Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

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SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2 Deciding on a final design before fully assessing client and user needs and problems may prove very costly (O’Reilly 1987). Common problems of meeting end-user needs If design can have such an impact on functionality and satisfaction, why is the design phase of construction not becoming more advanced to meet end-user needs? Designers have two clients; clients who pay for what is built and clients who will eventually use it. The user client has little choice or control which presents designers with a problem. When users are unknown, designers tend to make assumptions as if they were users (Blyth and Worthington 2001). Therefore, this lack of knowledge regarding the eventual use of a building can severely reduce the effectiveness of the design by the architects. Clients can often find that they are expected to have far greater knowledge and understanding of construction and the implications of what will be built, than they actually do. The clients’ expertise is in their business and not within delivering buildings; they rely on the designers and contractors to provide a delivery service that will support business needs (Blyth and Worthington 2001). Facilities Management (FM) The FM profession is a relatively new phenomenon yet potentially can bring a number of benefits within the UK construction industry. A definition of FM is required to fully understand these benefits, especially at the briefing and design phases of construction. Their impact within the industry will be considered after the initial introductory information has been presented. The ideas of Sustainability and FM will be discussed in Chapter Four. FM has seen rapid growth during 1990. There is an increasing tendency for organisations to contract out non-core business activities in order to provide the best service at the lowest cost (Shah 2007, Barrett and Baldry 2003). There remains a number of differing opinions of what FM actually is although the most widely accepted concept is provided by the BIFM (ratified by BSI British Standards): “Facilities Management is the integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities” (BIFM 2008). The foundation of FM is based upon integration of the planning and management of a range of hard services (e.g. building fabric) and soft services (e.g. catering, cleaning and security) to achieve quality and economies of scale. “FM is concerned with managing not just the building structure but the facilities that are also provided within the structure in order to improve the overall value for money for the client” (BIFM 2008). Shah (2007) highlights the main FM service categories which are as follows: • Cleaning • Data Management and IT • Building Management and Maintenance • Ground Management and Maintenance • Security • Procurement • Project Management • Health and Safety These categories show the diverse range of services FM can be involved in and the possible efficiency benefits regarding the effective management of each. As an example, building maintenance can affect the longevity of the components within a buildings fabric of services. Inadequate maintenance could result in a costly refurbishments/replacement and reduced employee well-being. These vast competencies of what FM are involved in reflects on the lack of widely accepted definition of the profession. 218
HANDBOOK 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION “Facility managers are people who are actively involved in managing the delivery, operation, maintenance and disposal of their organisations facility or facilities. Many FMs have migrated from building-related professions such as architecture and engineering” (Moller and McCartney 2007). FM is based on the premise that the effectiveness and efficiency of an organisation is linked to the physical environment in which it operates (Barrett and Baldry 2003). Most FM operations occur at the operational phase of a building lifecycle to ensure the organisations’ buildings and infrastructure support business goals. Businesses that can run its facilities more efficiently will have a competitive advantage as well as the possibility of improving its profitability (Leifer 2003). Users and occupants of a building are concerned with getting their work completed with the minimum of disruption. FM provides a service to enable users to get their jobs done and must interact with the client for continuous improvement (Blyth and Worthington 2001). Duffy (2000) claimed the discipline has developed, although cost cutting seems to have become the predominant objective and distinguishing feature of FM in practice. “The expertise of the FM profession can contribute to almost every stage of the procurement process and hence the final product in an economic, social and environmental sense” (Hadi et al. 2006). By moving away from the operational phases of a facility and understanding that little is known regarding a buildings eventual use pattern at the design stages, FM can inform the process of briefing and building design (Clements-Croome 2004). This investment at the design phase can deliver significant benefits in use including minimised capital cost, maximised attributes that contribute to better business operation and minimised financial drain over the life cycle of the building (Halliday 2008). The building can be specified to meet the end-users’ core business activities. Facilities Management and Building Design Shah (2007) illustrates when the operational performance of a building is not met, whether this is due to the designers not fully understanding their remit or the operators not having the ability to manage the facility, it is the occupants and finances that suffer. Shah (2007) gives the possible reasons for poor design as follows: • Inadequate communication through the delivery of a facility where the client requirements are not included within the final designs or the FM is involved at a late stage. • Different agendas of the parties where the client brief does not always capture end-user requirements or the architects design without end-user input. • Decisions made without the view of long-term maintenance. • Minimal design timescale results in rushed decisions and fast handover FMs arguably have the greatest knowledge of facilities in operation and can inform the design of a new building of the end-user requirements. However, there is a tendency for those concerned in running the building not to talk to those who design and provide them (Halliday 2008). The FM must aim to have direct involvement with the Client, Architect and Project Manager to provide operational knowledge at an early stage. Designers need to understand the way people operate in buildings, the way in which they are used and the ways in which their performance and productivity can be maximised to the benefit of the organisation and society at large. Facilities Managers have a great role in advancing sustainability agenda through the continuous practice of <strong>sustainable</strong> FM (Elmualim et al. 2009; Atkin and Brookes 2005). Methodology Methodology is a set of working methods and can be defined as a body of practices, procedures and rules used by those who engage in an enquiry. Research has a number of characteristics where data is collected and interpreted systematically with a clear purpose to finding things out. Systematic research is based on logical relationships and not just beliefs with the requirement of a clear purpose (Saunders et al. 2003). 219
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Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

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