Frequently Asked Questions
Facilities Management Services
Facilities management is a business practice that optimises people, process, assets and the work environment to support delivery of the organisation’s business objectives.
Facilities management is concerned with the following outputs:
- Technical: It is concerned with maintaining the practical utility of the physical infrastructure to ensure that it supports the core activity of an organisation (operational maintenance)
- Economic: It guarantees the efficient use of physical resources by controlling cost (financial control)
- Strategic: It is concerned with the planning of physical resources to support organisational development and reduce the risk for the client (change management)
- Social: It is concerned with the physical infrastructure that must meet the user needs within their organisational roles (user interfacing)
- Service: It is concerned with the provision of non-core support services (support service)
- Professional: It indicates social responsibility for people in the workplace (advocacy)
Facilities management – is the day to day management of three key areas in a facility to ensure efficient facility operations. These include soft services, business support services and technical services within the workplace. Facilities management integrates people, places, and processes within the facility in order to improve the productivity, life cycles and compliance of a specific facility.
Property management – includes the management and administration of property related services that include, lease agreement, property marketing, tenant installations, rent collection and property maintenance compliance. Property managers generally employ the services of facilities managers to ensure compliance in the three key service areas of soft services, business support services and technical services.
The benefits of facilities management are: effective asset management, potential cost savings, efficient utilisation of resources, streamlining of operations, compliance of facilities infrastructure and planned audits to ensure legislative compliance.
Technology allows facilities managers to record important data that enables preplanning in the utilisation, cost and efficiency of a facility. Technology allows stakeholders and facilities managers to build a historical database of asset records in a centralised space that enables future planning in the utilisation of space and energy consumption.
Outsourcing is a procured service that enables your business to adapt to changing market conditions and business demands.
Some benefits are:
Improved focus on core business activities – outsourcing can free up your business to focus on its strengths, allowing your staff to concentrate on their main tasks and the company’s business objectives
Increased efficiency – choosing an outsourcing company that specialises in the process or service you want them to carry out helps you achieve a more productive, efficient service, often of better quality
Controlled costs – cost-savings achieved by outsourcing can help you release capital for investment in other areas of your business. Most organisations consider facilities management services a reluctant spend when doing business and would rather spend money on the core business investment. Innovation, efficiency and effectiveness are key considerations to drive down costs.
Increased reach – outsourcing can give you access to capabilities and facilities otherwise not accessible or affordable
Greater competitive advantage – outsourcing can help you leverage knowledge and skills along with your complete supply chain
Transferring risk – an outsourced partner assumes the full responsibility for compliance and service delivery associated with the facilities management services
Human Resources – because you are buying a service, absenteeism does not have an impact on the service delivery
The technical meaning of maintenance involves:
Functional checks
Servicing
Repairing or replacing of necessary devices
Equipment
Machinery
Building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installations.
Ensuring safe, efficient and compliant assets and infrastructure.
Maintenance scheduling is the process of scheduling planned maintenance work. It involves bringing all the necessary resources together to make sure tasks are completed correctly and on time.
In general, facilities managers are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of an organisation’s buildings, ensuring that they meet legal requirements, and health and safety standards. Facility managers operate across different business functions, working on both strategic and operational levels.
Main functions: operations and maintenance, sustainability, facility information and technology management, risk management, communication, performance and quality, leadership and strategy, occupancy and human factors.
Business support services streamline and optimise client business processes. This enables clients to focus on their core business objectives while simultaneously benefitting from shared support services.
Hiring fulltime employees for such business support services can be costly. Often companies outsource these services that include:
Reception, secretarial and administrative services
Asset management services
Distribution and logistics services
Printing services
Fleet management services
Soft services make the workplace more pleasant and safe to work in. Some of these services may not be compulsory and can be added and removed as necessary. Carrying out a facilities needs assessment will help you to identify which services are actually needed by the company and which are unnecessary.
Examples of soft services include :
Cleaning, hygiene and pest control services
Security services
Waste management services
Landscaping and horticulture services
Catering services
Technical facility management encompasses the management and maintenance of all of a building’s technical systems.
Examples of technical services include: heating, air conditioning, ventilation, electrical systems, plumbing, elevators, fire alarm systems, crane systems, doors, gates, building fabric maintenance, mechanical services, and utility efficiency
FM Solutions Company
SAFMA offers four accredited professional designations. These not only give facilities management professionals credibility and acknowledge experience; they also provide a measure of accountability as each designated professional must sign a code of conduct. These designations range from Certified Facilities Practitioner through to Accredited Facilities Professional. It is important to note that even the highest designation can be achieved through recognition of prior learning and experience, and not only through a combination of formal qualifications and experience, making a professional designation accessible to anyone in the facilities management industry, regardless of age, gender, or race.
Occupational Health & Safety
Occupational health and safety is a multi-disciplinary practice dealing with all aspects of health and safety in the workplace, with a strong focus on preventing workplace hazards.
These standards are a basic human right that should be afforded to each and every employee, regardless of the nature of their work. With OHS standards in place, employees are able to carry out their responsibilities in a safe and secure working environment.
Facilities management uses data to better manage and respond to health and safety related incidents. It monitors all risks related to tasks performed, builds all health and safety regulations into procedures, and reviews compliance in accordance with health and safety regulations. If a facilities management company is ISO45001 certified, you are assured of complete health and safety compliance.