An Analysis of Facility Management & Maintenance in High-Rise Residential Buildings

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR can be defined as the analysis of economic, legal, moral, social and physical aspects of the environment. Corporate Social Responsibility is a 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 the society in which that company works. CSR also defines the relationship between stakeholders and the company. So there are multiple views on the 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 voluntarily.”

• Principles of CSR

As it is hard and very uncertain to define CSR appropriately there is a need to follow concepts, which are supportive of CSR. These principles are described below: (Zawawi et al., 2011)

Sustainability: It stands for the possibility that 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 a significant place in FM strategy development.  For example, steel, concrete and timber are available in limited quantities and not available for future use.  It may be possible that some alternatives are added to these sources depending on the needs. Therefore, in actuality if some resources are exhausted then the cost of attaining other resources increases, which ultimately causes a rise in the cost of operations of the organization.

Comparison of Timber and Steel Framed Buildings

Therefore, the Client Company needs to maintain sustainability such that resources should not be used more. In other words, this is the tendency of the ecosystem demonstrated in terms of input and output models of reserve depletion.  For example, in the case of the paper industry, trees and plants are planted again, which have been harvested for paper production. This is done to save cast and effort. Sustainability could be measured from 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 plans for the future. Normally companies including Client Company can increase the efficiency of the utilization of resources.

Accountability: It is related to the realization of the organization towards effects on the external environment as the result of some actions. In other words, accountability is concerned with knowing 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 a social network which could be affected by the actions of that organization. Moreover, stakeholders should also take part in the decisions of the organization while making action plans. They should also know that these actions are valuable for the organization or stakeholders. Therefore, accountability implies formulating strategies and reports to measure environmental presentation and informing organizations about those actions. The following features of reporting are investigated for accountability.

• All concerned parties have an 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 evidence, decisions and quantifications as well.

Transparency: Transparency is also an important concern of CSR. It states that reporting of an organization determines the influence of its actions on the 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 the overall performance of the concerned company. Although there are still some loopholes which require improvements.  Developing an FM strategy is a continuous process which evolves depending on the business needs. following are some factors which support the adoption of the above-mentioned principles of  CSR and sustainability as well as some factors which does not support sustainability and CSR.

• Encouraging Factors

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

• Discouraging Factors

1. Increased cost: It is obvious that adding more services increases expenses that cause high costs 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 a client organization offers new services it may 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 tasks. The first is retaining which is done to avoid failure known as preventive maintenance, and the second is restoring which 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 the building is sustainable concerning the environment, the 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 on its business objectives, goals and available resources and align it with the corporate business strategy which is followed by the organization. Therefore a facility manager must be involved in the structure of the organization so that he could be able to understand the organization's goals and business drives and incorporate a maintenance strategy in the 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 a maintenance strategy based on short, medium or long-term concerns. If an organization owns a stable business then long-term concerns span over more than five years. In contrast, if an organization have a volatile business for example telecommunication industry things evolve frequently. In that case, the organization should be very adaptable on short notice and make a quick move towards new trends. (Horner, El‐Haram and Munns, 1997)

For the current organization, a long-term maintenance strategy is suitable as it owns a very stable business that will last long over the years.  The 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 which is routine maintenance and the second is unplanned which 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 the 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 a building user guide should be circulated among stakeholders to let them know that maintenance objectives are clear.

Monitor Progress: Looking into daily updates and measuring the 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 there is no shared standard for retrofits. For high-rise residential buildings following considerations are important.

Renewable Energy Installations: Renewable energy stuff for example photovoltaic panels are not very 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 uses one-third of total electricity. Some major steps to save energy for HVAV are:

• Assessment of HVAC settings  and tuning 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 the 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 buildings is required to maintain HVAC and electrical systems for performance optimization. To maintain long-term energy efficiency performance, the following facts are important.

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

Power Factor Correction: It ensures that a specific equipment is effectively using electricity. Some equipment uses more power than others, which causes some extra bills that are not mentioned in the 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, and temperature set points so that energy consumption of the building can be controlled.

Peak Demand Management: Peak demand management is concerned with 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 managers make cost savings decisions.

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

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

• Facilities Manager

The facilities Manager is the key person who manages, 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 a sustainable environment for the residents. A facility manager could be a single person or a team that is working in a shared location.  These can be outsourced or in-house either as a single person or a team. The major responsibility of the facility manager is to fulfil the expectations of the consumers by providing information, and support, resolving issues, and understanding needs to ensure an excellent living environment for the inhabitants. A facility manager also deals with third parties for various operations related to building maintenance. In the case of high-rise residential buildings, the facility manager is also supposed to manage a group of people who work under his supervision for multiple operations so he must have managerial skills.  According to the latest trends, Skills for facility managers are divided into two types 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 the 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 the supervision of the 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: The facility management team is responsible to monitor and control the safety of the people and buildings. If they face any failure in their work, it leads to dissatisfaction and public-related issues.

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

Security: The FM team is also responsible for providing security for its organization specifically for hardware maintenance.

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

Contracts: The facilities management team is also responsible for revising the contracts they have done with third-party service providers.

Commercial property management: The FM team also manages property ownership and contracts.

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

Conclusion and Recommendations

Facility management stands as a burgeoning and crucial facet of business operations, aiming to enhance an organization's core functions. Providing comprehensive information about facilities is paramount for organizational transparency. The current facility management strategy employed by the client organization appears somewhat abstract, warranting the formulation of a more detailed and effective approach tailored to its specific needs. To achieve success, the collaboration of the facility management team is essential, particularly in the realms of building maintenance and energy management.

Recommendations for the client organization include:

1. Adopting a Comprehensive Facility Management Strategy: The current strategy lacks depth and should be restructured to encompass a more organized and extensive approach, integrating industry best practices.
2. Enhancing Facility Management Integration: The organization should focus on a more detailed integration of best practices within its facility management strategy to ensure a holistic and effective approach.
3. Establishing a Dedicated Facility Management Team: Given the organization's expansive business scope, the creation of a dedicated facility management team is imperative. A single individual may struggle to manage the extensive list of facility management tasks efficiently.
4. Formulating a Building Maintenance Strategy: The client organization should develop a concrete and detailed plan for building maintenance. The current abstract planning approach needs refinement to ensure the longevity and efficiency of facilities.
5. Implementing a Robust Energy Management Plan: In the context of high-rise residential buildings, addressing energy consumption is critical. A well-defined energy management plan can not only contribute to sustainability goals but also yield significant cost benefits for the organization.

By incorporating these recommendations, the client organization can elevate its facility management strategy, fostering a more efficient and streamlined approach that aligns with its business objectives and contributes to overall improvement.