Authors : Karl Attard
What is Facilities Management?
Over the last centuries, humans have always thrived to create safe and secure spaces for shelter and human convenience. With the development of technology, engineering, and the construction industry facilities management has become a process to align the organisation’s corporate strategy with their physical assets to ensure they are in synergy.
Facilities are no longer defined only as the physical structure of the building alone but also includes various factors that make every building or organisation unique by its own. There is no accurate definition to define facility but as a context, facility is a workplace – which can either be a place for work, interaction, play or learn. However, to understand the workplace you need to know the facility factors of such building that one need to maintain and operate. These factors’ can be categories into two parts, which are: – the soft services and the hard services. The soft services are those services which either be used to make the building more secure and pleasant working environment or efficient. Such services may include – landscaping, waste management, pest control, administration, health and safety and others. The hard services are those technical services that the building is making used to maintain and operate such services. These are plant services equipment, fire safety equipment, finishes, IT infrastructure, building management system, vertical transportation (lifts) and access control system.