Management of Facilities Free Essay Example

Table of Contents Executive Summary Roles and responsibilities of the Facilities Manager Analysis of the relationship between Organizational needs and Space Planning The problems and constraints of managing room allocation Health and Safety and Facilities Management Ethics in Management Conclusion References This report aims to explain the operations of Facilities Management at universities and colleges. The report will comprise of five sections, each explaining core aspects of the faceless management.

The first section will commence with discussing the roles and responsibilities of the Facilities Manager.

The next season will discuss the relationship between business needs and space planning, followed by the problems and constraints of space allocation. The report will then discuss the issue of health and safety and environmental factors that the Facilities Management needs to take Into consideration In Its operations, followed by the need for having an ethical foundation in the Facilities Management.

Each of these sections will be discussed chronologically. Roles and responsibilities of the Facilities Manager A Facilities Manager is a professional who covers multiple disciplines to assure functionality of an organization by integrating the people, place, process and technology (www.

FM. Org). This is achieved by supporting the employees of the organization to carry out their functions, develop their well-being and allowing the organization to be effective and deliver quality services to its stakeholders.

The role of a facility manager further includes effective utilization of the organization’s assets in a cost-effective way; enabling changes to come to organization, give a competitive edge to the organization by developing its Internal culture (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009).

A Facilities Manager has the responsibility of organizing, controlling and coordinating the strategic and operational management of a building facility. A key part of this tasks for facilities management include: * Maintenance works – proper maintenance system compliance in order to deal with problems or facility failures promptly. Ensuring effective Security measures – abidance with security system and process. * Ensuring Cleaning of facilities- cleaning of rooms and specified objects. Implementing Safety procedures – compliance with safety procedures and precautions. * Space and facilities planning – proper management of space and allocation to users, regular update of database software for allocation and informing users. * Reception management – ensuring that a process for dealing with visitors is followed. * Operational Facilities maintenance – ensuring printers and photocopiers are working effectively and stationery facilities are adequate. Communication service – ensuring telephones, fax and internet and intranet connections are fully operating (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). The Facilities Manager monitors the performance of the employees of facilities management in order to ensure that these tasks are effectively carried out. The assessment of productivity and effectiveness is measured by taking into account the percentage of: * The level of work completed within a particular time * Scheduled work in comparison to unplanned activities * Downtime’s of facilities in comparison to planned preventive maintenance hours (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009).

Performance data is collected from a number of sources. They can be obtained from Job sheets, task reports, and general feedback from users of acclivities. This information is used by the Facilities Manager to fill a score sheet. A regular assessment of performance by monitoring activities ensures that there is an effective facilities management. In addition to these primary tasks, the Facilities Manger must also enable the organization manage change.

This required a manager to understand where the organization wants to be in the future, and how it can get there. Facilities Manager must ensure the proper training and support of employees to enable them to understand new working arrangements. The Manager must ensure that the affect on revive departments are minimum. The Manager must finally ensure that the new working arrangements are effectively integrated within the organizational culture.

This requires the manager to have a vision, and effectively communicate it to the employees of the facilities management. Analysis of the relationship between Organizational needs and Space Planning Every organization requires a design for management of space facilities to carry out services effectively. It is indispensable to have a plan for space maintenance for various reasons. For example, regulatory requirements by the government require organizations to have health and safety measures for fire emergencies and accessibility for disabled users of facilities.

Therefore it falls upon the Facilities Manager to ensure that space is used cost-effectively, that the organization has the space for its needs and to manage shortfall of space (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). During these times of change, space allocation becomes a significant issue to consider for the Facilities Management. Changes within the organization within the higher example, for learning activities which are run by students there are usually an increased need for space. Online distance learning courses does not particularly have any impact of the space management.

The increase in research and development activities often increases space, but it does not help all departments within the organization. If the organization moves towards providing work-based courses or itinerant learning courses, they usually reduce some need for space. Changes that alter administrative functions and bring in new administrative work arrangements often lead to increased need for space. In general spaces need to be renovated regularly to meet new organizational needs, meeting enhanced standards ND to enable multiple usage facilities (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009).

Therefore, for the purpose of ensuring efficient usage of space and preparing plans for designing new building facilities, the Facilities Management follows a number of practices. The Management seeks to maximize space on the footprints of new buildings and allocate new uses to renovated buildings. They try to maximize the usage of floor area and implement new design characteristics that enable various activities to be performed at various times. This includes providing new furniture, fixtures and tinting required to facilitate the performance of various learning activities (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009).

Finally, to be able to develop an effective and efficient space management strategy, the Facilities Management should consider a number of factors. * The implication of services and structure on the usage of space * Having a clear and comprehensive plan and layout * Having adequate technology for supporting space management * A comprehensive process for managing accommodation change within the organization * Understanding the need for implementing innovative developments n accommodation. A standard process for planning and design of accommodations for services (Lecture Slides by Md. Raze). The problems and constraints of managing room allocation In universities and colleges it is the responsibility of the Facilities Management to analyses the requirements and priorities of the Universities and implement a clear and comprehensive strategy for room allocation. Allocating space to its demand requires the management to have in-depth knowledge about the organization, its people and its core activities.

It needs to ascertain how many types of space the university/college needs and what work function is appropriate for a particular space. It needs to consider the space standards for particular work functions, and manage the supply of furniture and equipments. It further needs to ascertain if there are any clear desk policies, archiving and filing policies (Wiggins, 2010). In managing space allocation the Facilities Management faces a number of problems. For example, there is an ongoing problem of lack of guidance on space allocation to the management.

A system that concerns allocating functionality requires guidance in order to assist the facilities management to make their decision. Different kinds of users within the educational institution require rooms or laboratories for different purposes with different functions (Burke, Barley, 1998). The Facilities Management needs to have knowledge of the requirements of the users from different disciplines, the management will be time consuming and inefficient. Another problem is posed by the inefficiency of software programs that are used for space allocation.

Software that are commonly used in universities and colleges contain databases of spreadsheets which store information on rooms such as room name, size, computer acclivities and other equipment facilities, and which person or groups are allocated to that room. The difficulty with the software locator is that it only stores basic information about the rooms but has no space allocation automation functionality (Burke, Barley, 1998). In addition to these problems, university policies also pose a number of constraints to space allocation.

It is expected that departments within a particular faculty should be close to one another, which renders allocation more difficult. Each department are expected to have adequate laboratories, and no apartments are allowed to be deployed over two campuses. It is expected that building works should not be used to renovate academic rooms, and new space facilities should only be provided to departments and faculties that use space efficiently. Other constraints are posed by policies such as the requirement that any academic on leave above a month must give up their rooms.

This causes problems for re-allocating rooms for them when they return (Burke, Barley, 1998). Health and Safety and Facilities Management Organizations need to have adequate risk assessment policies and procedures to implement preventive and precautions measures in order to ensure health and safety of the employees, customers, visitors and members of the public (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). Policies and procedures must contain provisions on techniques of assessing risk, implementing assessment systems and proper monitoring of effectiveness of current system.

It is the duty of the Facilities Management to prepare a comprehensive policy for Health and Safety at the workplace, and ensure that all the employees are aware of the policy. This can be achieved by ensuring that the policy was drafted by taking into consideration the advice and consultations of the employees of the organization (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). Organizations are subject to a number of statutory legislations that seek to protect the health and safety of employees in an organization.

The goal behind these regulations is to ensure that the organizations take reasonable measures to avoid unnecessary hazards and accidents, and also to ensure that the employees do not suffer degradation in standards of their lives (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). As one of the duties of the Facilities Manager is to manage employees of Facilities Management, the manager must address the rights of the employees. Under EX. law workers are generally limited to working 48 hours a week, 8 hours a day and receive 11 hours of rest per day. They further have the right to one day off per week, and 5 weeks of paid leave per annum (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009).

Managers must also address the particular rights of disabled workers. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, organizations are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled employees. This may include making adjustments for accessibility, vision and hearing adjustments. Organizations are also expected to take into account the interest of the society and environment and take responsibilities for their preservation, otherwise activities such as water harvesting, reducing carbon emission, and being more energy efficient.

Facilities Management plays a key role in these activities of the organization (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). Their role is to balance the requirements of the facilities with the need to engage in green activities. The role of the facilities management is instrumental because they provide the information about the services of the organization that proves that the ‘green’ initiatives of the organization are advancing (Aitkin, Brooks, 2009). To sustain a healthy Facilities Management, the Facilities Manager needs to have strong ethical values.

It contributes significantly to the welfare of the internal culture of the overall management of the organization, which drives its effectiveness. According to Seth’ (1975), organizational ethics come in three levels. The first is their social obligation, where their activities barely meet the regulatory threshold as they are more concerned with profitability. The second level is the social responsiveness, where the organization adjusts their policy to meet social needs. The final level is the social responsibility, where organizations predict future social problems and takes measures to prevent them.

It is essential to have a strong ethical foundation of every management because it is instrumental to the effectiveness of employees in many ways. It increases the morale of the workplace, improves the culture and motivation of the employees, and an ethical manager can be seen as a good role model to the subordinate employees. Setting up an ethical culture further ensures that the organization recruits good staff with strong ethical values. In general it increases the goodwill of the organization due to having a good image, which can increase investments in the organization and increase income for it.

To set up an ethical practice in management, managers need to ensure transparency in the management. The manager’s decision must be fair and cause no detriment to anyone (www. Vibe. Org). To ensure this standard, the manager must ensure that there is no discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation or religion within the department. Management must pay particular consideration to the welfare of employees from the non-white background such as blacks and Asians by increasing their numbers in the workforce and improving their quality of life (Sullivan, 1977).

In such ways, the Facilities Manager can ensure an ethical practice within the management, and contribute to creating healthy work culture and increase effectiveness. Conclusion Buildings facilities are investments for universities and colleges which are used to allow it to carry out its core activities. To carry out these core activities it is essential to have the environment to support their operations. Facilities Management plays an instrumental role in creating that environment where the organization can carry out its primary operations.