Facility Management
Richard Davies, CEO and Partner of Evbex-Asia who visited Sri Lanka for the first time, signed an MoU to partner Arosha Jayasundera, CEO of the Asian Institute of Excellence (AIE), to bring more depth and his experience in developing the Facilities Management sector in Sri Lanka. This is a relatively new profession and industry, which is expanding quickly to meet the growth in the economy and infrastructure.
Richard Davies is a member of they Technical Committee (267), responsible for developing the new range of ISO FM Standards
Facility Management
Whilst on his visit, he also made presentations to the National Chamber of Commerce, The Institute of Facilities Management and to the University of Moratuwa on the subject of Facilities Management (FM). Contrary to the perception by many, Professional Facilities Management encompasses more than simply providing Cleaning and Security services. According to Richard Davies, the latest Standard, ISO 41001 Facility Management, Management systems, Requirements with guidance for use, will ensure that service quality and performance is tail or made for the FM sector.
ISO 41001 will help organizations manage, operate and maintain facilities, assets and services in order to meet ever-changing operational requirements in an efficient and effective manner. Facility management (FM) organizes disparate stakeholder group requirements and the interrelationships between core business activities and the support services and environments required to meet the demand organization’s needs.
ISO 41001 provides structure organizing facility operations through resource management, value of money, workplace standards, compliance, environmental impact and the overall efficiency and effectiveness of facilities, assets and services satisfying the demand organization’s needs.
The construction and building industry in Sri Lanka is suffering as a result of the lack of experience and depth in the Facility Management field. The issues arising now in Sri Lanka in the rapidly developing high rise complexes are similar to the challenges faced by the UK market 30 years ago. With regards to the industry in general, maintenance is considered on a reactive basis only by many organizations.
In addition, the handover of construction and installation projects to occupation and operation needs to improve significantly as there are many gaps and issues once the project has been handed over in terms of general maintenance thereafter. Building maintenance currently does not adhere to rigid ‘Standards’ and this would improve from introduction of International Standards and the service specific Standards developed for the UK market.
Building excellence can be developed by incorporating other models of Excellence, such as collaborative relationship management, TQM, Lean practices, innovation and continuous improvement. Through improved procurement and tendering alone, for instance, companies can expect to achieve cost savings of circa 10–15%, in addition to achieving best value outcomes, align themselves to a tailored and optimum FM model in terms of meeting the desired business objectives and innovation drivers.
Richard Davies has created a model called the Quality-Value index (QVi). This unique process assists the Journey to ‘affordable’ best practice and is a demonstrable method for improving performance and service quality. The model is based on 5 critical areas which include customers, relationship, people, FM excellence and innovation. Following a QVI review, it can be ascertained where a company is positioned according to the FM maturity scale — in one of five categories ranging from poor, unacceptable, satisfactory, good practice and best practice at the top level. With this understanding, areas for further improvements can be identified more precisely.
