Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Facilities Management |
Service Quality Indicators
AUDITING SYSTEMS FOR COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
IN INDIA
JIGAR CHAVDA
GUIDED BY: PROF. NIMITT KARIA
Master of Habitat Management
CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Contents
1.
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 3
What is the thesis about? ......................................................................................................... 3
What is Facilities Management (FM)? ................................................................................ 3
What are FM Service Quality Indicators? ......................................................................... 3
Why an Office Buildings / Commercial Buildings? ....................................................... 3
How will the thesis help in improving the current state of facilities? ................... 4
How will FM service quality indicators help?.................................................................. 4
What is the future scope and benefit of the thesis?....................................................... 4
Current Setting............................................................................................................................. 4
2.
3.
Objectives: .................................................................................................................................. 5
4.
Scope: ........................................................................................................................................... 5
5.
6.
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1. INTRODUCTION
If one has to understand the thesis one must know what the basic aims and objectives are. One
must also know what the thought that lead to the thesis was and how the research will
help/improve the existing case of the thesis. In order to do so the following answers to the
questions will give a brief overview to the document.
How will the thesis help in improving the current state of facilities?
The ratings will give the facilities managers and builders insights on how the building is
currently performing in terms of service delivery. It will also give clues on where the services
need to be improved.
Current Setting
As the urban areas grow, the complexity and scale of the buildings that house people in these
areas also grows. To keep these complex habitats running sustainably the management of the
facilities is necessary. Facilities management has over the years become an important field as
it involves guiding and managing the operations and maintenance of buildings, precincts and
community infrastructure on behalf of the property owners.
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and with growing economy comes
urbanization. Urban areas are driven by the commercial activity vis-a-vis the rural where
agriculture is dominant.
The growth in the office space and the creation of more integrated facilities and campuses has
created growth opportunities for more organized players. The market for facilities
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2. Thesis question:
What are the facilities management service quality indicators in commercial
buildings?
3. Objectives:
To understand the core concepts and benchmarks of service quality for facilities
management.
To understand and analyse the evaluating criteria for commercial buildings by the end
user.
To develop a rating system which will enable the facility managers to understand and
satisfy the needs of the end user.
4. Scope:
The thesis will present a brief description of what facilities management is and how ne
can define it.
It will also give a brief of what are the basic components of FM and how they are
benchmarked by making use of the service quality indicators.
It will also look at the current setting of the FM in India and how the service in India
qualify taking into consideration the global benchmarks.
It will develop benchmarks for a rating system for commercial buildings based on the
study of global benchmarks and research based in the local setting.
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5. Research methodology:
Define Question
Literature
Review
Case Studies
Conduct
Interviews
Conduct
Surveys
Identify
Stakeholders
Identify Sample
Size
Questionnaire
based on KPIs
Collect Data
Data Analysis
Prepare Rating
System
Literature review:
Qualitative study involving fundamental investigation of objective will be carried out in a
systematic manner from primary data, published research papers, international journals, and
standard books.
Data collection:
The primary data will be collected in the form of questionnaires and interviews from the users
of the commercial buildings in the context of Ahmedabad.
The interviews will focus on understanding the evaluating criteria of the end user for these
commercial buildings.
The questionnaires will be designed in order to focus on understanding the facilities
management service quality in commercial buildings and satisfaction level of the end users.
Data analysis:
Primary data collected will be analysed in line with the literature review outcome, both
quantitatively and qualitatively so as to reach the research objective.
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6. Literature Review:
The following text is a gist of the literature read in order to understand the core concepts of
facilities management. It will describe benchmarking and the concept of FM service quality
indicators on the basis of key performance indicators that are listed by the International
Facilities Management Association (IFMA) for buildings.
Further it will also describe a commercial space and the meaning of a commercial space in the
context of the research.
It will focus on case study of the design quality indicators which was developed to rate
buildings to help in understanding how a building is rated and what is the benefit of doing so.
Definition
Becker (1990)
Nourse (1990)
Alexander (1999)
Then (1999)
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And
(1999)
management;
space
management
and
Nutt (2000)
The earlier definitions highlight that facilities management is only concerned with the
hardware that is the buildings, equipment and furniture but later definitions also give an
emphasis on the software such as process, people, environment, health and safety as the part
of facilities management. Further some definitions also mention the life cycle of the building,
financing, space planning and operations as part of facilities management which further
broadens the scope of the field, and makes it a major support system for all the activities that
enhance the working of the built environment.
A more recent definition of facilities management is given by the international facilities
management association on its website, the definition is as follows:
Facilities management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure
functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology
(international facility management association, 2014).
For the purpose of the thesis the above definition holds true as it is derived from the current
setting of facilities management.
Property management (real estate) this includes strategic activities like designing,
planning and refurbishments.
Office administration - this focuses on tactical activities like catering, M&E, etc.
(kincaid, 1994)
Facilities management involves strategic planning that optimizes the value and costs of the
facilities. The environment that the facilities provide to the employees, processes and systems
has a large impact on productivity. Facilities management provides strategic direction and
development or guidance to achieve the desired results. Facilities management navigates the
requirements and mitigates the risks. Facilities management also reduces the load on the
resources used to manage a facility.
Lease Management
Risk Management
Governmental relations
Interior Design
Maintenance Management
Utility Operations
Facility Maintenance
Condition Assessment
Grounds Maintenance
Material control
General Services
Security
Telecommunications
Mail Services
The areas of work of a Facilities Manager, include the following core competencies
Professional FM is needed to plan, maintain and manage these facilities. It is part of the drive
to meet the higher demands of organizations and individuals. Whether as employees,
customers, students or patients, people have higher expectations of their living, working and
leisure environments. As, good facilities management can deliver flexibility, adaptability and
sustainability. It can help organizations respond to cost pressures or the need for greater
security.
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Types of benchmarking
Generally, three different types of the benchmarking, which influence its contents and course,
are distinguished:
Strategic benchmarking looks for the best strategies and their prerequisites. It is a tool
to the determination and orientation of future key competences by describing and
assessing different interdependent tendencies and processes of finances, customers,
competitively or capacity for learning and developing,
KPIs
Key performance indicators are specific measurements used to gauge performance. They're a
way to precisely measure performance. Like benchmarks, performance indicators can be
goals, but they're more like steps on the way to the larger goal. You also can think of key
performance indicators as a way to measure your progress toward the benchmark goal and to
gauge how close you are to reaching that goal.
The table below lists the 9 areas defined by the IFMA for KPIs.
1. Description of
Facilities
facilities
Industries
represented
Facility use,
Hours of operation
No. of occupants
Location of facility
Vacancy rates
Space allocation
Ownership
policies
occupant
Building efficiency
rates
Workstation
utilization rates
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4. Relocation and
Churn
Organizational
moves
Cost of moves
Churn rate
Support area
5. Maintenance,
Janitorial and Indirect
Costs
Maintenance costs
By age of facility
Percentage of
6. Utility costs
Utility costs
Utility usage
replacement cost
Outsourcing of
maintenance function
Janitorial costs,
Indirect costs
7. Environmental and
costs
9. Financial Indicators
Replacement value of
Environmental costs
Security costs
Life-safety costs
Project costs
Cost of operations
Employee amenities
facility
costs
fixed asset
Occupancy cost
Financial ratios
As KPIs are used as metrics to measure performance they can be used to both enhance the
internal performance of the building management and also as a tool to benchmark externally
with the best practises around.
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all participants
Need absolutely specific definition
Based on the KPIs one can develop a balanced scorecard to access the performance of the
facility.
The vision is translated into operational goals and linked to departmental and
individual performance
The balanced scorecard process involves viewing the organization from four perspectives,
developing measurements to gauge performance and analysing data relative to each
perspective:
In a perfect planning cycle, the balanced scorecard is derived from the organization's strategic
plan, the strategy map is derived from the balanced scorecard and the operating budget stems
from all three.
For the purpose of the thesis the balanced scorecard can be used for gauging the internal
performance of the facility and stakeholder perspectives. Further the card can be designed in
order to rate the building for user satisfaction and service quality.
health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health and well-being
BREEAM has two categories; for design & procurement assessment at the beginning of the
design process and management & operation assessment after it is in use.
Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
LEED is still only used at the end of the construction process or design process for
rehabilitation projects.
Apart from the above 2 rating systems a building assessment system was designed to
document, rate and improve the quality of the buildings. The following is a Case Study of the
same.
Build Quality (firmitas) the engineering performance of the building, which includes
structural stability and the integration, safety and robustness of the systems, finishes
and fittings.
Impact (venustas) the buildings ability to create a sense of place and have a positive
effect on the local community and environment.
What is it for?
It has been developed to help all built environment stakeholders gain more value from the
design of buildings, and to assist in improving the quality of buildings.
Who is it for?
A non-technical device, the DQI can be used by all stakeholders involved in the production
and use of buildings, including public and private clients, developers, financiers, design firms,
contractors, building managers and occupants.
When can it be used?
The DQI questionnaire encompasses questions which are relevant at any stage in the
development of a building and the tool can be revisited and re-used throughout the life of the
project. Ideally the DQI is used at every key stage of the development; it can also be used
repeatedly at a particular stage. There are four versions of the tool and DQI Online
automatically adjusts the questions displayed so they are relevant to the particular phase of
the project that is being assessed.
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