of the respondents’ answers to a few of the questions is presented below.
Twenty-nine percent of the respondents reported that they were outsourced real estate service providers, serving one or more organizations. The majority of the outsourced responses were divided about equally among Operations and
Maintenance, Strategic Planning, Facility Programming, Architecture,
Engineering, Facility Design, Program Management, Project Management, and Construction Management.
Least represented were Real Estate Brokers and Building Contractors.
The total number of facilities managed by in-house FM respondents was 4,896, with 31% managing less than 1M sf; 41%, 1-5M sf; 13%, 5-10M sf; 6%, 10-15M sf; 3%, 15-20M sf; 0%20-25M sf, and 6%, 25-50M sf. Forty-nine percent of the in-house FM respondents reported that they manage facilities totally with inhouse staff.
In-house FM respondents who reported that they manage real estate with some assistance by outsourced consultants gave the following responses: 50% utilize Real Estate Management Firms; 15%, Real Estate Due Diligence Firms; 29%, Management Consultant Firms, and 6%, Broker Contacts and Brokerage.
Thirty-seven percent of the in-house FM respondents reported that lead times were not adequate for either small- or large-space reconfigurations within existing facilities. When
in-house FM was asked about receiving input from other in-house departmental staff, 31% of the FM respondents indicated that the input
received was not adequate to meet short-term (one-year) or long-term (three- to five-year) space planning needs. It was not unexpected, therefore that 51% of the in-house FM respondents reported that, after construction completion and occupancy, they typically need to design and implement major space. | reconfigurations to meet long-term occupancy needs and expectations. In-house FM responses to questions
concerning lead times for planning new facilities or major building additions were generally similar to responses regarding reconfigurations within existing facilities, except that 67% reported that they do not receive adequate input from in-house departmental staff for assessing long-term space planning
requirements.
When asked to rank communication relationships vis-à-vis their importance in programming new facilities or major additions, inhouse
FM respondents by and large
ranked Executive Management and Departmental Staff input as Very Important to Somewhat Important. Communications involving Legal Departmental Staff, Outsourced Real
Estate Consultants Architectural/ Engineering Design Team, Construction Manager, General Contractor and the Mechanical and Electrical Contractor were ranked as
Very Important to Neutral. None was ranked as Somewhat Unimportant or Very Unimportant.
 | Furthermore, when in-house FMwas asked to rank the importance
of various procedures in improving facility planning and communication
processes -- obtaining more timely information, obtaining more
complete information, obtaining more Executive Management Staff and/or Department Management
Staff input in the facility
programming and planning process,
and improving existing in-house channels of communication --
responses ranged mostly from Very
Important to Neutral.
Essentially, the ISFE survey results
indicated a need to expand the role of
FM within a company infrastructure by improving overall organization
participation and communication in
both short- and long-term facilityplanning
processes.
Shortly after the May 2002 ISFE newsletter article was published,
Linda K. Monroe, Editorial Director
of Buildings magazine wrote a lead editorial, based on the ISFE
study titled “The Complexities of
Communication” for the October 2002 issue. In 2004, I was invited first to write a paper and, after acceptance, then to present the paper at the December 7-8, 2004, International Conference for
Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) W70 2004 Hong Kong Symposium, “The Human Elements of Facilities Management
- Understanding the Needs of the Customers.”
The symposium included 35 speakers from 14 countries covering North
America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Thirty-two of the presentations were from university professors. My paper “The Organization Behavior Component of Facilities Management
– Becoming Part of the Business Process,” published as part of the
Symposium’s proceedings, discussed
the results of a 2002 membership survey developed for the ISFE, as well as discussions on related recent>>More>> |
