Facility (or Facilities) management (FM) is an interdisciplinary field devoted to the co-ordination of all business support services. It is commonly misrepresented as a maintenance function in buildings. In reality it involves all types of business support processes including the care of offices, commercial or institutional buildings, such as hospitals, hotels, office complexes, arenas, schools or convention centers. FM can be defined as the integration and alignment of the non-core services, including those relating to premises, required to operate and maintain a business to fully support the core objectives of the organisation (Pitt & Tucker, "Performance Measurement in FM", Property Management Vol. 26 No. 4, 2008 pp. 241-254). Over the years, FM has been growing as a business field and also as a scientific discipline, slowly finding and anchoring its position among organisations’ business processes. Nowadays, the dedication of FM organisations to new developments and continuous innovation processes seems to be the way to stay in business, constantly exceeding customers’expectations and adding value to the core business of the client organisation (Mudrak, T., Wagenburg, A.V. and Wubben, E. (2004), “Assessing the innovative ability of FM teams: a review”, Facilities, Vol. 22 Nos 11/12, pp. 290-5).
According to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), it is "a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, processes and technology." The European facility management association, EuroFM, uses the EN15221 definition.The definition of facility management, EN15221-1, provided by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and ratified by BSI British Standards 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." According to this European standard the scope of FM is 'Space & Infrastructure' (planning, design, workplace, construction, lease, occupancy, maintenance, furniture, cleaning, etc.) and 'People & Organisation'(catering, ICT, HRM, HS&S, accounting, marketing, hospitality, etc.).
According to British standard BS 8536:2010 facility management is performed during the operational phase[1] of a facility or building’s life cycle, which normally extends over many decades. It represents a continuous process of service provision to support the owner’s core business and one where improvement is sought on a continuous basis. The support of administrative facility management through information technology is identified as computer-aided facility management(CAFM).
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The discipline of facility management and the role of facility managers in particular are evolving to the extent that many managers have to operate at two levels: strategic-tactical and operational. In the former case, owners need to be informed about the potential impact of their decisions on the provision of space and services. In the latter, it is the role of a facility manager to ensure proper operation of all aspects of a building to create an optimal, safe and cost effective environment for the occupants to function. This is accomplished by managing some of the following activities.