MEGA Facility Management– FM

Mega Facility management as an interdisciplinary business function has the objective of coordinate demand and supply of facilities and services within public and private organizations. The term “Facility” (pl. facilities) means something that is built, installed or established to serve a purpose,
which, in general, is every “tangible asset that supports an organization”.
Scope
Mega Facility Management covers these two main areas: 'Space and Infrastructure' (such as planning, design, workplace, construction, lease, occupancy, maintenance and furniture) and 'People and Organization' (such as catering, cleaning, ICT, HR, accounting, marketing, hospitality). These two broad areas of operation are commonly referred to as "hard FM" and "soft FM". The first refers to the physical built environment with focus on (work-) space and (building-) infrastructure. The second covers the people and the organization and is related to work psychology and occupational physiology. According to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA): “FM is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization. It integrates the principles of business administration, architecture and the behavioral and engineering sciences.” IFMA identified the core competencies of facility management as:
• Communication
• Emergency preparedness and business continuity
• Environmental stewardship and sustainability
• Finance and business
• Hospitality management
• Human factors
• Leadership and strategy
• 0perations and maintenance
• Project management
• Quality
• Real estate and property management
• Technology
Mima Facility Management may also cover activities other than business services: these are referred to as non-core functions, and vary from one business sector to another. FM is also subject to continuous innovation and development, under pressure to reduce costs and to add value to the core business of public or private sector client organizations.
Role of the facilities manager
Facilities managers (FMs) operate across business functions. The main priority of an FM is keeping people alive and safe. Facility managers need to operate at two levels:
• Strategically-tactically: helping clients, customers and end-users understand the potential impact of their decisions on the provision of space, services, cost and business risk.
• Operationally: ensuring corporate and cost effective environment for the occupants to function.
EHS: environment, health and safety
The FM department in an organization is required to identify, analyse, evaluate, control and manage many environment and safety related issues. Failure to do so may lead to unhealthy conditions leading to employees falling sick, injury, loss of business, prosecution and insurance claims. The confidence of customers and investors in the business may also be affected by adverse publicity from safety lapses.
Fire safety
The threat from fire carries one of the highest risk to loss of life, and the potential to damage to property or shut down a business. The facilities management department will have in place maintenance, inspection and testing for all of the fire safety equipment and systems, keeping records and certificates of compliance.
Security
Protection of employees and the business often comes under the control of the facilities management department, in particular the maintenance of security hardware. Manned guarding may be under the control of a separate department.
Maintenance, testing and inspections
Cleaning
Cleaning operations are often undertaken out of business hours, but provision may be made during times of occupations for the cleaning of toilets, replenishing consumables (such as toilet rolls, soap) plus litter picking and reactive response is scheduled as a series of periodic (daily, weekly and monthly) tasks