Facility Management VS Building Maintenance; What is the Difference?

Three months ago, I ran a Linkedin poll where 400+ industry professionals voted on a simple question;

Is there a difference between (Building Maintenance) and (Facility Management)?

The vote results went this way;

379 professionals ~ 94% Voted YES.

While only 24 of them ~ 6% Voted NO.

But the views on the reason for the difference were not as clear as the vote!

In this Edition of The Facility Manager, we will explore the main distinction between Facility Management (FM) and Building Maintenance (BM).

A Relatively New Profession

The fact that while the majority agree that there is a difference between FM and BM, organizations and professionals alike are still having ambiguity on the distinction between both.

38 years and evolving

One of the reasons for this ambiguity is that Facility Management is a relatively new profession;

facility management started to be used as a specialist business function in the USA about 38 years ago, in the early 1980s, when it was recognized as a distinct professional field and separated from a single enterprise. The National Facility Management Association (NFMA) was formed in 1980, and in 1982, the NFMA expanded to form the International Facility Management Association (IFMA).

38 years and the profession is still progressing; while in some markets, the profession is maturing faster (mainly in EU & US), the adoption of FM is slow in other markets (Developing countries).

10 years ago in the MENA region, job postings featured the title of "Maintenance Manager", whereas now, Facilities Manager is the common title for employers to use in their job postings.

Similarly, when a company wanted to tender their building services, the tenders header used to be "Operations & Maintenance of XYZ buildings," whereas recently, the use of "Facility Management Services" is becoming the norm in tenders. We can sense the change in many other areas, not only job postings and tenders.

Different adoption levels

As FM is still evolving, and our understanding of it changes with time, organizations' appreciation of the FM role varies and changes with time.

In many organizations, especially in the MENA region, facility management does not exceed the name; everything the FM do is just maintenance. Even the other departments within the organization would still call the facility manager as the maintenance manager, even though the sign on the door says Facility Management department!

On the other hand, in many organizations, Facility Managers, now more than ever, are asked to manage business activities, sustainability and ESG targets and work with other departments within their organizations to achieve the organization's objectives. And their role is increasingly involved in things that are more than just taking care of a building or its equipment.

Question: Would Facility Managers be called #BuiltEnvironment professionals in the future? "Share your view with us in the comments."

Let us take a closer look at the difference between building maintenance and facility management.

The Distinction

First, we start by defining FM. ISO definition of facility management adopted by IFMA would be the best start;

What is Facility Management?

Facility Management is an organizational function which integrates people, place and?process?within the?built environment?with the purpose of improving the?quality?of life of people and the productivity of the?core business.

The rest of the distinction is simple; it all comes from the definition!

Let us explore the distinctions between FM and BM as follows;

Scope

? Building Maintenance involves specific day-to-day tasks and activities that are necessary to keep a building in good working order, like cleaning, repairs, assets, and equipment replacements.

BM is tactical, mostly with a focus on day-to-day tasks.

? Facility Management encompasses a wider range of responsibilities; it investigates people's comfort, safety, and customer satisfaction.

Also, other business activities like managing budgets, coordinating with vendors and contractors, and ensuring compliance with regulations, as it is a strategic organization function.

FM is strategic; it brings huge value to the organization in the long term!

Purpose

? Building Maintenance focuses on specific tasks and activities related to maintaining buildings and assets.

The purpose of BM is to take care of buildings and equipment.

? Facility Management has two purposes;

1- Improve people’s quality of life and productivity by integrating people, processes, places and technology.

2- Supporting the overall organizational strategy that it serves by improving the productivity of the core business.

Skills

? Maintenance Managers workers typically have specialized skills and knowledge in technical areas like MEP or HVAC.

? Facility Managers need to have a broader range of skills as they have a wider range of responsibilities, such as managing customers, managing the workplace, budgets, vendors, and contractors.

IFMA has identified 11 core competencies a Facility Manager needs to perform the job. Those are;

IFMA's 11 core competencies of facility management;

1. Communication
2. Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity
3. Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
4. Finance and Business
5. Human Factors
6. Leadership and Strategy
7. Operations and Maintenance
8. Project Management
9. Quality
10. Real Estate and Property Management
11. Technology

The PPPT

I always explained it to the CFM class students this way;

We help someone (People) to do something (Process) somewhere (Place), and we utilize Technology to do that!

? People: People are the beating heart of the built environment; the whole purpose of the built environment is to let people do something (a process) within.

Facility Management has people at both ends! It starts with integrating people, place, and process and ends with the purpose of improving quality of life!

? Process: The process that people will perform within the #builtenvironment is at the core focus of facility management; enhancing the process and looking at customer touch points within the built environment supports the business objectives and increases customer satisfaction.

? Place: The built environment is where all the action happens. We take care of it to enable people to live, work, play and enjoy (process), improving their quality of life and supporting business productivity in the workplace.

? Technology: We live in an era where technology is at the heart of any business or process. Utilizing technology to improve the quality of life for people or improve business productivity always comes at the top priority of FM.

Conclusion

The main distinction between Facility Management and Building Maintenance is summarized in the following bullet points;

Facility Management

? Strategic

? Long term

? Takes care of people

? Requires a large set of skills

? Focus on improving business productivity

Building Maintenance

? Tactical

? Short Term

? Takes care of equipment and buildings

? Requires engineering skills, mostly

? Focus on improving equipment efficiency and productivity

Join me at the CFM (Certified Facility Manager) live course in the upcoming session (4th March) organized by Built Environment Institute to advance your career in facility management.

I use?#linkedin ?to share knowledge with the community of?#builtenvironment ?professionals.

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