Category Archives: facilities management

now wash your hands …

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I am always amazed at how a strategically important sector such as Facilities Management has somehow elevated the washroom, toilet maintenance sector to be of utmost strategic import.

Now I can already hear the moans from facilities managers, as this space may be invaded, at the excellent and innovative Welsh Assembly proposal for businesses to open their toilet facilities to the public. But this will surely reinforce the sense of place and community based facilities management, moving from contract-centric services to one of community-centric provision.

A new £385,000 public facilities scheme to encourage businesses to open their toilets to the general public has been announced by Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, Dr Brian Gibbons, today (Wednesday 20 August).

The public facilities scheme will encourage local authorities to work in partnership with businesses to improve the provision of safe, hygienic and accessible toilet facilities. More here

This story was picked up by twitter from @HMGOV the Unofficial service of official news feeds from UK Government

eco facilities management for government?

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The UK  Government has come under criticism recently for not tackling environmental issues with enough vigour to be seen as a role model or exemplar, and failing to meet its own targets.

See: the Sustainable Development Commission report two thirds of departments were not on track to meet the target of reducing emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2010, while a similar report from the National Audit Office criticised civil servants for failing to keep accurate carbon emissions data. Those reports were accompanied by another study from the Commons Public Accounts Committee which claimed rules on sustainable procurement were being widely ignored by civil servants.

Now Companies providing green products and services can now expect a major boost after the government yesterday unveiled its long-anticipated delivery plan for meeting its targets on environmentally sustainable procurement and carbon emissions.

Following on from its recent commitment to ensure all government IT operations are carbon neutral by 2013, the Cabinet Office released a 167-page plan outlining how it intends to ensure departments consider environmental sustainability when making procurement decisions and better meet targets to cut emissions, waste and water use across their facilities.

We can expect these requirements to trickle down the supply chains for service provision (facilities management, IT  and construction) reinforcing the notion of supply chains based on environmental and carbon management, not just cost, and certainly not lowest cost

Source and Links:

UK Governments sustainable procurement and carbon emissions delivery plan announced

Government outlines green procurement overhaul

on be excellent

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Around 10 or so years ago I was part of a BE (now constructing excellence) development group which produced the Be Excellent document and tool.

The premise was to increase the awareness of constructions relationship within facilities management and excellence through collaboration by mean of a self, or facilitated assessment tool.

What is Be Excellent?
Be Excellent is a simple but rigorous examination of business practice for all disciplines within the construction industry using the EFQM Business Excellence Model as the platform and take on board the important criteria for Collaborative Working, Supply Chain Management and the “design through to operational requirements” of Facilities Management.
If answered honestly and thoroughly, Be Excellent will identify those areas which an organisation needs to concentrate on to improve performance. Whether the organisation decides to make these a priority is a question of where each sits within their overall strategic plan.

During these last two weeks I have support a number of organisations with Be Excellent, so, with ‘excellence’ being on my mind,  I share my thoughts here.

I continue to use this approach as a first step analysis, helping groups or organisations understand where to put improvement energies and efforts.  It works best as a consensus approach, with a number of assessments done across the width and depth of the organisation, providing an unique and revealing assessment of approaches, deployment and results.  An assessment I refer to as a peoples view of the organisation, which is often at odds with a purely management view.

And here is a main difference between this consensus approach and the top down ISO 9001 improvement or quality models.  People want to be involved, or at least have a voice in shaping improvements, not to be forced into improvements via independent audit non conformance’s.

EFQM ( European Framework for Quality Management) arose out of the 1980/90’s TQM (Total Quality Management) ideas.  The UK construction sector at that time flirted with TQM but never really made the initiative ‘stick’, as it was just that an initiative with a shelf life, and not sustained. Indeed one of the factors that moved me away from employment with large contracting was the lack of ‘stickability’ on improvement, flitting across what was in vogue or required by any client at any one time. It was, and still remains, an add-on to business.

And yet the orginal philosophy and premise of EFQM remains strong and sound, providing an holistic view of any organisation, and in particular the connectivity between functions, approaches and processes, often revealing the weaknesses in the typical siloed organisation.  For example EFQM and Be Excellent force you to address questions such as:

  • How are you strategies, objectives and policies founded on customer intelligence and requirements, now and into the future?
  • How do you manage, recruit and develop people in line with your vision and strategies, How does leadership act as a role model?
  • How do you procure resources to deliver your strategies, are finances, knowledge and information aligned to your strategies, or are they a barrier, and
  • Do processes really translate your vision, objectives and strategies into operations or are they there to satisfy some other ‘tick’ box?

There is an scoring mechanism alongside Be Excellent , but this serves as a device to prioritise actions, and it is the action planning that is the main outcome. From these action plans facilitated workshops can drill down to the real root of issues, using for example the Toyota Five Whys approach, a main ingredient of lean construction or six sigma. Its is amazing where you get to on asking the fifth why, for example a recent exercise identified an issue of poor recognition for good work, 5 whys drilled it down further as:

  • We don’t hear about good things
  • We don’t tell people about success’s
  • We don’t like to blow our own trumpets
  • We look for wrongs not rights in reviews
  • Our lessons learnt exercises focus on negatives and not positives

A programme was then put into place to review the lessons learnt process, to capture good learning points so they can be repeated, in addition to problems to avoid.

Over the years the trends from Be Excellent have become very clear:

  • we are good at approaches, new initiatives, new management systems, achieving ISO standards and other on the wall certificates.
  • we are ok, but not so good at deployment, that is deployment of the approach is not sustained, either over time, or across an organisation, and often suffers at the whim of changing management.
  • we are poor at learning, at analysing results for trends causes, and comparisons, and then on closing the loop to improve.

Sadly, this reflects the view of Deming back in the 1950’s, that we do not close the Plan Do Check Act loop, even less so see this as a spiral, with the Act taking us to a better, more informed Plan position for the next project or time period.  Be Excellent provides the peoples view to kick start and to sustain the improvement cycle.

A copy of  Be Excellent can be downloaded from here and you if would like to discuss this topic in more detail contact us here.

is IT and FM disconnect a barrier to going green?

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Noticed this on a feed from Financetechnews

Industry experts believe IT groups have been slow to go green because of the disconnect between IT and facilities management – FM manages energy cost and availability, while IT’s focused on computing needs.

Is this an FM issue, an IT one or a missed collaborative opportunity?  Increasingly it is the facilities management measured on energy performance and efficiency, but IT who have a big input to energy usage.

A few points are raised here, in addition to the energy costs

Cost of providing energy systems and designs to deal with non green IT

The building centric Facilities Managements approaches,  rather than a organisational-centric one.

With the future of green IT being in cloud and saas developments – (see ExtranetEvolution) how will the fm sector deal with this, indeed how will this affect the design (building and M&E) of todays and tomorrows buildings

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wanted – intergrated construction manager –

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A friend across in the US gave me the heads up on a job advert for an Integrated Construction Manager at Mortenson Construction .  What made me look twice at the job specification was the inclusion of all the themes and issues that we discuss today, as being the way forward, themes of virtual design, BIM, integrated management, collaboration and joined up thinking with facilities management. A sign of the times or a glimpse into the future of construction management?

Extracts from the spec:

  • The IC Manager is responsible for providing input and leadership to the design and/or virtual design and construction process.
  • Coordinates design team members and Preconstruction services (i.e. estimating, scheduling, project planning, constructability, site utilization, etc.).
  • manages the integrated delivery team’s resources
  • Oversees the preparation of models for facilities management.
  • Facilitator of project collaboration and integrated delivery activities

and basic responsibilities:

  • Oversees the production and management of 3D models
  • Establishes the scope of work for projects
  • Establishes the schedule and deliverables for integrated delivery services
  • Oversees construction coordination
  • Communicates model generated information to project team
  • Implements 3D technology during construction
  • Participates in the research and development of new technologies
  • Internal training
  • Develops project BIM models
  • Attends, participates and presents at conferences
  • Manages others
  • Business Development support
  • May lead the Operating Group Integrated Construction team

    • What is missing of course is the green sustainability theme, but then some would say that is taken for granted today, a given that an integrated construction manager would build green. (Discuss!)

    Tempted?  Seattle?  Very…

    a pecha kucha fm side view

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    I have just tidied up my last Pecha Kucha attempt into a pdf to share, with added subtitles. This presentation was a sideways look at facilities management and presented in a pub in Manchester to an international audience as part of the recent eurofm conference.

    Pecha Kucha, literally ‘chit chat’ is a fresh approach to presentations, like an open mic event at a comedy store. You get 20secs for each of 20 slides – its fun fast and furious. As someone said – there’s more information per sq in of slide than in many full day events. Something about a picture painting a thousand words, and that very few of the Pecha Kucha presentations had bullet points or even text – most were full screen photos.

    Oh and the ease in putting together is refreshing. The images I used were taken on my new Nokia N95 mobile over a cycle weekend in Scotland, or from my iphoto plus one or two borrowed from the web. And then the presentation assembled in Keynote on a train journey from Lincoln to Manchester. Easy and enjoyable.

    Download here the pdf here  fm pecha kucha

    where is the service user innovation …

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    I attended the SCRI event on Service User Innovation in Salford Uni’s new Lady Hale Building yesterday, listened to four influential speakers and participated in thoughtful discussions and break outs.

    POE (post occupancy evaluations) were mentioned too often – I have an issue with POE  as a means to evaluate performance, and as they have been referred to before are the wrong tool for the wrong job.  Yes there needs to be post project evaluation, for as Ian Cooper notes, every building project without a feedback loop is a prototype. But to measure people performance through their relationship with the building is the wrong starting point. After all its about the service users ‘experience’

    The four key speakers were Prof Peter Barratt at BuHu Salford University – key message here for me was his comment that all the successful projects were led by Facilities Management, his case studies included the Sydney Opera House and Wm McCormack Place in Cairns as part of the Australian Facilities Management Action Agenda, the Trondhiem Hospital where the construction team were selected by psychologists to ensure they understood health issues, and John Zeisel‘s work in Boston USA with Alzheimer’s centers

    Neil Sachdev, Sainsburys Commerical Director, illustrated how they engage with their customers on store design,

    John Lorimer from Manchester City Council on testing furniture with pupils against a background of how the school environment shapes and influences education , and

    Nigel Oseland on POE’s who also . Nigel also introduced the Dunbar’s number concept of 150 and talked on biophilia kinship, of our history of camp fires and story telling, of seeking nature and space and waymarking, but now confined into office cubicles.  (We need to get out more, tell stories have camp fire meetings and connect with nature – not surprising then the increase in barcamps and benchmarkwalks)

    The investment in really engaging with and empowering end users is impressive. Five years in the case of John Zeisel in understanding Alzheimer’s needs in the USA , a huge investment from Sainsbury’ s and the patient work in understanding pupil and teacher needs from Manchester City Council.  None of these three examples start with the building, but with the users.  Why then as an industry do we fool ourselves we can do the engagement stuff with one or two value management exercises and a POE?

    I was not alone in noting an under theme of web 2.0 in the presentations and discussions.  There was the mention of pupils using second life to determine space and colour requirements, of the use of Web2 (twitter maybe, blogs, or facebook groups) in getting real, unsolicited, feedback from facilities users. I sensed though it was something to put on the wish list and get on with the business in hand.

    It is a pity this was an under theme as to me as is where the real service user innovation lies. Service users make use of web2 technology outside of the work place, ie in second life, in twittering, in facebook, in myspace … etc etc etc.  The innovation is in using this in design and facilities management.  We seem to be blind to or just awakening to its potential. The potential to allow continuous dialogue between service users and service providers / designers   This is not rocket science – those using twitter can contact the government on issues (and get a response) and be kept in touch with the Prime Ministers actions, speeches and even thoughts.

    And then where – consumers constantly in dialogue with a supermarket on store layouts, on colour, on products and costs – office users ditto with the fm’s on suggestions and wc complaints –  pupils on school design, residents on city facilities and urban design – on eco town developments,  and all in real time as it happens.

    Definitely a topic to be discussed at the be2camp event in October

    is it time for aggressive fm (aFM)

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    Over the last week or so I have attended a number of FM related events and discussions, read any number of FM articles, blog posts and papers.

    Each time, within the built environment sustainability agenda, FM is seen as an underdog, attempting to justify its presence and role, with a “what about FM” whimper. Too content to be a responsive, monitor and report sector, frightened to stand up and take a lead?

    In respect of sustainability, has FM reached a fork in the road, are the options dead ends without changing our patterns of thought?

    Too many built environment initiatives (eg Eco Towns), reworked frameworks (eg BREEAM and LEED) and tools, strategies, ( eg UK Sustainable Construction Strategy), milestones and targets for zero are being introduced without being driven from an FM, facilities in use, end user usability perspective. This makes them in themselves weak and ‘unsustainable’.

    FM isn’t just about buildings though, it is of course more about people, end users and communities. Yet as peoples lives are shaped by the buildings that they create, FM MUST be involved, even lead, in the built environment debates on a sustainable future

    For a while now I have been putting the built environment sustainability agenda in the context of a facilities management one. Two things happened recently though that convinced me that we need to be stronger, stand forward and ‘go for it’ .

    First a discussion with Karen Ford of Creative FM who founded Footprintfriends, a personal attempt to do something to engage with the next generation, rather than just talk about it, hold a seminar, maybe a workshop or two and then like all good intents, fade away. Well done Karen.

    Secondly it was more than reassuring to partake in discussions on sustainable fm as part of the Euofm confernce in Manchester where the expression of Aggressive FM (aFM) was born. My interpretation of which is:

    Aggressive FM is not stuck in the monitor and report paradigm …

    Aggressive FM is about making FM count …

    Aggressive FM is not adversarial but is engaging …

    Aggressive FM is about taking FM to the center stage of the built environment …

    Along side Aggressive FM is FM2.0 – the facilities management use of Web2 technology, again as footprintprints has embraced, creating a social, learning and sharing network for change. FM2.0 is Facilities Management using Web2 to engage on a person and relatiosnhip level within FM communities, users, customers, desicion makers, people, next generations … for real change.

    As is often used these days in sustainability events is the Quote from Ghandi – be the change you want to be in the world. So in FM do we want to be a passive group of monitors and reporters or an aggressive FM on the center stage of sustainability? There will be much much more about Aggressive FM very soon, watch this space. Are you ready to Go For It ?

    google’s bicycle giveaways

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    From Ecowordly:

    The Internet search engine company Google, now a reputable green icon with its solar powered Mountainview headquarters, last year gave away bicycles to its staff in Europe, Asia and Africa as part of its efforts to reduce the impact of transportation on the environment.

    Nearly 2,000 members of Google permanent staff benefited from this scheme that also provided free helmets emblazoned with the famous brand name.

    Ah, but does the Google office on Buck Palace Rd in London have cycle storage facilities?

    facilities management of green buildings

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    I like this, and wonder if there are any other facilities management courses that focus on managing buildings that are green, LEED or BREEAM accredited? After all its all in the management of the building and facilities not just the design and the tick in the box.

    (INDIANAPOLIS) The Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will offer a unique course beginning in the fall of 2008 entitled “Greening Organizations.”

    The masters-level course will introduce students to the requirements needed for existing buildings to become LEED Certified by the United States Green Building Council. The course will also cover other rating systems and the management of green buildings.

    “Because LEED Certified buildings conserve energy and water, reduce waste, and have lower operating costs, creating and sustaining LEED Certified buildings is a trend that is here to stay. It is important for our students to receive a solid foundation in this area of study,” said Ken Rennels, associate professor of mechanical engineering technology and facilities management program director at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI.

    The “Greening Organizations” course is offered as part of the School’s recently launched online Master of Science degree emphasizing Facilities Management. The program is delivered via the Internet to meet the needs of working professionals, preparing students to meet a growing demand for skilled employees in the Facilities Management field.