Customer related facilities management processes: understanding the needs of the customer

In the past, organisations could concentrate on their internal capabilities, emphasising product performance and technology innovation. Organisations that did not understand their customers’ needs eventually found that competitors could make inroads by offering products or services better aligned to their customers’ preferences. Many Facilities Management organisations today have a mission focused on the customer, and how the organisation is performing its customers’ perspective has become a priority for the organisational management. How the FM organisation is performing through the eyes of its customers has therefore become a priority issue for facilities managers. This captures the ability of the organisation to provide quality goods and services, the effectiveness of their delivery, and overall customer service and satisfaction. It places importance on the organisation’s ability to achieve its vision, and how it wants to be seen by its customers. This paper will discuss some of the important FM customer related processes and mechanisms associated with its measurement identified through a series of case studies carried out as part of a major research stud

Structured process improvements in facilities management organisations: Best practice case studies in the retail sector

Facilities management is a key managerial discipline and large corporations are increasingly recognising its importance in respect of achieving organisational goals and objectives. Enterprises are able to improve their performance by the more effective use of resources, the matching of appropriate support systems to business activities, and the application of assertive management by those best qualified and equipped to carry it out. However, FM organisations lack clear guidelines to direct their improvement efforts and to benchmark their performance against other organisations. The SPICE FM (Structured Process improvement in construction environments – facilities management) maturity framework was developed as a response to this requirement. SPICE FM draws a distinction between FM organisations that have ‘mature’ or well-established processes, and those where the processes are ‘immature’. This paper briefly describes the characteristics of the SPICE FM Framework, followed by a review of the key findings from the case study undertaken

Performance measurement applications in facilities management: An investigation into the future directions

Facilities Management (FM) is very frequently described as, “an integrated approach to operating, maintaining, improving and adapting the buildings and infrastructure of an organisation in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of that organisation”. The practical and strategic relevance of FM to organisations in all sectors of the economy is now increasingly recognised. Accordingly, organisations seek to improve their competitiveness by introducing a core business philosophy and restructuring to release senior management time and improve effectiveness. Managements have begun to realise that for organisations to benefit from their enormous investment in facilities, they have to begin managing them actively and creatively with commitment and a broader vision. Formulation of techniques that are capable of assessing “facilities performance” in terms of quality, cost and effectiveness, is therefore critical for “Organisational” and “FM” advancements. Research has emphasised that there is a clear need to measure FM performance which would integrate both the business and facilities domains. Accordingly, this paper summarises a literature review of current leading-edge performance measurement and management practices within facilities management organisations and conceptual models of performance measurement and management from other industries. Accordingly, the paper identifies the directions to develop performance measurement systems in FM with specific links to measure facilities relationships with those of the core business