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

Key knowledge management variables for facilities management organisational effectiveness

Although knowledge management concept has grown noticeably during last few years, management of facilities knowledge has been little studies. Facilities knowledge is of crucial importance for organisational effectiveness and makes a proactive contribution to business to achieve competitive advantage. The research addresses the importance of managing facilities knowledge and to reveal the key knowledge variables by examining the current practice and gaps in application of knowledge management techniques in facilities management context. The intellectual capital framework is introduced as a conceptual model with which facilities users can identify and organise facilities knowledge in a purposeful way

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

Lessons learned from Asian tsunami disaster: Sharing knowledge

Creating an organised common platform to capture, organise and share the knowledge on disaster management strategies is considered vital to enhance the effectiveness of future disaster management efforts. Hence, ensuring the availability and accessibility of accurate and reliable disaster risk information when required entails an efficient system for knowledge sharing. This paper highlights the importance of knowledge and good practice sharing in disaster management strategies, and discusses key lessons learned from 2004 Asian tsunami, particularly relating to the Sri Lankan context. Good practices and lessons learned are discussed on five different themes: social, technical, legal, operational and environmental. Further, the ISLAND website is introduced and developed as part of a research aimed at increasing the effectiveness of disaster management by facilitating the sharing of appropriate knowledge and good practices