and experience of facilities managers and workers (outsourced or in-house) in solving problems. Maintenance culture can change traditional maintenance work based on reactive activity to pro-active activity.
6.0 MAINTENANCE TYPES – TRADITIONAL AND MODERN GROUPING
Traditionally, we have four (4) maintenance types:
- Planned maintenance
- Preventive maintenance
- Routine maintenance
- Emergency maintenance
However, because maintenance is a complex activity that brings to bear, socio-technological systems, changes in environment and technology and our ways of organizing and structuring maintenance work, it has be grouped as:
- Reactive maintenance
- Preventive maintenance
- Predictive maintenance
- Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)
As these are somehow different from the well-know traditional types-planned, preventive, routine and maintenance.
7.0 MAINTENANCE PRIORITY MATRIX
The Maintenance Priority Matrix is developed for the Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) thus:
Table I: Maintenance Priority Matrix
| WEIGHTING | DESCRIPTION | APPLICATION |
| 1 | Emergency | Life, health, safety, risk-mission critically |
| 2 | Urgent | Continuous operation of facility at risk |
| 3 | Priority | Mission support/project deadlines |
| 4 | Routine | Prioritized: first come/ first serve |
| 5 | Discretionary | Desired but not essential |
| 6 | Deferred | Accomplished only when resources allow |
Source: Leong, K.K. (2003)
Below is the summary, in tabular form, the modern maintenance showing maintenance types, their basic philosophies, advantages and disadvantages?
| S/N | Maintenance types | Basic Philosophy | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| 1 | REACTIVE |
(“Run it till it breaks”)Allow machinery to run to failure.
Repair or replace damaged equipment when obvious problems occur.Low cost less staffIncreased cost due to unplanned down-time of equipment.
Increased labour cost especially if overhaul is needed.
Cost involved with repair or replacement of equipment.2PREVENTIVE
(Action performed on a time or machine run-based schedule that detect, prelude or initiate degradation of components or systems with the aim of sustaining or extending its useful life through controlling of degradation to acceptable level )Schedule maintenance activities at pre-determined time and intervals.
Repair or replace damaged equipment before obvious problem occur.Cost effective in many capital-intensive processes.
Flexibility allows for the adjustment of maintenance periodically.
Increased component life cycle.
Energy-savings. Reduced equipment or process failure.
Estimated 12%-18% cost savings over reactive maintenance programme.
Catastrophic failures still likely to occur
Labour intensive
Includes performance of unneeded maintenance.
Potential for incidental damage to components in conducting unneeded maintenance.3PREDICTIVE
(Condition-based maintenance). Measurements that detect from the onset of system degradation (low functional state) thereby allowing casual stressors to be eliminated or controlled prior to any significant deterioration in the component physical state.Schedule maintenance activities when mechanical or operational conditions warrant.
Repair or replace damaged equipment before obvious problems occur.Increased component operational life/level.
Allows for preemptive corrective actions.
Decrease in equipment or process break-time.
Better product quality.
Decrease in costs for parts and labour.
Improved workers morale.
Estimated 8-12% cost-saving over preventive programme.Increased investment in diagnostic equipment.
Increased in self training.
Savings potential not readily seen by management.
4RELIABILITY CENTERED MAINTENANCE (RCM) (pro-active or prevention maintenance centred). A process used to determine the maintenance requirements of any in its operating state.Utilizes predictive/preventive maintenance techniques with root cause failure analysis to detect and pin-point the precise problems, combined with advanced installations and repair techniques including potential equipment redesign or modification to avoid or eliminate problems from occurring.Can be the most effective maintenance programme.
Lower costs by eliminating unnecessary maintenance or overhaul or minimize frequency of overhauls.
Reduced probability of sudden equipment failures.
Able to focus maintenance activities on critical components. Increased component reliability.
Incorporate root cause analysisCan have significant start-up cost training, equipment etc.
Savings potential not readily seen by management.
8.0 EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (EFM)
Best practices in facilities management bring about effective facilities management. It is a common knowledge that all organizations, whether public or private use properties and services (support services) in order to support its core activities. By the co-ordination of these assets and services; use of management/professional skills and incorporation of various changes environment; facilities/assets values are enhanced and sustained. The aim of FM is to strengthen boundary processes and systems to allow workers give better performances and contribute to the overall success of the business organization. If facilities management is to help an organization perform optimally by reduction of overhead costs and maintaining operational efficiency, it is, therefore, important that all professionals in the built-environment should imbibe the culture of maintenance of facilities.
8.1 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SERVICES:
Facilities management services as spelt-out in NIOB Handbook (2002) include:
- Assistance in the definition of client’s requirements
- Assistance in the formulation of facilities management policy.
- Administration of client’s facilities management policy.
- Taking of detailed inventory of physical assets.
- Space analysis and improvement/adaptation strategies.
- Used and occupancy surveys.
- Inspection of premises and maintenance.
- Furniture and equipment surveys and planning.
- Provision of telecommunication and information system support.
- Safety and security supports.
- Cost-in use analysis, comparison and improvement support.
- Preparation and presentation of periodic Facilities Management Reports.
8.2 ACTIVITY AREAS OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:
Facilities management covers three broad areas namely:
- Property/Real estate
- Support services
- Information technology installations.
However, Odiete (1998) listed the activity areas covered by facilities management to include:-
- Real Estate/Property Management
- Project Management
- Space Management
- Premises operation
- Office services
- Environmental management
- Information Management
- Business services like Legal, Accountancy and Administration
- Other support services
8.3 ASPECTS OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:
- Strategic Property Management:- Realization that the built asset or estate is a valuable resource which along with other services such as manpower and finance can help to deliver the corporate goals of an organization and incorporation of coherent view of property into the overall strategy of the organization.
- Valuation
- Built Asset Management:- Maintenance, renewal, improvement work to buildings and their surroundings and to the services relating to those buildings.
- Contract procedures.
- Organization (people and process). People and their integration with the building.
- Practice Environment:- This is the “glue between the parts” financial, legal and professional environment within which facilities management takes place. This informs the corporate image and quality of services.
8.4 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES AREAS
The relationship of these activity areas to each other and facilities management are as illustrated in figure III below:
|
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS |
Fig. III: Facilities Management Activities Areas
|
Acquisition and Disposal of buildings -Lease Negotiation and management -General property investment -control Occupancy Budgets. |
|
-Building and plant maintenance -General adaptation management -Cleaning -Decoration -Telecommunication -Energy Mgt. -Cable Mgt. -Security -Control of Operating Budget
|
|
-Stationery and equipment -Support services provision & Mgt. -Catering -Printing -Travel. |
|
-Space Planning -Space standards -Layout planning -Long range planning -Monitoring of space USE -Furniture use controlling and selection -Space adaptation -Premises policy formulation
|
|
-Construction management -Project coordination -Relocation
|
|
REAL ESTATE |
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT |
|
SPACE MANAGEMENT |
|
PREMISES OPERATION |
|
OFFICE SERVICES |
Source: Odiete (1998, p.15)
8.5 FACILITIES COST ELEMENTS:
Facilities cost elements include the following:-
- Capital Costs: Cost attached permanently to the facility. Costs incurred once and for all, and they mainly for putting up the facility and its support services plus professional teams/project manager’s fees.
- Re-current Cost: Costs and expenditures incidental to the acquisition or development of a facility which are incurred on regular basis, usually annually such as rates, insurance premium on indemnity coverage, rents, major component, and replacement.
- Operating Costs: Total cost incurred on frequent irregular and often undeterminable intervals of running, maintaining and modifying the fabric and services of a building or facility excluding rents, rates and major works of filling out and replacement of components e.g. service charges usually the high costs involved in facilities management and they could occur under the following:
ü Energy costs: Account for 10-20% of total operating cost organization that is based on computer usage or have IT backups require a lot of energy for operating and cooling facilities.
ü Cleaning Cost: Internal janitoring, laundry, carpet, fabric, etc, direct labour and house-keeping should be distinguished.
ü Maintenance Cost: For office facilities, they absorb between 15 and 25% of the total operating cost. Physically managed in house maintenance could be preventive, corrective or reactive. Preventive maintenance is aimed at avoiding trouble, while reactive is formulated to deal with trouble in terms of emergency.
ü Service Charge: Leasehold / owner – occupied facilities/properties.
ü Security cost: For civil security guards and military personnel army, police and Civil Defence personnel.
ü Fillings out and refurbishments
9.0 TOOLS/REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
- Education and training – Need to acquire professional and managerial skills through training and specialist knowledge in facilities management.
- Client enlightenment – Need to educate client on economic benefits of EFM.
- Research – To gain good knowledge of new development and carrying out research always.
- Practice of sustainable facilities management (SFM) – incorporate ideas in the approach to design and management.
- General knowledge – Economic legal, technological etc.
- Responsiveness to situations.
- Integrity-Being honesty and modest.
- Good common sense.
- Commensurate working tools-maintenance kits for plumbing carpentry electrical masonry and painting works, log books including installation of networks and ICT equipment.
- Auto-CAD software for drawings and other software for structural designs.
- Life cycle costing – managing whole life cycle Networking and collaboration (Team work).
- Bench-marking – develop performance evaluation standards to guide service providers.
- Diplomacy – Required tackling envisaged problems.
Where FM is practiced in-house, facilities management Departments effectiveness will depend greatly on the role, authority and power assigned first to the Department and secondly, to the Head of the Department. However, in corporate facilities management Department, the obstacle in the way of the facilities managers in their constant fight for survival are tremendous but facilities manager worth his name will battle to victory and excel.
10.0 HOW CAN FACILITIES BE EFFECTIVELY MANAGED TO SUSTAIN ASSETS/FACILITIES VALUES?
To answer this question, let me use typical facilities – 2 x 15 MVA, 33/11KV Injection Substation that situates at Thinkers Corners, Old Airport Road, Emene, Enugu State with varied asset components with different useful economic lives as an example. In property, plant and equipment (PPE), such facility is asset componentization in IFRS where component approach is adopted in the determination of depreciation of individual components of the asset/facility. Another complex asset worth mentioning in the same category is aircraft. It has the engines, body, cabin, furniture, etc. Componentization of assets is very vital in assets valuation which could be a separate topic of its own in future MCPD programme. At a glance, PPE is tangible assets that are held by an entity for:
- Use in the production or supply of goods and services.
- For rental to others.
- For administrative purposes.
Effective facilities management enhances and sustains assets values especially in property, plant and equipment. PPE is expected to be used in more than one period (accounting/financial year). Effective facilities management prolongs the useful economic lives of the assets and sustains the values for a fairly reasonable period of time. In the injection substation installations and equipment, each component needs to be maintained or serviced at programmed intervals and on emergency, should such maintenance needs arise. The essence of this is that when a component is faulty, the functionality and effectiveness of the entire installation/equipment would be halted. In a facility like the 2 x 15MVA 33/11.KV injection substation, there are many important components that need to be managed effectively to serve their complementary role.
The components that makes up the injection substation which was constructed about 30years ago, though upgraded to its present rating, is still functional and effective. The entire building (structure), accommodating the control room was re-constructed in year 2014. However, the components include:
| S/NO. | Component | Life Span (Useful Economic Life) |
| 1. | Transformer | 30 years |
| 2. | 11KV Breakers | 10 years |
| 3. | 33KV Breakers | 10 years |
| 4. | Bus-Bar gantry | 60 years |
| 5. | Cables (Underground) | 7 years |
| 6. | Lighting Arresters | 2 years |
| 7. | Concrete poles | 50 years |
| 8. | Building (Civil works) | 50 years |
| 9. | Panels | 10 years |
| 10 | Conductors | 15 years |
| 11. | Tripping units | 5 years |
| 12. | Batteries | 2 years |
Table II: Author’s Illustration (2015).
These components have to be maintained by replacement or refurbishment for them to perform their functions effectively. Transformer oil has to be checked routinely and topped should there be any shortage. Also, batteries and tripping units have to be changed replaced when they dead/faulty respectively.
A well – managed injection substation would ensure that all feeders are on once TCN transmits energy to the substation for distribution. A visit to the injection substation would attest to its state of repairs. Guessers may think that the substation was constructed about five (5) years ago. The asset value of the substation has been enhanced and sustained over the years. This is as a result of effective facilities management.
10.0 BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Best practices in facilities management bring out the adored overall benefits of effective facilities management to acceptable standards viz:
- Customers/clients satisfaction.
- Product quality/services improvement.
- Value for money spent/invested.
- High performance.
- Costs reduction.
- Risk minimization.
- Profit maximization.
- Operation flexibility.
- Prestige enhancement.
- Corporate edge maintenance.
- Reduction in breakdowns.
- Improves the quality of work-place.
- Relieves the core-business from administrative services.
11.0 CHALLENGES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
- Over-use of facilities.
- Lack of data base.
- Lack of qualified manpower.
- Inadequate qualified manpower.
- Justifications of facilities needs.
- Lack of maintenance culture.
- Inadequate manpower development.
- Consciousness in carrying out activities putting integrity to bear because of high costs of facilities management.
- Practice environment/temptation by vendors/consultants/suppliers.
- Constant fight for survival for the in-house facilities management on the flimsy belief that you are handling big chunk of money.
- Thanklessness-Facilities management are remembered mostly when there is a problem to be fixed.
- Alertness at day and night (all round the clock).
12.0 SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Effective facilities management is challenging but in the present dispensation, it is the in–thing and should be braved and embraced. Formulation of facilities management policy/processes and working within the processes would bring about best practices in facilities management which results in effective facilities management. It is now obvious that effective facilities management enhances and sustains the assets values of an organisation; while poorly managed assets would be a liability to the organisation because its operations may be grounded. For you to succeed as facilities manager, you must imbibe the spirit of team work because it is only a self-fish professional that can lay claim to the mastery of all the skills required in facilities management. Though, the Estate Surveyors and Valuers by their training and experiences are at vantage position to lead facilities management team, further training and re-training in facilities management would bring out their best and stamp authority in facilities management practice in Nigeria. Specialisation in the FM faculty of the NIESV backed by ESVARBON is recommended for mastery of the new profession that is gaining ground. Assets wastage would be no more if all of us imbibe assets/facilities maintenance culture and this will help our economy to grow. Our schools, hospitals, stadia, markets and other public places are decaying and it is only effective facilities management that would revise the trend.
Lastly, facilities/assets being the soul of business organisation should be given desired attention in terms of their management. Effective facilities management would enable professionals provide answers to these questions to their clients:
- What facilities/assets do the clients’ company own?
- How are the company’s assets/facilities being managed at present?
- Can something different be done to enhance and sustain their values?
- Is the company meeting up with its mandate-customer’s needs/services in most sustainable and cost-effective manner?
- Where is the company now and where will it be in the future in a competitive environment?
- How can the company get there?
The answers to these questions will be at our finger tips as professionals if we collectively agree to embrace this challenging area of our profession. When it is embraced, we can call it change.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me stop at this juncture, take a break and thank you for maintaining angelic patience.
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