Facilities Management Overview and Role Research Paper

The core or critical components of building operations and maintenance, real estate management and strategic plans, human and environmental factors, project management, space planning, finance, quality assessment are the most critical areas of facilities management. As companies seek to create a more collaborative work place, each of these systems are being integrated into other subsystems, departments, workflows and process areas. In the case of hospitality companies, the highly integrative nature of these subsystems are global in scope, often reaching across multiple time zones, cultures and as a result, drastically different customer expectations as to their performance (Parry, Collins, 1993). Each of these key areas of facilities management mentioned are monitored as subsystems and have analytics associated with them. Yet many hospitality companies have found that this approach to just measuring per-area performance in facilities management is not enough (Nick, 1993). Just measuring these facilities management systems is isolation is being replaced with metrics and KPIs that measure their relative contribution in a collaborative process workflows and results attained on a corporate level (Meng, 2011). In the case of hospitality services companies and providers, the measurements include customer satisfaction, SERVQUAL ratings, and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).Conclusion

Facilities Management has progressed from being a hierarchical, siloed strategy for managing buildings, subsystems and ensuring the "dial tone" of a business to a strategic asset critical to the long-term growth of a business. In the hospitality industry, facilities management has emerged as a branding asset (as is the case with customer experiences at a St. Regis Hotel for example), and also represents significant investment considerations for many hospitality companies (Parry, Collins, 1993). Creating a platform for a company to stay agile during increasingly uncertain times while creating opportunities for greater collaboration is critical (Halim, Muthusamy, Chia, Lam, 2011). Developing strategies that capitalize on facilities as a competitive differentiator is critical in the hospitality industry to ensure long-term financial growth (Meng, 2011).

References

Atkinson, Ann, Branch, Cindi, & LaHatte, Greg. (1987). Training for Excellence. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 28(1), 15.

Tony Halim, Kanesan Muthusamy, Sie Yong Chia, & Shao Wei Lam. (2011). A systems approach in the evaluation and comparison of engineering services applied in facilities management. Facilities, 29(3/4), 114-132.

Xianhai Meng. (2011). Performance measurement models in facility management: a comparative study. Facilities, 29(11/12), 472-484.

Johns, Nick. (1993). Quality.....