What is facility management?
According to ISO, facility or facilities management is an organizational function that integrates people, places, and processes within the built environment to improve people's quality of life and enhance the core business's productivity.
It entails tools and services that ensure the sustainability, safety, and efficiency of built environments like grounds, real estate, infrastructure, and buildings.
Facility management covers a bunch of tasks that keep buildings, assets, and services running smoothly. Here’s a quick look at what’s usually involved in facility management.
- Maintenance management: Schedules and oversees maintenance for equipment and infrastructure.
- Asset management: Tracks, maintains, and manages the lifecycle of company assets.
- Health and safety compliance: Implements safety measures and ensures regulatory adherence.
- Technology management: Leverages CMMS or IWMS for efficient facility operations.
- Vendor management: Coordinates with service providers and manages vendor contracts.
- Lease management: Executes lease management tasks for a lease portfolio
- Energy management: Track and optimize energy consumption to conserve energy
- Sustainability planning: Ensures environment, health, and safety (EHS) compliance
- Real estate management: Oversees daily residential or commercial property operations
- Occupancy and space planning: Allocates physical space management inventory to occupants
- Project management and budgeting: Streamlines workplace project expenses
- Business continuity planning (BCP): Creates business disaster recovery policies
- Emergency response management (ERM): Mitigates emergency disasters with planning
- Building operations automation: Controls heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
Types of facilities management
Businesses generally use two types of facilities management: hard facilities management and soft facilities management.
Hard facilities management or hard FM services involve maintaining physical assets such as wiring, plumbing, elevators, fire safety, building maintenance, gas, heating and cooling, lighting, electrical, and mechanical.
Soft facilities management or soft FM services include tasks done by people for occupants. Soft FM services include landscaping, pest control, catering, security, lease accounting, custodial services, waste management, and car parking.
Suggested reads:
What is Facilities Condition Assessment?
A Quick Guide to Avoid Getting Pencil Whipped!
Why is facility management important for any business?
At its core, facility management focuses on ensuring seamless operations while cultivating a productive and efficient built environment. To achieve this, it carries out a range of essential tasks, such as:
- Maintain and optimize facilities
Maintaining facilities involves more than just regular cleaning and repairs. It's about ensuring that every asset, from machinery to HVAC systems, is working efficiently. When maintenance isn't tracked properly, breakdowns become frequent, leading to costly downtime.
This is where CAFM software makes a difference. It helps you manage tasks like asset lifecycles, schedule timely maintenance, and prevent these disruptions, ensuring smooth operations at all times.
- Create, adapt, and evolve processes
Clear processes are essential to ensuring smooth day-to-day operations. Without defined workflows, tasks like booking meeting rooms or managing guest check-ins can become chaotic and inefficient. Facility managers design and continuously update these processes to match the evolving needs of the workplace, making sure that everything is organized, from handling service requests to managing space reservations.
- Create an accommodating work environment
Inconsistent climate control, cluttered spaces, and poorly coordinated desk arrangements can create an unproductive and uncomfortable environment. With effective facility management, you can ensure a space that promotes well-being and boosts performance.
- Manage contractors and projects efficiently
Handling projects without clear tracking and accountability can lead to delays, missed deadlines, and budget overruns. Facility management ensures that projects stay on track by efficiently managing contractors and subcontractors.
Using modern CAFM systems, facility managers can monitor progress, enforce safety protocols, and make sure that deliverables are met, all while staying within budget.
- Integrate technology into infrastructure
Without the right technology, facility management can become reactive instead of proactive. IoT-enabled systems connect assets and devices to create smarter operations, enabling predictive maintenance and real-time issue tracking.
- Ensuring occupational safety and health
A lack of attention to safety can lead to accidents, lawsuits, and a toxic workplace culture. Facility management ensures that health and safety protocols are in place, creating a secure environment for employees and visitors. Regular inspections, compliance checks, and hazard assessments minimize risks, allowing the workplace to function smoothly and safely.
- Integrating technology with day-to-day activities
Without the right tech tools, managing a facility can feel like a constant game of catch-up. Technology integration allows facility managers to automate tasks, monitor systems in real-time, and make data-driven decisions.
From smart lighting and HVAC systems to asset tracking, leveraging technology transforms operations, making everything more efficient and responsive.
- Streamlining processes
When processes are disorganized, it leads to delays, confusion, and frustration. Facility managers implement and optimize workflows that ensure that everything from service requests to space reservations is handled seamlessly.
- Managing budgets becomes easier and amore ccurate
Overspending and misallocated resources can quickly derail operations. Technology in facility management ensures that budgets are tracked, monitored, and adhered to. By carefully planning maintenance schedules, contractor fees, and energy consumption, facility managers keep costs in check while maintaining a high standard of service and upkeep.
- Supporting people and caring for their needs
See FM isn't just about buildings; it’s about supporting the people within them. By addressing employee needs, from creating comfortable workspaces to providing essential services, facility management helps people perform their best.
- Managing contracts and ensuring compliance
Managing vendor contracts and service agreements can be overwhelming if not handled efficiently. Facility management keeps track of these contracts, ensuring compliance, timely renewals, and cost-effectiveness.
7 proven benefits of facilities management for your business
According to Forbes, disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity, and 15% lower profitability. And, for an organization with 250 employees and an average salary of $47,000 disengagement could cost over 3 million annually.
Shocking, isn’t it?
The good news? Facility management can bridge these gaps and unlock a wealth of benefits.
Let’s explore how.
- Stay compliant and manage risks: Facilities management helps ensure your buildings stay compliant with local laws and safety regulations. This minimizes the risk of fines and guarantees a safe environment for employees and visitors.
- Boost employee satisfaction: A well-maintained, clean, and comfortable workplace can do wonders for employee morale. Facilities management takes care of the small details—like temperature control and cleanliness—so employees feel valued and happy in their work environment.
- Run more efficiently: Automating tasks, scheduling maintenance, and managing resources effectively boosts operational efficiency. With facilities service management, you can reduce downtime and minimize disruptions, letting your team focus on what matters most.
- Save on operational costs: Facilities management helps cut unnecessary expenses by optimizing energy usage, reducing waste, and preventing costly equipment breakdowns. For instance, regular HVAC maintenance ensures efficient energy consumption, avoiding spikes in utility bills and expensive emergency repairs. Switching to a single vendor for cleaning and maintenance can reduce redundancies and lower overall expenses.
- Easily scale as you grow: As your business expands, facilities management systems grow with you. Whether you're managing more locations or adopting new technologies, facilities management can flex to meet your needs.
- Efficient record keeping: Facility managers need data points like utility costs, asset costs, space occupancy growth rate, and capital improvement costs to track historical costs, trends, and changes. A facility management system seamlessly manages all these data for better productivity analysis, budget planning, and real estate forecasting.
- Effective business planning: Knowing the actual cost per square foot helps estimate workplace contribution to the business. Facilities management solutions provide in-depth insights into facility and utility costs for better business decisions like expansion planning.
Resource: Read our in-depth FDD evaluation guide.
How does technology software help streamline your facility management?
A CAFM software and a unified helpdesk can revolutionize facility management in more than one way. To start with it centralizes all service requests, maintenance tasks, and communication into a single platform. This consolidated approach offers numerous benefits
- Enhanced efficiency
- Automated workflows: CaFM automates routine tasks like work order generation, scheduling, and tracking, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives.
- Real-time data: Access to real-time data on asset performance, maintenance schedules, and space utilization enables proactive decision-making. It helps you understand how the building is being used, identify where the inefficiencies lie, and predict when equipment might fail.
- Improved Communication: Centralized communication platforms within CaFM systems foster seamless collaboration between teams and stakeholders.
- Optimized space management:
- Space utilization analysis: CaFM helps identify underutilized or overutilized spaces, enabling efficient space allocation and cost savings.
- Move management: Streamlined processes for space reassignments and renovations to minimize disruptions and maximize productivity.
- Lease management: Effective lease tracking and analysis ensures compliance and cost optimization.
- Strategic asset management:
- Asset lifecycle management: Track the entire lifecycle of assets, from procurement to disposal, to optimize maintenance and replacement schedules.
- Preventive maintenance: Proactive maintenance planning reduces downtime and extends the lifespan of assets.
- Inventory management: Accurate inventory tracking prevents stockouts and ensures timely procurement.
- Data-driven decision-making:
- Performance analytics: Generate insightful reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure efficiency and identify areas for improvement.
- Predictive maintenance: Leverage data to anticipate equipment failures and schedule preventive maintenance, minimizing unplanned downtime.
- Cost optimization: Identify cost-saving opportunities through data-driven insights into energy consumption, maintenance expenses, and space utilization.
5. Enhanced tenant satisfaction:
- Faster response times: A unified helpdesk enables faster response times to tenant requests, improving overall satisfaction.
- Transparent communication: Clear and timely communication with tenants keeps them informed about the status of their requests and any potential disruptions.
Don't take our word for it.
Schedule a demo and learn how Facilio is the best facility management software for your business.
Why automate facility maintenance?
Ensuring building systems work harmoniously and extending the building lifecycle is your ultimate goal. You can’t reach those goals without putting the facilities management department on autopilot. That’s why businesses are increasingly automating facilities management functions.
What is facilities management automation?
Facilities management automation uses ‘if this, then that’ (IFTT) triggers to initiate actions for different scenarios. It helps you do more with minimal human intervention. Facility automation technologies deploy an integrated facility management approach to help you:
Facilities management automation uses ‘if this, then that’ (IFTT) triggers to initiate actions for different scenarios. It helps you do more with minimal human intervention. Facility automation technologies deploy an integrated facility management approach to help you:
- Set up periodic inspections
- Run quality control sessions
- Track resourcing expenditures
- Streamline facility repairs quickly
- Maintain records and sent reports
- Manage multiple sites from one location
- Automate facility management workflows
- Create and monitor all facility databases
Adopting automation helps you mobilize resources better and ensures fewer errors at facilities. Moreover, you can easily comply with local, state, and federal regulations while spotting internal or environmental hazards.
Finally, automated facility management systems help you manage building lifecycles better, resulting in greater profits and decreased liabilities.
Facility management technology
Automated facility management involves four technologies.
1. Artificial intelligence (AI): Monitors equipment, maintains equipment health records, and sends real-time alerts when tools go awry.
2. IoT: IoT interconnects facility devices for off-site monitoring and offers valuable insights into daily operations.
3. Smart buildings: Manages building environments, including lighting, climate control, mechanical systems, and daylighting.
4. Service automation: Ensures efficient repair and maintenance management and offers enhanced visibility into facility operations for decision-making.
5. Sensor technology: Spots air quality, equipment, and occupancy abnormalities to prioritize operational and maintenance decisions.
6. Utility tracking: Finds building management inefficiencies by pulling utility bill data, spotting waste, and showing optimization opportunities.
Streamline your facilities management; stand out from the crowd with Facilio
Managing facilities doesn’t have to be a juggling act. With Facilio’s connected CAFM, you get all your operations in one place.
Need to track assets? Check. ✅
Optimize space? Done. ✅
Plan maintenance? Easy. ✅
Facilio automates everyday tasks and gives you real-time data to make smarter decisions. It even helps you stay compliant and cut costs while keeping tenants happy.
Plus, with IoT-powered insights and predictive maintenance, you’re always a step ahead of potential issues.
It’s about more than just connecting the dots—it’s about building a seamless, integrated ecosystem. Facilio’s platform isn’t a quick fix; it’s a game changer. From the ground up, it's designed to ensure information flows effortlessly, collaboration is a breeze, and data-driven decisions are always at your fingertips.
For facility management service providers, this means:
Winning more contracts: By embracing innovation and efficiency, you can showcase a forward-thinking approach that sets you apart and attracts more clients.
Delighting clients: With faster response times, proactive issue resolution, and transparent communication, client satisfaction is always top of mind.
Boosting profitability: Streamlining operations, optimizing resource allocation, and cutting unnecessary costs create a more profitable and efficient workflow for everyone involved.
Ready to take the hassle out of facility management?
Facilio’s here to help you run things smoother, smarter, and better than ever.
