Managing assets or facilities and keeping them in good condition is difficult for many companies and individuals. Knowing when to do repairs, plumbing needs, carpet maintenance, cleaning or even managing new construction is a challenge. However, having the right facilities manager on site can help ensure the functionality, safety, comfort and efficiency of buildings, infrastructure and real estate in general.
What is facilities management?
Facilities management involves the services and tools that support the sustainability, functionality and safety of buildings, infrastructure, land and real estate. This is basically facility maintenance together with services that include maintenance. This includes:
- Capital project management (from planning)
- Building maintenance and operations, including painting, cleaning, plumbing, building renovation, HVAC maintenance, landscaping, flooring and carpeting
- Energy and electricity management
- Lease management (including accounting and lease administration)
- Management of spaces and employment
- Emergency and risk management (with business continuity)
- Real estate management
- Land maintenance and pest control
- Signage and branding
Facilities management vs. Property management
People often confuse facilities management with property management, but they differ widely.
- Property management is concerned with property ownership, including building security, accommodation and functionality.
- Facilities management focuses on the services, people and operations within that property. Facility managers deal with issues related to workers and operations.
- Commercial real estate can have both a property manager and a facility manager. The property manager (an employee of the owner) will focus on the physical property and its functionality. The facility manager (an employee of a tenant of the property) the resident organization (tenant) will focus on services that benefit the tenant, such as workspace management, security and asset maintenance.
Type of facilities management
In facilities management, there are two main areas:
- Soft Facilities Management (Soft FM). This area focuses on tasks performed by people, such as custodial services, grounds maintenance, lease accounting, security, etc.
- Hard Facilities Management (Hard FM). This area focuses on physical assets/property and activities such as plumbing, HVAC, wiring, elevators, real estate, grounds maintenance, landscaping and more.
The importance of facility management
Humans spend 87% of their daily time in buildings. Where people work, learn, play and live must be comfortable, safe, productive and sustainable. Creating this type of environment requires deliberate actions that also maximize efficiency.
Facilities management is the deliberate actions and processes around making facilities and grounds safe, efficient, comfortable and welcoming. Superior facility management in businesses can also be crucial for:
- Work experience
- Space optimization
- Orientation of capital projects
- Lease accounting
- Energy management and maintenance
- Guarantee regulatory compliance
Hire a facility management company for proactive maintenance
Managing facilities and keeping them in good condition is difficult for many companies and individuals. You should know when a building needs maintenance, landscaping periods, HVAC upgrades and lease administration. This is a challenge for companies or individuals.
The solution is to hire a facilities management company to proactively manage your facilities. The benefits of proactive facility maintenance (either predictive or preventative) are clear. You will get the functionality, safety, comfort and efficiency of buildings, infrastructure and real estate in general before they show the need.
The facility management company has the right technology and staff to provide proactive management. Some companies also use technology to collect maintenance data and achieve predictability, which they use to develop a proactive facility maintenance plan. This can reduce the number of repairs and improve the overall outlook of the facility.
Using the technology, enterprise facility managers can view all facility service requests from a mobile-friendly platform. This allows them to assign actions and facilities to their teams, check management status, manage resources and receive automatic preventive maintenance alerts. Hiring a facilities manager can make your business, facility or property stand out at a lower cost compared to having an in-house department.
Final note
Organizations increasingly rely on facilities management to keep them running. To achieve greater efficiency in operations, organizations must have an organized workplace, clean, comfortable and with better conditions. Hiring a facilities manager is cheaper than having an in-house department.