An Analysis of Facility Management & Maintenance in high-rise Residential Buildings

 Introduction

This report has been completed to analyse facility management and maintenance in high-rise residential buildings, which has become a living standard these days. The present report is categorised into two main sections.  First is the main body, which includes various, sub sections such as facility management, building maintenance and facility manager. Second main section is conclusion and recommendations.

In the present report, the client company, the Ardmore Group and their associates, is a large construction company that deals with high rise residential, commercial and educational buildings. This company is established forty years ago, and it has a long list of buildings in its portfolio, in both residential and mixed-use. This company has built number of buildings and still have many ongoing projects. Most of its projects are successful and consumers are always found to be curious for its upcoming projects.  In the present report, high-rise residential buildings are selected which has been built since last two decades. Company owns number of high-rise residential buildings around the country but for this report only one location is selected to identify the issues in the current approach of facility management.

The researcher was intended to investigate fundamental concepts of facility management and building maintenance to develop basic understandings. Therefore, two large multi-story storey residential building blocks were investigated in this research; this research also included meetings with the representatives of Client Company as well as the residents of the buildings. These meeting helped the researcher to develop understanding of the current practices being followed by the practitioners, which has been briefly presented in the later section of this report.

Facility Management

Facility management (FM) is a combination of various disciples that deals with space management, people/residents, organisation and infrastructure of buildings of various types, including residential, health, educational, professional and commercial. The International Facility Management Association defines facility management such that” FM as profession includes many disciplines to confirm that environment is built properly with the participation of the people, place, process, and technology” (Good practice guide on facilities management, 1998)

Facilities Management (FM) as, “an integrated practice to work, maintain, improve, adjusting the infrastructure and buildings for a company so that primary goals of that company could be achieved by this built environment (Atkin & Brooks, 2000). Therefore FM is treated as hybrid management discipline which is combination of people, property and Process management proficiency such that support could be provided for the company (Then, 1999). There are many definitions of facility management but all address the same point that is managing collaboration between humans and physical environment to make sure that company is working effectively (Gagendran, 2000).

An illustration for FM is given below:

Core Competencies of Facility Management

A global job task analysis (GJTA) formulated 11 core competencies for FM in 2009. The responses were collected form 62 countries to define these competencies and until now these are the most valuable findings. These 11 competencies are described below: (IFMA)

• Communication
• Emergency Preparation and Business Stability
• Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
• Investment and Business
• Human Factors
• Leadership and Strategy
• Operations and Maintenance
• Project Management
• Property management and real state
• Technology
• Quality

FM deals with many activities including workstation, capability, support services, assets, commercial real estate and organisations (Ancarani and Capaldo, 2005). Literature revealed many classifications of FM services but based on the latest findings following table in constructed for FM services (Alexander, 1992)

Table 1: FM services overview

With the increase in the population, it is hard to manage residential areas effectively (Waheed, 2009). Moreover, people are inspired to live in a high profile area or buildings where all advanced facilities are available. Living in high-rise buildings has become a trend for people of all countries. All those people who can afford a house prefer to live in   high rise building where they are accommodated with many services.  A high rise building can be multi-unit that means having same buildings within same area. It is   observed that people choose high-rise buildings as their residence because they pay enough fees for the locations and services, which are offered by company who own that building.

Figure 2: high-rise residential buildings

Case Study Analyses: Current Facility

Management Strategy

Facility management for different types of buildings is defined in different ways. Residential buildings have different requirements so the framework used for facility management is very dissimilar to other buildings. There are various factors which differentiate a high rise residential building from a commercial office buildings. For example, a high-rise building has different variety of associations, sentiments, relations and it is living place for someone (Atkin and Bjork, 2007). Therefore, facility management components for high-rise residential building are different from other building.

Facility management (FM) strategy development varies from company to company. The current company which is the Ardmore group and their associated partners have been involved in many high rise residential buildings in different cities all over UK.  It has been identified in literature that for effective facility management organizational support is imperative. The case study selected for this research included brief review of Limehouse Basin (London) owned by Bellway Homes and another scheme (50 affordable homes) in the vicinity of London, charterhouse square, which is under the ownership of Thornsett Group and lies under the local authority Islington.

Figure 3: Research Focus; Limehouse Basin & Charterhouse Square

Company has developed following strategy of facility management for high rise residential buildings on the basis of their business nature and experiences;

Table 2: Brief Review of Buildings

Literature revealed that high rise residential buildings emit increased amount of greenhouse gasses in comparison with other types of buildings. Building height is directly proportional to the energy consumption due to shared spaces in high rise residential buildings. The primary sources of the energy consumption for these buildings were observed as per the following;

Table 3: Sources for electricity consumption high-rise residential buildings

During this research, it was observed that the client operates different buildings, some of which were constructed more than 10 years ago. Therefore, it was also important to analyse the primary difference between the new and old buildings;

Table 4: Comparison of old and new buildings in Client organization’s portfolio

The key points / aspects regarding the facilities management observed in this case study has been outlined / summarized in a tabulated form as per below;

Table 5: Current FM strategy of the client company

 Suggested FM Strategy and the SWOT Analysis

 Evaluations and Implications

Energy management process is considered to be one of the most important factor in facility management plan (Noor and Pitt, 2009). An effective process for energy saving along with management practices can provide substantial cost benefits for the organizations. Following are some major steps which should be part of the energy management process.

A SWOT analysis is a planning tool which demonstrates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that a business could face. Mostly it is used for strategic planning. It identifies business objectives as well as internal and external factors which are supportive for achieving objectives. SWOT is the first tool to know more about the situation (Helms and Nixon, 2010).  The summary of the SWOT analyses completed for the client has been detailed as below;

In the results of these analysed, following are the suggested improvement which client company can make regarding its facility management strategy.

Table 6: Suggested FM strategy in response to SWOT

Sustainability is another essential consideration for high-rise residential building. A building is considered sustainable if it has a design, infrastructure and working strategies, which have minimum negative impact on the environment as well as its residence. This type of building ensures healthy life for its residents and make use of resources in an effective way. The concept of sustainable buildings has been improved form last few decades. All those standards which were considered optional or additional in past have become norm of these days due to client’s expectations and awareness. It has been investigated that stakeholders give high priority to a sustainable environment. Some major principles for sustainable design of buildings are listed below: (Mallen and Chard, 2012)

• Efficient use of energy and water
• Waste reduction
• Environmental preservation
• Preservation of building materials
• Improvements in indoor environment
• Enhanced landscaping
• Improved public life

Client Company has long list of high-rise buildings in its portfolio. However, formulating a plan for sustainability is a nasality for these structure. For high-rise residential buildings, there are some influencing factors, which has strong impact on decisions for sustainability. All these factors could be adopted for the client company to build more sustainable buildings. These factors are described below:

Livability: Literature reveled that indoor air quality is directly related to the efficient design of the buildings. Improved air quality, productivity and goodness is also associated with building design.

Economics: Sustainable designed buildings have significant lower cost for operations and offers cost saving on long term basis.

Government Regulation: Government laws imply building performance standards which are applicable for sustainable buildings as well.

Market Pressure: It has been become a trend to incorporate sustainability in the newly designed buildings and stakeholders are enforced to implement this trend.

Awareness: It has been investigated that the consumers are well aware of sustainable environment, which put an obligation on investors to build sustainable buildings such that less negative impact is posed on environment and healthy living environment is provided.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

CSR can be defined as the analyses economic, legal, moral, social and physical aspects of environment. Corporate Social Responsibility is well known concept in business reporting. Every organization has its own customized CSR policy, which is revised and reported annually. The more advanced definition of corporate social responsibility is described as an association between international companies and Governments. In simple words, CSR is considered as an association between a company and society in which that company works.  CSR also defines relationship between stakeholders and company. So there are multiple views about definition of CSR.

According to the EU Commission (2002);

“CSR is a practice which is followed by companies to assimilate social and environmental concepts into their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.”

Principles of CSR

As it is hard very uncertain to define CSR in an appropriate way therefore there is need to follow concepts, which are supportive for CSR. These principles are described below: (Zawawi et al., 2011)

Sustainability: It stands for possibility of actions taken in present could be available in future. When resources are limited and have been used in the present then these are not available for future use. Therefore it got significant place in FM strategy development.  For example, steel, concrete and timber are available in limited quantity and not available for future use.  It may possible that some alternatives are added to these sources depending upon the needs. Therefore, in actual if some resources are exhausted then cost of attaining other resources increases, which ultimately cause a rise in the cost of operations of the organization.

Therefore, it is essential for Client Company to maintain sustainability such that resources should not be use more. In other words, this is tendency of ecosystem demonstrated in terms of input and output models of reserve depletion.  For example, in case of paper industry, trees and plants are planted again, which has been harvested for paper production. This is done to save cast and efforts. Sustainability could be measured with the rate of resource consumption to the production rate of consumption. There are also some unsustainable operations, which are managed by either introducing sustainable operations or making plan for future. Normally companies including Client Company can increase efficiency of the utilization of resources.

Accountability: It is related to the realization of organization towards effects on external environment in the result of some actions. In other words, accountability is concerned to know about affected groups (stakeholders). In broader terms, accountability states that an organization is not limited to only its owners but it is a part of social   network which could be affected by actions of that organization. Moreover stakeholders should also take parts in decisions of organization while making plan about action. They should also know that either these actions are valuable for organization or stakeholders. Therefore, accountability implies to formulate strategies and reports to measure environmental presentation and informing organization about those actions. Following features of reporting are investigated for accountability.

• All concerned parties have understanding
• Significance to the users of the given evidence
• Consistency in the form of accuracy and freedom
• Comparability which demonstrates consistency for both time and diverse companies

These types of reports include qualitative evidences, decisions and quantifications as well.

Transparency: Transparency is also an important concern of CSR. It states that reporting of an organization determines influence of its actions on external environment including all open facts. Therefore all parties can know about all actions of the companies for whom reporting is available. External users are more dependent on transparency because they don’t have much information like internal users.

Implementation of CSR and sustainability in Client Company

Client Company implements both CSR and sustainability somehow for its operations.  Both of these practices are essential to enhance and improve overall performance of the concerned company. Although there are still some loop holes which require improvements.  As developing FM strategy is continuous process which evolve over time depending   upon the business needs. following are some factors which supports to adopt above mentioned principals of  CSR and sustainability as well as some factors which  does not support for sustainability and CSR.

Encouraging factors;

1. Competitive edge: An improved, well defined and organized CSR and sustainability provides a significant place in the market. As both of these practices, facilitate organization to compete with its competitors.
2. Consumer satisfaction: Consumers are always looking for better opportunities and in case of living; they seek for the best place as their residence. A high profile high rise building with all facilities inspire consumers to choose it as their residence.
3. Increased revenue: Improved strategies and high performance buildings cause an increased profit for client organization which is great benefit for achieving organizational objectives.

Discouraging factors

1. Increased cost: It is obvious that adding more services increase expenses that cause high cost which may not be affordable for many consumers.
2. Market pressure: There are also chances of increased market pressure over client organization, which introduces new services.
3. Consumer expectations: When client organization offers new services it many happen in its next project consumers expect more than past.

Building Maintenance

Maintenance is described as an amalgamation of technical and related administrative tasks that are needed to maintain an asset so that it can achieve its intended goals. Maintenance has two major task. First is retaining that is done to avoid failure known as preventive maintenance, and second is restoring that is needed after failure has occurred known as corrective maintenance. It is recommended that intention should be diverted towards preventive maintenance. To make sure that building is sustainable with respect to the environment, performance of the building should be optimized as well (Zawawi et al., 2011)

Building Maintenance Methodology

Every organization needs to develop a maintenance strategy depending about its business objectives, goals and available resources and aligned it with corporate business strategy which is followed by the organization. Therefore it is necessary for facility manager to be involved in the structure of the organization so that he could be able to understand organization goals, business drives and can incorporate a maintenance strategy in facility management plan. (Lee and Scott, 2009). Following is a demonstration of corporate strategy for all businesses that integrated FM strategy and maintenance strategy (RICS Practice Standards, UK, 2009)

Figure 3: Building maintenance

Every organization tends to adopt maintenance strategy based on short, medium or long terms concerns. If organization owns a stable business then long terms concerns span over more than five years. In contrast, if an organization have volatile business for example telecommunication industry where things evolve frequently. In that case organization should be very adoptive within short notice and make a quick move towards new trends. (Horner, El‐Haram and Munns, 1997)

For current organization, long term maintenance strategy is suitable as it owns very stable business that will last long over years.  Following are some main points for developing a maintenance strategy for the concerned organization.

Maintenance planning: Maintenance activities are categorized into two forms. First is planned that is routine maintenance and second is unplanned that is related to breakdowns which may happen. All details about planned and unplanned maintenance should be added to manuals and specification documents (Huang and Cai, 2005)

Establish Policies and Objectives: It is essential to make sure that all objectives and goals should be based on concerns of residents.

Develop Maintenance Strategies: Maintenance strategy and supporting plan should be according to the contractors.

Allocate Resources: It is an important concern that budget and experienced professionals are available for maintenance work.

Document Requirements: Key documentation should be available and building user guide should be circulated among stakeholders to let them know that maintenance objectives are clear.

Monitor Progress: Looking into daily updates and measure progress of the maintenance work is important

Energy and overall efficiency retrofits

An energy efficiency retrofit is a very complicated and   dynamic process. It includes many steps with a continuous effort to maintain retrofit benefits. As every building is different from the other so there is no shared standard for retrofits. For high rise residential buildings following considerations are important.

Renewable Energy Installations: Renewable energy stuffs for example photovoltaic panels are not much costly as they need very small space for installation.

HVAC Management Strategies: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is an important consumption of energy in high rise residential buildings as it use one third of total electricity. Some major step to save energy for HVAV are:

• Assessment of HVAC settings  and tune it
• Select accurate working hours
• Select realistic space conditions.
• Finest start/stop routines.
• Mount Variable Speed Drives on pumps and fans
• Mount CO monitoring to manage intake of fresh air

Building System Tuning: As a building gets older, its different systems tend to show less efficiency (Noor and Pitt, 2009).  Therefore   tuning of building is required to maintain HVAC and electrical system for performance optimization.  In order to maintain long-term energy efficiency performance, following facts are important.

• Adjusting controls of thermostats and sensors
• Adjusting working schedules
• make sure all equipment is working
• Following up maintenance schedules

Power Factor Correction: It ensures that a specific equipment is using electricity in an effective way. Some equipment use more power than others, which cause some extra bills that is not mentioned in tariff. This fact is represented as the ratio of power consumed to the required current flow. 1.0   power factor is the most accepted and error free (Noor and Pitt, 2009).

Controls Strategy: It deals with monitoring of thermal comfort, temperature set points so that energy consumption of the building could be controlled.

Peak Demand Management: Peak demand management is concerned by reducing electricity consumption in peak times and exploiting consumption during off-peak. This is an efficient way to know about the load reduction that helps facility manger to make cost savings   decisions.

Thermal Mass: High rise residential buildings have heavy structure which incorporates in managing cooling and heating. For example attaching motion sensor to stairs can help in cooling when stairs are not in use.

Lighting: It is reasonably cost saving practice to provide light in the common areas, which ultimately reduce cost for HVAC. It is known, that energy consumption in high-rise building is very high.  Studies showed that it is entirely responsibility of facility management to look over energy consumption and make sensible decisions. As energy management has always been a part of facility management strategy of any organization so this practice is well managed in facility management plan.

Facilities Manager

Facilities Manager is the key person who manage, monitors and synchronizes intentional and working strategies of the facilities and buildings. The manager makes sure that all functions related to physical features are going well as well as develops sustainable environment for the residents. A facility manger could be a single person or a team that is working in a shared location.  These can be outsourced or in house either as single person or a team. Major responsibility of the facility manager is to fulfil expectations of the consumers by providing information, support, resolving issues, understanding needs to make sure an excellent living environment for the inhabitants. A facility manager also deals with third parties for various operations related to building maintenance. In case of high-rise residential buildings, facility manager is also supposed to manage a group of people who works under his supervision for multiple operations so he must have managerial skills.  According to latest trends, Skills for facility managers are divided into two type as given below: (Tucker, 2007)

 Hard Skills

• Electrical cabling
• power supply
• Woodwork
• Sanitation
• managing HVAC (heat water air conditioners)
• Longitudinal Planning
• Civil and structural engineering principals

Soft Skills

• Client Relations
• management and support for contractors
• Team-building
• Technical analysis
• Time Management
• Business Steadiness
• Economic Responsiveness

There are some significant responsibilities assigned to members of facility management team which could help out organization to achieve its major goals. Some of them are described in the following section: (Tucker, 2007)

Cleaning: Cleaning   also comes under supervision of facility team. They can make it according to their pre-defined schedule.

Operational: These include daily operations continued within the building including help desk activities.

Health and safety: Facility management team is responsible to monitor and control safety of the people and buildings. If they face any failure in their work, it leads to dissatisfaction and public related issues.

Fire safety: Facility management department is supposed to face more risks and dangers to lives of inhabitants. FM team has to take care of all fire safety equipment and keep their records up to date.

Security: FM team is also responsible to provide security for its own organization specifically for hardware maintenance.

Maintenance, testing and inspections: FM team is required to maintain a schedule for its various tasks so that risk could be minimized and major objectives could be achieved.

Contracts: The facilities management team is also responsible to revise their contract they have done with third party service providers.

Commercial property management: FM team also manage property ownership and contracts.

Business continuity planning: The facilities management team also looks after the organization in case of   moving the business to retrieval site.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Facility management is an emerging and demanding business area, which has major objective to facilitate core business of an organization. It is significantly important for an organization to provide enough information to its clients about facilities. Basically an organization can get extensive benefits by implementing an effective facility management strategy. The client organization considered in this report has a facility management strategy which seems to work on an abstract level. A detailed FM strategy is suggested according to the needs of the client organization. This strategy needs support of the facility management team.  Moreover, building maintenance and energy management   plays a significant role within a FM plan. A successful outcome could be achieved by collaboration of both FM strategy and FM team. Following are some recommendations derived from the FM investigation and client organization could adopt it to bring improvement in their core business.

• Client organization should follow a well organised and extended FM strategy
• Current FM strategy of client organization is not very detailed so it needs to  be more comprehensive integration of best practices
• Facility manager is an imperative part of FM process. Client organization has very large business so they need to develop a team for FM because single person cannot handle a long list of FM tasks.
• Client organization needs to plan about building maintenance strategy. In current situation they have very abstract planning for maintenance.
• Energy consumption is very important issue in high-rise residential buildings.  A well-defined energy management plan could add great cost benefits for the client organization.

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