28 | MONE Y
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
www.ie-today.co.uk
“Whether you occupy a grade II-listed building or modern purpose-built premises, the cost of managing these facilities will be a significant overhead”
Tuning in to FM
WHEN IT COMES TO FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, SCHOOLS NEED TO CONSIDER A RANGE OF ISSUES, SAYS IAN MORRISON
E
very building needs on-going maintenance of one sort or another, and whether your establishment has its own in-house team or outsources its
facilities management (FM) function, the scope of FM is ever increasing due to regulatory demands. As budgets decrease, budget holders have to ‘do more with less’.
What exactly is facilities
management? The British Institute of Facilities Managers (BIFM) defines it as “the integration of multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace”. Whether you occupy a grade II-listed building or modern purpose-built premises, the cost of managing these facilities will be a significant overhead. The larger overheads such as FM can offer the potential for process improvement and cost savings. Relationships with FM supply-chain partners are becoming more complex as they group services together, offering a number of solutions which may initially appear appealing, but where the management of the contract can be fraught with difficulties. With recent changes in the law, managing compliance has become a key demand. Facilities management professionals are now spending up to 30 per cent of their day dealing with regulations. Despite this, it is unlikely that budgets will increase; therefore saving time and money in all areas is crucial.
Today’s scope of FM is broad and includes:
HARD FM ✥ Construction and refurbishment ✥ General maintenance and repair ✥ Building services such as heating, air conditioning and ventilation ✥ Specialist services such as fire alarms, access control and CCTV ✥ Energy management
SOFT FM ✥ Security and manned guarding ✥ Concierge ✥ Cleaning ✥ Canteen services ✥ Grounds maintenance ✥ Workwear and laundry ✥ Utilities and telecoms ✥ IT equipment, maintenance, data centres and software
The FM manager can hold significant budgets, although these are often being reduced and the function is not always given the importance it deserves. There are a number of different approaches to FM which broadly fall into the following categories, each having their own advantages and disadvantages:
✥ Statutory inspections ✥ Reactive and planned preventative maintenance ✥ Condition-based maintenance ✥ Business-focused maintenance
Managing and measuring performance
of these elements is key to contract compliance and controlling costs. Frequently FM managers are forced to do this without clear information about the performance of the facility or their suppliers. The implementation of a comprehensive and uniform system for measuring supply-chain effectiveness makes the management of value for money more effective. Due to the limited supply of credible FM providers in the marketplace, companies often implement only a minimal amount of analysis of supply- chain effectiveness, usually depending solely on occasional verbal evidence. Experience suggests that only 30% (or less) of supply-chain contracts are renewed annually. This probably reflects the expense and resource requirements of re-bidding contracts, as well as the difficulty of measuring contract performance and optimising service delivery and value for money, often leading to a ‘beter the devil you know’ approach.
A few things to look out for when renewing contacts or re-tendering:
✥ Ensure there is a defined scope of preventative maintenance with timescales and agreed outputs including certification ✥ Include a schedule of rates for all reactive maintenance tasks ✥ Agree the approval process to agree time to carry out reactive maintenance works ✥ Agree key performance indicators to measure contractor performance. iE
Ian Morrison is head of the FM team at Expense Reduction Analysts. E: mailto:
i.morrison@
erauk.net W:
www.expense-reduction.co.uk/
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