Facility management is about integrating people, process, and technology into an integrated whole, for the enhancing of the end-user experience. Digital transformation, before our very eyes, in the 21st century is enabling this process at an unprecedented rate. Emerging future projected trends for Facilities management is thus aimed at transforming permanently, the total functionalities of the profession from one which is centered on assets to one which focuses on end-user outcomes.
FM is now a multi billion-dollar industry, which takes advantage of modern trends in terms of the services it provides to clients. Hence, the hot topics surrounding FM involves these trends that ensure that business operations centered round facilities management continue to stay relevant well into the final decades of this century, and beyond. For as people continue to live and work in buildings, they must be integrated and managed along with these structures they do most of their living in.
TREND #1: SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES
Most companies worldwide now recognize the importance of engaging with facility management partners who will be tasked with the responsibility of providing sustainable infrastructure and solutions, all to reduce the carbon footprint of the parent company, for the health of the planet. These FM units will champion the use of sustainable practices, like going green, prohibiting the use of non-biodegradable materials to ensure that buildings are increasingly eco-friendly.
Traditionally, the main arena of facility management was to determine areas of maintenance, such as utilities, waste, energy provision, recycling practices. Now, FM is strongly associated with the sustainability agenda. While the rage now is post-modern, eco-friendly buildings, even older buildings can, through the proper utilization of modern infrastructure, achieve energy efficiency fairly easily.
An additional role of facility managers is to ensure that the adoption of positive environmental practices is well ingrained into the mentality of today’s workforce.
TREND #2: A NEW APPROACH TO TEAMWORK
The Covid-19 pandemic, having changed many details about work, play, and interaction brought with it many changes, the most common being the the arrival of office flex spaces. Office workers are starting to accept these spaces, even as they are working from home alternately. “Co-working” is now the new normal.
Facility managers are learning different ways of adaptation as downsizing of building spaces continue and workers transition into the work-from-home model. Many businesses are tempted to continue indefinitely with this new model of flex workspaces and remote working when they consider factors such as equipment lifecycle, energy consumption, costs of leased spaces, and technical maintenance.
TREND #3: FM WHICH IS DATA-DRIVEN
Outsiders to the field may whimsically think of FM as a simple process, but facility managers realize that just navigating the system takes a large chunk of a typical day. Hence the emergence of data-driven software solutions which aid them in decision-making. Here are just a few of the more popular, useful solutions:
- CMMS: Computerized Maintenance Management System is a facility management software mainly for asset and inventory management.
- CAFM: Computer-aided Facility Management Software for teams that look toward utilizing spaces in their facility, alongside asset and inventory management.
- IWMS: Integrated Workplace Management System for companies looking towards resource optimization within a single software platform,
- BMS/BAS/BIM: For simplification and automation of building control. Can also be used to ensure energy efficiency.
These varied technologies help facility managers increase operational efficiency and cut costs.
TREND #4: INTEGRATED FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (IFM)
When forward-thinking managers bring together all of their services together under a single supplier, that is Integrated Facilities Management. However, this is more than just reducing the number of suppliers. Control is achieved by maintaining a single point of reference and accountability: advisory services, transaction services, facilities management, and project management are all connected into an integrated whole.
The decision-making process is made simpler and service quality is of greater consistency because the players who make the decisions understand all parts of the whole and how they relate to each other.
When the service provider has full knowledge of corporate goals, then recommendations given are of greater import. From lease renewals to location changes to workplace strategies, all the combined knowledge will only result in better performance.
Facility management has come a long way. And tech is the main driver of transformation. In the 21st century, facility managers merge innovative skills, with expertise, forward thinking, with an emphasis on continuous improvement.
All the following stated depicts the manager’s role as a change agent and driver of productivity. Change is the constant thing in life, but these facility management trends are here to stay!!