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5
Proceedings
Facilities Management
and Maintenance

Selected papers presented at the CIB World Building Congres

Construction and Society, Brisbane 5-9 May 2013
 CIB Commission
W070 – Facilities Management and Maintenance

Papers from the Designated Session Facilities Management and Maintenance that took
place as part of the CIB World Building Congress, Brisbane, Australia, May 2013,
under the responsibility of Working Commission W070 – Facilities Management and
Maintenance

Papers reviewed by:

Dr. Danny Then, Coordinator CIB W070, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Professor Keith Jones, University of Greenwich, England, United Kingdom
Professor Per Anker Jensen, Centre for Facilities Management, Technical University of
Denmark
Dr. Joseph Lai, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

CIB Publication 385

 W070 – Facilities Management and Maintenance

W070 aims:
• to foster a deeper understanding of how our built environment influences human
behavior, health and organizational productivity
• to promote the strategic and operational value of facilities management and asset
maintenance in meeting emerging business challenges
• to forge closer links and collaboration between the financial, technical, sociological
and operational aspects of facilities management and asset maintenance through an
integrated resource management approach
• to disseminate the findings of research work on facilities management and asset
management to a wider audience
• to provide a forum for the exchange of know-how and best practice in education,
research and industry that addresses physical workplace and functional workspace
demands
• to communicate the work of CIB W070 by publication of its symposium
proceedings.
CIB  World  Building  Congress,  Brisbane  May  2013  

Proceedings  –  Facilities  Management  and  Asset  Maintenance  

Foreword    

The  selection  of  papers  under  Working  Commission  W070  –  Facilities  Management  and  
Asset  Maintenance,  is  representative  of  the  wide  spread  of  topics  within  its  remit.  
Personally,  I  do  not  see  this  varied  spread  of  topics  as  a  weakness  but  rather,  as  testament  
to  the  complex  nature  of  facilities  management  as  a  discipline.    The  practice  of  facilities  
management  and  the  long-­‐term  care  of  durable  physical  assets  dictate  that  both  
practitioners  and  researchers  alike  have  to  communicate  with  different  stakeholders  in  
order  to  assess  facilities  requirements,  appropriately  service  and  monitor  the  performance  
of  built  environment  for  a  range  of  users  within  increasingly  sophisticated  facilities.  

This  proceeding  comprised  learned  papers  covering  aspects  concerning  strategic  issues  in  
facilities  and  asset  management  relating  to  adding  value  to  organization,  sustainability,  
usability  and  educational  development;  as  well  as  operational  processes  and  tools  in  
performance  evaluation,  post  –occupancy  evaluation,  maintenance  and  energy  
management.  

Danny  Shiem-­‐shin  Then  

Coordinator  CIBW070  –Facilities  Management  and  Asset  Maintenance  

 
 CONTENTS

Papers

Developing a Research Framework for Studying Performance Evaluation of 1

Engineering Facilities in Commercial Buildings in Hong Kong
Chun Sing Man, Joseph Hung Kit Lai and Francis Wai Hung Yik

Discussion of Facilities Management as lead user and innovation driver towards 13

improvement of energy efficiency and user comfort of buildings
Antje Junghans

Establishing the ‘DEA Energy Management System' for Individual 25

Departments within Universities - An Exploratory Study
Kung-Jen Tu

Factors affecting the Maintenance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) 37

in Nigeria
Mohammed Olowoake and Song Wu

Factors Threatening the Cultural Heritage- the Windows of Europe 49

Paul Dettwiler

How Can Facilities Management Add Value To Organisations 61

As Well As To Society?
Per Anker Jensen, Anna-Liisa Sarasoja, Theo van der Voordt and Christian Coenen

Issues of breadth and depth in Facilities Management - Reflections of 74

30 years of educational development.
Danny Shiem Shin Then

Marketing, Programme and Project Management: 87

relationship building and maintenance over project lifecycles
Hedley Smyth

Post-occupancy evaluation of university student hostel facilities: 100

a case study in Hong Kong
Joseph Lai

Sustainability in FM: Trends in Policy and FM competence consequences 111

Abbas Elmualim

The Characteristics of Public Real Estate Asset Management and Maintenance 124
Practice in New Zealand Council Community Buildings
Zulkfli Sapeciay, Suzanne Wilkinson and Seosamh Costello

Usability: managing facilities for social outcomes 136

Keith Alexander, Siri Blakstad, Geir Hansen, Per Anker Jensen,
Goran Lindahl, Suvi Nenonen
 Developing a Research Framework for Studying
Performance Evaluation of Engineering Facilities in
Commercial Buildings in Hong Kong

C.S. Man1, Joseph H.K. Lai2 and Francis, W.H. Yik3

Abstract

The property value of commercial buildings in Hong Kong is in the top tier around the world.
Underpinning the proper functioning of these buildings are various engineering facilities,
which entail substantial resources for their operation, maintenance and management. In
order to assess the effectiveness of such resources input, the performance of the facilities
needs to be evaluated but a holistic scheme for evaluating the performance of engineering
facilities in existing commercial buildings is yet to be established. This article reports on the
initial phase of work of a research study that addresses this issue. Through a
comprehensive literature review, a broad range of performance indicators were identified
and the indicators have been systematically categorized under five aspects, namely
physical; financial; task and equipment related; environmental; and health, safety and legal.
On this basis, a research framework comprising four stages of work has been established.
In addition to describing the tasks to be undertaken under this framework such as focus
group discussion, questionnaire survey and case study, the future works needed are also
identified.

Keywords: commercial buildings, engineering facilities, literature review,

performance evaluation, research framework.

1
PhD student; Department of Building Services Engineering; Hong Kong Polytechnic University;
Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong; m.c.sing@connect.polyu.hk.

2
Associate Professor; Department of Building Services Engineering; Hong Kong Polytechnic
University; Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong; joseph.lai@polyu.edu.hk.

3
Professor; Department of Building Services Engineering; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Hung
Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong; francis.wai-hung.yik@polyu.edu.hk.

1
1. Introduction

Commercial buildings in Hong Kong are well-known for their high sale and rental values but
their values could be eroded by inadequate performance of their engineering facilities, such
as air-conditioning, electrical and other installations. On the other hand, substantial amounts
of resources need to be input for proper operation, maintenance and management of the
facilities and, therefore, the output, viz. the performance of the facilities, needs to be
evaluated such that whether the resources are utilized effectively can be measured.

Although there were studies that pinpointed at particular aspects of performance of

engineering facilities in existing commercial buildings, e.g. their energy or environmental
control performance, few have addressed holistically their performance, which covers a wide
variety of operation and maintenance issues. With the objective of establishing a holistic
scheme for evaluating the performance of engineering facilities in commercial buildings, a
research study is being undertaken and this article reports on the outcomes of the initial
phase of the study.

The findings of a literature review are summarized in the next section, which covers the
typical range of engineering facilities in commercial buildings; the stakeholders of such
buildings; the impetus for having a system that can enable evaluation of the facilities’
performance; and the major evaluation tools relevant to the objective of the present study.
Also reported in Section 2 are the large number of performance indicators identified from the
literature and the categories into which they were classified. Section 3 describes the
essential stages of work to be carried out in the study, including the approach for developing
a scheme for evaluation of the performance of the facilities. In the concluding section, the
key findings of the initial stage of the study and the planned stages of further work are
reported.

2. Literature review

2.1 Engineering facilities and stakeholders

The engineering services (facilities) that are essential to buildings include those that provide:
energy supply (gas, electricity and renewable sources); fire detection and protection; cooling,
heating and ventilation; water supply and drainage; lighting; vertical transportation;
refrigeration; communication; security and alarm; etc. (Chartered Institution of Building
Services Engineers, 2012). They are means for delivering the services needed by users of
buildings, which help maintain a safe, healthy, convenient and comfortable indoor
environment suitable for the activities of the building users. Without them, buildings are but
inhabitable cells that can hardly fulfil the purposes that they are intended to serve. In addition
to the capital input for making available the facilities in the first place, further inputs of
resources are needed in the delivery process of the services that the facilities provide, which
include human resources, energy and spare parts and materials for their operation and
maintenance (O&M) and for management of the O&M processes. The performance of the
facilities may be gauged by the quantities of physical outputs that they turn out, such as the
amount of ventilation air or cooling delivered or the number of persons transported, against

2
the amount of resources input into the process; the precision and stability of the indoor
environmental conditions that they are able to maintain; or the reliability of the facilities in
providing the needed services. Nevertheless, the eventual performance of the services
delivery process may also be judged by how well the needs of the end users are satisfied
(Figure 1). The performance of engineering facilities in buildings, therefore, needs to be
assessed from different perspectives. As engineering facilities may change with building
function in response to new owner requirements or organisational revolutions (Then et al.,
2004) and their performance may be affected by the effectiveness of the on-going
management and a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors (e.g. wear and tear, end
user demands), assessment of their performance should be a continual process.

Provider (FM team) Facilities Receivers (End users)

Figure 1: Service delivery process of facilities

2.2 Need for a performance evaluation system

Managing the engineering facilities in buildings is a key application of facilities management

(FM), which has emerged as a professional discipline that deals with facilities that support
the core business of an organization. FM covers a wide spectrum of property and user
related functions that may be brought together for the benefit of an organization, by
optimizing the efficiency, cost and quality of the support services (Amaratunga et al., 2000).

FM also emphasizes putting in place a performance evaluation scheme to identify and

measure the effectiveness of the FM functions. Performance measurement, which enables
facility managers to monitor the output quality of the works they manage and to compare and
identify any needs for improvement (Kincaid, 1994), is a key management activity that
informs effective decision making (Webster and Hung, 1994), including decisions on
allocation of resources (Thor, 1991). A multi-dimensional and balanced performance
measurement system can provide impetus that drives a company forward (Najmi et al.,
2005).

2.3 Performance evaluation tools

Fit-for-purpose measurement tools are a prerequisite to performance evaluations, and many

such tools have been devised and widely used in various sectors. For example, the
“Balanced Scorecard” (BSC) was developed for assessing financial and non-financial
aspects of companies in the business sector (Kaplan and Norton, 1992), which measures
performance in four perspectives, namely financial, customer, internal business process, and
innovation and learning.

The SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al, 1985) is for measuring and managing quality of
services, which can be an efficient tool for an organization to shape up their efforts in
bridging the gap between perceived and expected services (Ingram and Daskalakis, 1999).
This model, however, cannot be applied in a straightforward manner to measurement of the
performance of engineering facilities in commercial buildings because the “customers” are

3
laypersons to engineering and they would not normally realise how the facilities are operated
and maintained. Nevertheless, their perceived levels of satisfaction about the availability of
services, degree of thermal comfort, quality of lighting output and water supply, etc., is
indeed a reflection of the ultimate performance of the facilities. It follows from this argument
that reference should be made to the dimensions covered by the SERVQUAL model in
developing a scheme for performance evaluation of engineering facilities in buildings.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are meant to provide objective quantifications of the
critical aspects of performance of a process. Appropriate KPIs are essential to measurement
of the performance of maintenance processes, which will allow performance to be compared
internally and, where applicable, against external benchmarks, through which to identify
strengths and weakness and to control progress and changes over time (British Standards
Institution, 2007). In the construction sector, some KPIs were established for reflecting the
performance of construction projects (Chan and Chan, 2004). In the study of Ho et al.
(2000), which attempted to develop a set of performance metrics for facilities management,
corporations in the Asia Pacific region were asked to rate the importance of 97 metrics on a
five-point scale and indicate if the metric was being used in their FM practice. They found
that there was limited understanding and practice of FM benchmarking in the region and the
awareness of the impact of FM on overall business was low.

For engineering facilities in existing commercial buildings, some initiatives have been taken
to develop KPIs for evaluation of their performance. In the work of Lai and Yik (2006), it was
found that the hurdles to the development of KPIs include the knowledge, financial,
motivation and information barriers of the FM practitioners. Nevertheless, a hierarchy
incorporating some common KPIs has been suggested for measuring the performance of
different levels of O&M works (Table 1). With reference to this hierarchy, further work is
needed to develop KPIs for applications on existing commercial buildings.

Table 1: A hierarchy of KPIs for engineering facilities (adapted from Lai and Yik (2006))
Hierarchical level Key Performance Indicator
Input Process Output
Strategic O & M cost - Building income
Building area Building area
Tactical O & M cost % compliance with required % users dissatisfied
Capacity of installation response time
Operational No. of manhours No. of equipment faults per No. of completed work
Capacity of installation month orders per staff

2.4 Performance indicators and performance categories

From the literature, 71 indicators have been identified as potentially suitable for performance
evaluation of engineering facilities (as listed in the Appendix). For facilitating effective
management and reporting of performance, these indicators should be systemically
classified into different categories with reference to the aspects of performance (British
Standards Institution, 2007; Lavy et al., 2010; Muchiri et al., 2011; Parida and

4
Chattopadhyay, 2007; Shohet, 2006) or the stages of the process (e.g. Muchiri et al., 2011)
to which they apply. A summary of the past classification efforts is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Past efforts in classifying performance indicators

Research Field/ Methods Number of Categories classified

application indicators
Gilleard and FM Identified by a Not specified (1) Financial performance, (2)
Wong (2004) director of productivity, (3) project performance,
facility (4) equipment availability, (5)
management compliance, (6) complaint and
services at a accident frequency, (7) customer
property satisfaction
development
company
Shohet (2006) Healthcare KPIs were 11 (1) Asset development, (2)
facilities developed organization and management, (3)
management based on performance management, (4)
statistical and maintenance efficiency
quantitative
analysis
British Industrial and Not specified 71 (1) Economic, (2) technical and (3)
Standards supporting organizational
Institution facilities
(2007) (buildings,
infrastructure,
transport, etc.)
Parida and Process and Literature survey 28 (1) Equipment related indicators, (2)
Chattopadhyay utility and interviews maintenance task related indicators,
(2007) industries (3) cost related indicators, (4) impact
on customer satisfaction, (5) learning
and growth, (6) health, safety,
security and the environment (HSSE)
and (7) employee satisfaction
Lavy et al. FM Literature review 35 (1) Financial, (2) functional, (3)
(2010) and a brief physical, (4) survey-based
survey with
eleven FM
professionals
who are
involved in FM
services and
consultancy
Muchiri et al. Manufacturing Literature review 31 (1) Leading (work identification, work
(2011) industry planning, work scheduling and work
execution), (2) lagging (measures of
equipment performance and
measures of cost performance)

The 71 performance indicators can be grouped into five categories - (1) physical (impact on
customers’ satisfaction), (2) financial, (3) task and equipment related, (4) environmental, and
(5) health, safety and legal. Physical indicators, e.g. thermal comfort, visual comfort, aural
comfort, etc., include those representing the physical quality of services delivered by the
engineering facilities. While reflecting the feelings or perceptions of end-users, the quality of
the services impacts on the customers’ satisfaction. Financial indicators (e.g. percentage of
contractor cost, O&M cost per building area) are those indicators related to costs and

5
expenditures associated with O&M works for the facilities. Task and equipment related
indicators (e.g. work request response rate, mean time to repair) are those indicators that
can reflect how well the equipment are operated and maintained, and whether O&M tasks
are effectively managed and implemented. Environmental indicators (e.g. energy use index
(EUI), energy consumption per person) measure the impact of the facilities’ operations on
the environment. Health, safety and legal indicators (e.g. number of accidents per year,
number of legal cases per year) reflect how well the FM team has done in safeguarding the
health and safety of the building occupants as well as its performance in avoiding legal costs
arising from any malpractices of facilities operation and maintenance.

3. Development of a performance evaluation scheme

Grounded on the above, a study has commenced in order to develop a scheme for
evaluation of the performance of engineering facilities in existing commercial buildings. The
study comprises four stages of work (Figure 2).

Literature review + formation of focus group

First Stage
1st focus group meeting

Design of questionnaire

Second Stage Pilot test of questionnaire

Distribution of the questionnaire survey in full-swing

2nd focus group meeting

Third Stage
Establishment of a performance evaluation framework

Forth Stage Case studies to validate the performance evaluation framework

Figure 2: Flow chart of the 4-stage study

In the first stage, as has been reported in the preceding section, performance indicators that
are usable in the context of the present study were identified from the open literature. Then,
experienced FM practitioners working on typical commercial buildings in Hong Kong will be
invited to provide their opinions on the usability of the indicators. For this purpose, a focus
group discussion will be arranged, through which direct interaction between the researcher
and participants will provide rich data. While this method will allow certain flexibility in
discussion in terms of format, types of questions and desired outcome, the findings may not

6
represent the views of the whole population. To minimize this limitation, careful selection of
the group members who are experienced and representative in the field is necessary, and
good facilitation skills are required to enhance the efficiency in obtaining the findings (Fern,
2001; Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2004).

During the focus group meeting, the participants will be facilitated to discuss and identify the
typical and major engineering facilities in their buildings and the criticalities of such facilities.
Besides asking them to comment on the suitability of applying the listed performance
indicators on existing commercial buildings, the participants will be guided to brainstorm and
suggest any other essential indicators which are beyond those on the list. Furthermore, the
identified indicators will be subdivided into four kinds: (a) important and feasible to find; (b)
important but hard to find; (c) less important but feasible to find; and (d) less important and
hard to find. Shortlisting of indicators will be made on a balance between their importance
and the feasibility of finding out such indicators.

Based on the shortlisted indicators, a questionnaire will be designed in the second stage to
investigate the levels of usefulness of the performance indicators. To ensure that the
questionnaire will be effective in collecting useful responses, it will be pilot-tested before a
full-scale survey is carried out. The questionnaire will be adjusted to address any problem
discovered in the pilot test. Upon finalization of the questionnaire, it will be distributed in full
swing to FM practitioners. Through a questionnaire survey, a large amount of data can be
obtained from a large number of practitioners in the field (Thomas, 2003). By requesting the
respondents to indicate their opinions in a written questionnaire, there is no guarantee of
how many responses will be received and whether they can be received in a timely manner.
Therefore, telephone invitations and explanations will be made to the target respondents to
help raise the response rate, followed by allowing sufficient time for them to return the
questionnaires.

In the third stage, the responses collected from the second stage will be analysed to screen
out the less useful indicators. The useful indicators will be organized into a hierarchical
structure and a second focus group meeting will be arranged. Based on the hierarchical
structure (Figure 3), the focus group members will be asked to make a series of pairwise
comparisons between the performance indicators using a 9-point scale. Each comparison,
expressed as equal, moderate, strong, very strong or extreme, is assigned a number (i.e.
how many times more): 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. The numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 are used for compromise
between two adjacent judgements, and reciprocals are used to represent inverse
comparisons. Each paired comparison made by the respondents requires the estimation of
how many times more one indicator has over the other indicator. The ratings obtained in
such comparisons will be computed by Saaty’s (1980) analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to
generate importance weights for the indicators. With such weights determined, an
assessment scheme will be established, which can be used to evaluate the performance of
engineering facilities in commercial buildings when the performance levels of the
engineering facilities are made available.

7
Figure 3: Analytical hierarchy of the performance indicators

In the final stage, a group of commercial buildings of different grades and scales will be the
targets of investigation. For each of these buildings, an in-depth case study will be carried
out. Empirical data which are essential for computing the KPIs identified in the preceding
stage will be retrieved from relevant records of the buildings. To enable collection of reliable
data, interviews will be held with the responsible FM personnel. In particular, face-to-face
interviews will be used, as they can allow more opportunity to: i) assess the respondent’s
understanding and interpretation of the questions; and ii) clarify any confusion that arises
about the meaning of the questions or the response. Furthermore, interviewing the
practitioners face-to-face will help establish a relationship of trust between the interviewer
and the interviewee, enhancing the opportunity to solicit answers to questions which the
interviewees are reluctant to answer (Greenfield, 2002; Thomas, 2003).

Performance levels of the facilities, which may be figured out based on the buildings’ records
or determined according to the perceptions of the interviewees, will be taken to validate the
applicability of the performance evaluation scheme. Where necessary, fine tuning will be
made to improve the scheme further and when this is done, the scheme will be ready for
application for holistic performance evaluation of engineering facilities in existing commercial
buildings.

4. Concluding remarks

Over the years, a number of performance evaluation methods have been developed but one
that is tailored for monitoring and assessing specifically the performance of engineering
facilities in commercial buildings is yet to be seen. A review of the relevant literature has
identified a long list of performance indicators, which can be categorised by the hierarchical
level of a FM organisation as well as the stages of a FM delivery process. Classification of
the indicators by their nature and characteristics revealed that they fall into different groups,

8
namely physical, financial, task and equipment related, environmental, and health, safety
and legal.

Based on the five groups of indicators, a research framework comprising four stages of work
has been established for developing an evaluation scheme for assessing the performance of
engineering facilities. The initial findings obtained from the first stage of work have been
reported in the above. Results of the subsequent stages will be published in future.

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11
Appendix: List of performance indicators/metrics

(Sources: British Standards Institution, 2007; Building Services Research and Information Association, 2011; Campbell, 1995;
Chan et al., 2001; Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, 2007; Electrical & Mechanical Services Department and
Environmental Protection Department, 2010; Hinks and McNay, 1999; Ho et al., 2000; Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency,
2012; Lai and Yik, 2006; Lavy et al., 2010; Leung et al., 2005; Lukzkendorf and Lorenz, 2006; Muchiri et al, 2011; Parida and
Chattopadhyay, 2007; Tsang et al., 1999; Vesela and Michael, 2001).

Physical (impact on customer satisfaction) (31) Manpower utilization rate (63) Conduction of carbon audit

(1) Thermal comfort (e.g. temperature, mean (32) Manpower efficiency (64) Conduction of environmental assessment

radiant temperature, humidity and air (33) Manpower utilization index (e.g. LEED, BREEAM, BEAM Plus,

speed) (34) Preventive maintenance ratio (PMR) HKQAA SBI)

(2) Visual comfort (e.g. illuminance and glare) (35) Percentage of reactive (corrective) work

(3) Acoustic comfort (e.g. reverberation) (36) Percentage of proactive (preventive) work Health, safety and legal

(4) Indoor air quality (e.g. total volatile organic (37) Percentage of condition based (65) Number of accidents per year

compound, CO2 level, concentration of maintenance work (66) Number of legal cases per year

radon) (38) Percentage of improvement work (67) Number of compensation cases per year

(5) Percentage users dissatisfied (39) Number of manhours per capacity of (68) Amount of compensation paid per year

(6) Number of users’ complaints per year installation (69) Number of health and safety complaints

(40) Number completed work orders per staff per year

Financial (41) Area maintained per maintenance staff (70) Number of lost work hours per year (i.e.

(7) Percentage cost of personnel (42) Quality of scheduling convalescent leave given by doctor)

(8) Percentage cost of subcontractors (43) Schedule realization rate (71) Number of incidents of specific diseases in

(9) Percentage of contractor cost (44) Schedule compliance building per year (e.g. legionnaire’s

(10) Actual costs within budgeted costs (45) Work order turnover disease)

(11) Direct maintenance cost (46) Backlog size

(12) Breakdown severity (47) Urgent repair request index (URI)

(13) Equipment replacement value (ERV) (48) Corrective maintenance time

(14) Maintenance stock turnover (49) Preventive maintenance time

(15) Percentage of maintenance material cost (50) Response time for maintenance

(16) Percentage of corrective maintenance cost (51) Percentage compliance with required

(17) Percentage of preventive maintenance response time

cost (52) Number of maintenance induced

(18) Percentage of condition based interruptions

maintenance cost (53) Failure/breakdown frequency (number of

(19) O&M cost per building area equipment faults per month or per year)

(20) O&M cost per capacity of installation (54) Mean time between failures (MTBF)

(21) Cost of equipment added or replaced (55) Mean time to repair (MTTR)

(22) Energy expenditure per building area (56) Availability

(23) Energy expenditure per person (57) Efficiency of facilities

(24) Total safety and security expenditure (58) Gross floor area under safety and security

(25) Security expenditure per building area patrol

(26) Security expenditure per person

(27) Building income per building area Environmental

(28) Total rentable value of the building (59) Energy use index (EUI)
(60) Energy consumption per person

Task and equipment related (61) Greenhouse gas emission per building

(29) Work request response rate area

(30) Scheduling intensity (62) Conduction of energy audit

12
 Discussion of Facilities Management as lead user
and innovation driver towards improvement of
energy efficiency and user comfort of buildings

Antje Junghans1

Abstract

The target of this paper is to discuss user-driven innovation as a new approach towards the
improvement of energy efficiency and user comfort of buildings. This approach contributes
to the general need for the improvement of building energy performance in buildings.
Reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the share of
renewable energy is not only a technical challenge, but also of high national and
international importance. Facilities Management (FM) is addressed as having the lead user
role referring to approaches of the social science and management discipline. Users can
contribute to the advancement of knowledge on building energy performance. These
approaches are based on the state of the art innovation theory. The focus is set on Eric von
Hippel’s user innovation methodology. It was conceptually applied on FM as lead user in the
building context. In addition, literature research revealed other examples of user driven
innovation referring to research and practice in the field of energy efficiency improvement.
These are presented as a contribution to the discussion and highlight different perspectives.

Facilities Management has so far not been considered as lead user of energy-efficient and
comfortable buildings. Moreover, the complex interaction between the building itself and its’
management and usage overburden the existing lead user theory. Thus, further research is
mandatory to transfer lead user theory from product innovation towards service innovation,
especially for sectors with high levels of complexity.

Keywords: Facilities Management, user-driven innovation, energy efficiency, lead

user, building energy performance.

1
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

13
1 Introduction

It is widely acknowledged that “buildings account for 40% of total energy consumption”
(DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC, p13). As a consequence of this, the EU is targeting reduction of
energy consumption as well as promoting the use of energy from renewable sources in the
building sector. The European approach is to prioritise the improvement of the energy
performance of buildings, with a focus on technical innovation, “taking into account outdoor
climatic and local conditions, as well as indoor climate requirements and cost-effectiveness”
(DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC, p17). The objective of this paper is to discuss how far
improvements of energy efficiency and user comfort can be considered as more than a
technical challenge. The consideration of outdoor climatic factors, local conditions, and
indoor climate requirements are essential for the design of a building’s construction and its’
technical services. The motivation for this paper is the assumption that an understanding of
how a building is used might be more important for efficient energy management in a day-
by-day and long-term perspective. Literature research on the state of the art on user-driven
innovation towards energy efficiency improvement has been conducted. Referring to
methodologies from social science and management theory the question comes up as to
how far FM can be considered as an innovation driver towards the improvement of energy
efficiency and user comfort. The purpose is to extend the scope of building energy
performance. A better understanding of the behaviour of building users and FM decision-
making on a strategic, tactical and operational level is needed.

Referring to common FM terminology a building can amongst other things be considered as

a “Facility” and the person who is responsible for the management of the building therefore
as a “Facility Manager”. However the FM discipline refers to a much broader field of work.
FM includes all kinds of support facilities and services which develop and improve the
organisation’s primary activities from a day-by-day and lifecycle perspective. Energy
management is only one of the service processes which supports the user’s primary
activities. FM services are referring to owned or rented space and infrastructure. FM
interacts with the client organisation on a strategic, tactical and operational level (Atkin and
Brooks 2009, Cotts et al. 2010, Barret & Baldry 2003, Junghans 2012a, EN 15221-1). Could
FM therefore be considered as a lead user for energy-efficient building management and
energy-efficient building design and construction?

Research from the social sciences has shown that the way a building is taken into use is
important for the fulfilment of its’ technical possibilities (Aune & Bye 2005). Findings from
real estate management related research similarly point out that, from an environmental
perspective, the management and maintenance of buildings have an impact on building
performance (Kyrö et al. 2010). Atkin and Brooks (2009) consider energy efficiency as long
having been recognised and practiced from a FM perspective. They highlight recent changes
towards a “wider environmental concern” and the adoption of a “whole-life perspective of
buildings and other facilities” (p120). Borgers et al. conducted a systematic review of
literature on user innovation (2010). They discussed state of the art user-driven innovation
with a focus on the role that users play during innovation. Referring to the pioneers of
innovation theory, they point out that users have been considered in the context of
innovation since the 18th century. “The role that these users play during innovation of the

14
products that they ordinarily buy from producers has been the subject of research since at
least Adam Smith” (p857) Borgers et al. recognised that the literature on the role of users
during innovation has significantly grown. They studied 106 references in total. Among those
were 52 references with publication dates since the year 2000. A major focus was the work
of Eric von Hippel. This was studied with 16 references published between 1976 and 2007.
(Borgers et al. 2010, pp872-875) The diffusion of innovation theory by Rogers can be
considered as theoretical basic knowledge and was first published in 1962. “He [Everett
Rogers] argued that diffusion was a general process, not bound by the type of innovation
studied, by who the adopters were, or by place or culture.” (Rogers et al. 2007, p2)

The following section gives a brief description of user-driven innovation theory, highlighting
the management approach by Eric von Hippel (1988) in which user innovation projects have
been primarily targeted to enhance the development of innovative products. User-driven
innovation from the aforementioned social science perspective emphasises the needs of
end-users and underlines the importance of developing an understanding for the social
construct aside the technical innovation itself.

2 Methodology of user-driven innovation theory

Eric von Hippel (1988) introduced the term ‘lead user’. He defines a lead user of a new or
enhanced product, process, or service according to two characteristics: 1) “Lead users face
needs that will be general in a marketplace, but they face them months or years before the
bulk of that marketplace encounters them, and 2) Lead users are positioned to benefit
significantly by obtaining a solution to those needs.” (von Hippel 1988, p107)

Churchill, von Hippel and Sonnack (2009) developed the lead user approach further and
applied it as a research method for the conducting of lead user projects with four main
research phases:

“1. Selection of the Project Focus and Scope: This is the preparatory phase of a lead user
project. A management group first decides the new product or service area that will be the
focus of the innovation initiative and selects the core team that will implement the lead user
study. This project team then does the practical work required before launching the actual
lead user study in the next phase.

2. Identification of Trends and Needs: The core project team begins the lead user study by
doing an in-depth investigation of trends and emerging market needs. By the conclusion of
this phase, the team will have selected the specific need related trend(s) that will drive
concept generation in the next phases.

3. Collection of Needs and Solution Information from Lead Users: This phase begins the
concept generation phase of the project. The project team interviews lead users to gain
deeper insight into emerging needs and to acquire new product and service ideas. By the
end of phase three, the team will have generated preliminary concepts.

15
4. Concept Development with Lead Users: A select group of lead users and technical
experts join the project team and other company personnel for a workshop to do intensive
product or service concept development work, usually over a 2 or 3 day period. The outcome
of this workshop is typically a new product or service concept – or sometimes, several of
them. The project team then refines these concepts and develops a business “case” which is
presented to management for its review.” (Churchill et al. 2009, p10)

Targeting the discussion on FM driven innovation towards the improvement of a buildings

energy performance, phase 3 “Collection of Needs and Solution Information from Lead
Users” is considered as the most essential. Regarding this phase it is recommended to
define and study three different types of lead users: 1) Lead users in the target application
and market; 2) Lead users of similar applications in advanced /analogue markets; 3) Lead
users in respect to important attributes of needs faced by users in the target market.

Churchill et al. (2009) demonstrate the application of the different types of lead users by
using an example taken from the field of medical instrument development:

“Suppose that a manufacturer of medical X-ray systems decides to form a lead user project
team to identify concepts for new products in that field. The team researches the target
market and finds two important trends. One trend is towards images with higher resolution;
another was towards better methods for recognizing subtle patterns in images that are
medically important – for example, patterns that indicate possible early-stage tumours. In
this example, the team might go on to identify and learn from the three types of lead users
as follows: 1) Lead users in the target application and market – These might be medical
radiologists working on applications in medical imaging that are very demanding with respect
to images of high resolution and pattern recognition. 2) Lead users of similar applications in
advanced ‘analogue’ markets – These could be users in more demanding but related
markets such as engineers who create images of microscopic patterns developed on
semiconductor chips. 3) Lead users with respect to important attribute of needs faced by
users in the target application – These could include pattern recognition specialists in fields
other than imaging such as pattern recognition in sound or mathematics.” (Churchill et al.
2009, p9)

The example relates to product innovation and represents a continuation of earlier research
by von Hippel (1988), in which he examined the role of users in product development in the
fields of scientific instrument innovation and semiconductor and electronic assembly
manufacturing equipment. This systematic approach was used before to identify relevant
case studies on user innovation towards improvement of building energy performance and to
structure case studies referring to four market development phases: lead users, early
adopters, routine users, and laggards (Junghans 2012b).

3 Conceptual application of user-innovation theory considering

Facilities Managers as lead users

The following conceptual application of von Hippel’s lead user theory was developed to
initiate a user-driven research project. It is a fictive consideration referring to the author’s

16
experience from earlier studies on energy efficiency improvement of buildings (2009).
However, the exemplary application aims to study FM as having the lead user role, intending
the improvement of energy efficiency and user-comfort of buildings. Regarding von Hippel’s
lead user approach, lead user projects are structured into four project phases. (Churchill et
al. 2009, p10) The four project phases are applied as follows:

1) Preparing for the lead user project: The starting point is the preparation of the lead user
project on behalf of the client and initiation of the project team (“client” in this example are
owners of, or investors in public office buildings). FM can be regarded as both client and
lead user. The driving need for innovation is to utilise FM’s experience within the operation
and use-phase of buildings to improve energy efficiency by better integration of energy-
efficient buildings and energy-efficient management. To initiate the project team the main
stakeholders in the operation and use of a building have to be considered.

2) Identifying trends and key customers’ needs (“key customers” in this example are public
departments): The main task of the project team is the identification of trends and key
customer needs. The trends should have a strong connection both to the energy efficiency of
a building as well as the way it is managed and used, and to needs for further improvement
of energy efficiency. Regarding the state of the art in energy efficiency improvement of
buildings and statistics about energy consumption, two preliminary trends were identified: 1)
Reduce the steadily increasing demand for electricity for basic functions, such as heating,
cooling and ventilation. 2) Increase the possibility to control energy consumption by
changing user needs, for example user specific technical equipment.

3) Understanding the needs and solutions of lead users (“lead users” in this example is the
FM supplier): The understanding of the needs and solutions of lead users supports the
identification of appropriate innovation types.

3.1 Lead users in the target application and market – whose objective is to strengthen the
demand perspective in the target application and market (e.g. reduce building demand for
electricity and increase control of energy consumption). In-house FM of public office
buildings are considered as lead users in the target application and market. The objective is
to strengthen the demand perspective in the target application and market. The demand is
determined by the need for energy-efficient improvements and the target application market
is described by in-house FM services. In-house FM of a public office building is, therefore,
considered as lead user in this category.

3.2 Lead users of similar applications in advanced analogue markets – who add higher
demand perspectives similar to the target application, but in an advanced analogue market
(e.g. reduce building demand for electricity and improve cost efficiency, increase control of
energy consumption considering changing user demands). External FM service providers as
lead users of similar applications (to target application and market) in advanced analogue
markets. Advanced analogue markets add higher demand perspectives in similar
applications and have higher standards for the measurement and control of costs and
quality. External FM service providers consider FM a core activity and make it their business.
This branch is referred to in the European standard definition (EN 15221). The definition

17
describes the target of FM service integration, within an organisation as, to maintain and
develop the agreed services which support and improve its core activities (EN 15221). In
order to do this, FM should interact between end-users and clients on strategic, tactical, and
operational levels. External FM service providers who might be involved or contracted in
public-private-partnership (PPP) or private owned office buildings, are therefore considered
as the focus group in this category.

3.3 By helping us understand specific areas of demand and need lead users can help us
gain a deeper understanding of the problems faced by users in the target market. This
knowledge can then be transferred into other areas of application. One aspect that could be
examined is the energy management in hospitals which has high requirements for
continuous availability and constant quality of power supplies. FM with high service intensity
and supporting large and complex building and operational systems, for example hospitals,
can be considered as lead users with respect to important attributes of problems. Studying
FM in hospitals highlights important aspects of the demand perspective in respect to energy
efficiency, with the highest requirements regarding energy supply of constant quality for 24
hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days per year. FM in hospitals is therefore
considered as lead user in this category.

4) Improving approaches to problem solving by involving lead users and experts to maximise
the likelihood of success

As a result approaches to problems solving will be improved with lead users from in-house
and external FM and architects and engineers as well as client, key customer and end-user
representatives.

4 Examples of user-driven innovation with focus on Facilities

Management and energy efficiency improvement of buildings

4.1 Consideration of FM as lead users of buildings

FM can be considered as a building user amongst other users and has been discussed as
having a kind of lead user role, without using the term ‘lead user’ specifically, by Olsson et
al. (2010). The authors pointed out that, Facility managers are working in the building and
that they are working with supporting facilities services. Facility managers use buildings and
facilities and act on behalf of the users. They simultaneously link the ‘supply side’ and the
‘demand’. FM are the section of users who are characterised in the context of buildings as
follows: “Owners; facilities management and service personnel (who operate buildings)
[Facility Manager]; management of the organization(s) based in a building; service providers;
service receivers and indirect service receivers.” (Olsson et al. 2010, p28)

The role of FM in general is defined by the European standard definition of facilities

management (EN 15221-1). “Facility managers are responsible for the integration of
processes within an organization. They act as a link between the demand and supply side
on a strategic, tactical, and operational level.” (Junghans 2012a)

18
4.2 Norwegian study on energy-efficiency potential and barriers of buildings

On behalf of a large Norwegian Real Estate Property and Asset Management organisation
engineers and consultants conducted a study addressing energy-efficiency potential and
examining barriers for improvement in commercial buildings in Norway (Multiconsult and
Analyse&Strategi 2011). The aim of the study was to quantify the potential for energy
savings towards the year 2020 targeting all commercial buildings in Norway. The results
were structured into theoretical, technical, financial and real potential. Referring to the
calculation method used, based on square meters and technical standards for the key input
factors, the technical potential was calculated as the portion of the theoretical potential that
is technically feasible. Economic potential was calculated as the share of the technical
potential that is economically feasible to implement. The real potential for energy efficiency
was described as the proportion of the economic potential that naturally occurs, but is limited
by various barriers.

A qualitative, survey-based evaluation was conducted to find out more about the various
barriers and how to deal with them. Respondents of the survey were particularly concerned
with the economic barriers, and least concerned with the technical barriers. Attitudes and
knowledge barriers were also considered as very important. Another result was the
respondents’ lack of knowledge about the effects and benefits of energy efficiency. This was
considered as a possible reason why negative attitudes persist, and myths about lack of
profitability continue to exist. Many survey respondents believed this was due to lack of
knowledge, which in turn can be the cause of other types of barriers, such as financial
barriers.

Case studies, focus group interviews and workshops contributed to the analysis which
demonstrates that part of the real potential is limited by these barriers, and the type of
institutions in society that can reduce these barriers with the various measures. Main barriers
for existing buildings were practical barriers, economic barriers and knowledge barriers. For
new construction the barriers were financial and knowledge. The overall result of the study
finds the greatest potential for improvements in energy efficiency in existing buildings, it is
therefore important to concentrate measures here. (Multiconsult and Analyse&Strategi 2011,
pp1-12)

The initiation of the focus groups led to discussion about who should be represented. The
client preferred participants who showed why decision-makers choose particular measures.
Decision-makers in the examined case study were building owners. The contractor was of
the opinion that it would also be appropriate to include people with technical management
responsibilities, because they were supported by more detailed information on barriers
related to specific measures in the building, assuming that they had a more practical
approach. (Multiconsult and Analyse&Strategi 2011)

The study also included an approach with reference to diffusion of innovation theory by
Rogers. The authors considered it as important to refer to market development and to group
decision-makers based on the theory of diffusion of innovation. Participants were therefore
asked to answer a short questionnaire in which they categorised themselves by whether

19
they perceived themselves as, respectively: 1. Innovators, 2. Early users, 3. Early majority,
4. Late majority, 5. Last few. The answers to this survey, as well as additional observation of
the participants in the focus groups gave input to this part of the study. (Multiconsult and
Analyse&Strategi 2011) However, the authors commented on the achieved results and
mentioned potential weaknesses of the approach later in their report. “Participants perceive
themselves as innovative and early users. Based on the discussions in the focus group, we
(Multiconsult and Analyse&Strategi) believe, however, that participants may seem somewhat
more conservative than they express themselves, because participants experience many
economic barriers, which may indicate that they are not willing to take risks and thus are not
innovative” (Multiconsult and Analyse&Strategi 2011)

4.3 Strength and weaknesses of interaction between energy users and energy
efficiency practitioners

Heiskanen et al. (2012) explored the interaction between energy users and energy-
efficiency improvement measures in the context of a European research project. They
underlined the usefulness of the user-driven approach referring to user-driven projects.

User-driven projects (or pilot projects) are considered as “ideal in many ways” (p6).
Strengths are that, “end-users know their needs and circumstances and can contribute to
context tailored designs” and “end-users are motivated and engaged from the start and do
part of the work.” (p5). Weaknesses were found in that, “End-users may not be fully aware
of their behaviour and all the factors underlying it” and, “Up-scaling from small user-driven
pilots to broader groups of end-users can be difficult.” (p5)

In addition, strength and weaknesses of three other approaches, i.e. surveys and interviews,
prior research, and familiarity and informal interaction can be summarised as follows:

Surveys and interviews were regarded as, “obviously useful” and categorised as “formal,
dedicated research” (p6). The strength of this method is, “the systematic approach to data
collection” and “the possibility to poll representative samples” (p5). Weaknesses are that
surveys and interviews, “do not always feed into program design” and, “Surveys may be
designed to confirm existing preconceptions, may fail to bring up new insights” as well as,
“Conducting good research is expensive and requires specialised skills” (p5).

Prior research, particular theoretical perspectives, were summarised as, “previous

experience” and considered as, “obviously useful” and, “speeds up the learning phase”
especially if previous experience with the same user-group was available (p6). The strength
of using previous experience is that the, “theoretical base can guide observations and help
to make sense of energy-related behaviour” (p5). Examples were explored referring to
hands-on activities and experiments. Weaknesses of this method are the “commitment to
prior findings or theories may lead to overlooking contextual particularities” (p5). In addition,
an “overly theoretical background can lead to complex and confusing designs” (p5).

Familiarity and informal interaction with the target end-user group can be based on face-to-
face contacts or membership in the user community (p6). “Informal interaction allows a rich

20
exchange of information” and “Immersion in the user community helps to understand users’
every day routines” as well as, “Familiarity creates trust” (p5) were considered as strengths.
Weaknesses are that, “much time and commitment is needed to build up the necessary
level of familiarity” and, “Contacts can be biased: some end-users are more familiar than
others” (p5).

5 Discussion of FM as having lead user role

How far can FM be regarded as lead user and innovation driver towards improvement of
buildings energy performance?

Discussion of FM driven innovation as the topic of this paper seems to be in line with the
suggestion of Borgers et al. (2010) to transfer user innovation theory into other management
fields. “We believe it is useful to provide a comprehensive review of the role of users in the
innovation process and to link the notion of users as innovators to other literatures in the
field of management.” (Borgers et al. 2010, p858). As underlined by Borger et al. (2010), it
was Eric von Hippel (1988) who introduced the notion of a user as a source of innovation in
the 1980s. He described the user as one of the four sources of innovation, beside
manufacturers, suppliers, and others. If the user is considered as a building’s user, the
following key questions, by von Hippel (1988, p3), relate to the categorisation of the different
functions of a building and address the potential benefit of innovation, ”Do they benefit from
using it? They are users. Do they benefit from manufacturing it? They are manufacturers. Do
they benefit from supplying components or materials necessary to build or use the
innovation? They are suppliers.” Based on lead user theory by von Hippel (1988) the main
research approach is how whether FM as lead user fulfils the following criteria.

1) Does FM face needs months or years before the bulk of that marketplace encounters
them, and

2) Is FM positioned to benefit significantly by obtaining a solution to those needs?

From a FM perspective, needs regarding the improvement of a building’s energy

performance are faced by integrating user demand and service delivery. FM gains benefit
from achieving cost reduction and user satisfaction, as well as ensuring a healthy and safe
environment. FM is involved in the whole life-cycle (Atkin and Brooks 2009) and interacts
with the client organisation and service provision on strategic, tactical and operational levels
(EN 15221-1). Thomzik et al. (2011) identified non-residential buildings in several categories
as most relevant for the FM industry, such as: educational buildings, heath care buildings,
light industry and workshops, retail and storage buildings, buildings for sports, culture, and
recreation, housing for institutional owners, and other types of non-residential buildings.
Building engineering services like heating, ventilation, air conditioning and cooling (HVAC),
lighting, power, transportation, fire and security systems are consuming significant financial
resources up to, “more than half of the capital cost” in the construction phase and require
controlling during building operation and use. “Control over these installations is vital if the

21
facility is to perform optimally and not exceed targets for energy consumption or reduce user
comfort, amongst other concerns.” (Atkin and Brooks 2009, p146).

While the general perception is focused on the improvement of building energy performance
and technical innovation for buildings and technical infrastructure as stated in the EU
definition, “energy performance of a building” means the calculated or measured amount of
energy needed to meet the energy demand associated with a typical use of the building,
which includes, inter alia, “energy used for heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and
lighting” (DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC, p18). FM driven innovation can be considered as
targeting improvement of building energy performance referring to the complexity of the
building lifecycle and including the understanding of how a building is used and managed.

6. Conclusion

Lead-user theory was introduced in management discipline in the 1980s, however, examples
of user innovation projects are still targeting the development of industrial or consumer
products, like for example CAD software, pipe hanger hardware, outdoor consumer
products, ‘Extreme’ sporting equipment. (von Hippel 2005, p36).

The social science perspective on user-driven innovation highlights the need to understand
end-users and consider the social construct alongside technical innovation. Heiskanen et al.
(2012) point out that “information about users' needs and manufacturers' capabilities is
highly contextual, tacit and difficult to transfer from one site to another”(von Hippel 2005).
They explain that this problem of common understanding hinders the uptake of innovative
solutions. Referring to Rohracher (2001) they highlight “Energy efficient building solutions”
as examples for innovative solutions that fail to address users' concerns and practices.
Limited uptake and effectiveness are considered as consequence of this. (Heiskanen et al.
2012, p2)

Until now FM has not been considered as a lead user of energy efficient and comfortable
buildings. However following the research on, “diffusion of innovation” (Rogers et al. 2007)
and, “user-driven innovation”, referring to Borgers (2010), Churchill et al. (2009) Heiskanen
et al. (2012), Rohracher (2001), the understanding of the innovation user and the
consideration of the social context aside, the technical innovation is of high importance for a
successful innovation implementation.

Von Hippels lead user approach does not yet meet all the requirements of service innovation
within such complex systems like building-management-use settings. This shows a need for
further research to transfer lead user theory from product innovation towards service
innovation.

Future research might further develop the “user-driven innovation approach” into an
“innovation-driven user approach”. This means implementing social science knowledge into
management concepts to actively support the communication and diffusion of innovation.
Future research questions could be: Is social context supporting the improvement of building

22
energy efficiency and user comfort? Is the social perception of technical innovation
measurable? And, if it is measurable, can it be managed by FM?

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case study on how FM influences the environmental performance of office buildings”, CIB
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24
 Establishing the ‘DEA Energy Management System’
for Individual Departments within Universities -
An Exploratory Study

Kung-Jen Tu1

Abstract

The energy management of existing buildings has become a critical research topic
worldwide. The mixed use of a single university facility by different departments is prevalent
in Taiwan and has complicated the energy management task. Individual departments need
a tool capable of assessing their energy efficiencies from 'management' perspective. This
study explores the ‘space type’ and ‘internal benchmark’ research concepts as well as the
‘data envelopment analysis’ method to establish the ‘DEA Energy Management System
(DEMS)’ to assist individual departments within universities in assessing the energy
efficiencies of their facilities from ‘management’ perspective. The DEMS proposed considers
each ‘space’ in a given ‘time’ (such as a month) as a DMU. Then, regression analysis is
performed on data of the independent variables related to the ‘existing environment’ and
'occupancy' factors, and data of the dependent variable (actual energy consumption EUI) of
all DMUs. The regression equation derived is then used to calculate the ‘predicted EUI’ for
all DMUs. The ‘actual EUI’ is considered as the input data, and the ‘predicted EUI’ as the
output data of the DEMS, on which data envelopment analysis is conducted to produce
three types of energy efficiency scores (overall efficiency, scale efficiency, and pure
technical efficiency) to indicate the energy efficiencies of all DMUs. The ‘pure technical
efficiency’ scores reveal the 'energy management effectiveness' of all DMUs. Those DMUs
on the efficiency frontier are the most energy efficient ones and are given with the highest
pure technical efficiency score of 100%; and those DMUs that are away from the frontier are
less efficient ones and are given with efficiency scores less than 100%. Energy efficiency
assessments can also be performed to compare the energy management effectiveness
among different space types as well as those of individual space types over time. The
DEMS will be implemented in the Department of Architecture of NTUST in Taiwan to
illustrate how it can be used to assist individual departments within universities in assessing
the energy management effectiveness of their spaces and in improving the energy
efficiencies of their facilities. The implementation research tasks to be conducted are
planned and outlined.

Keywords: space type, internal benchmark, existing environment factors, occupant

and management factors, energy management effectiveness

1
Assistant Professor; Department of Architecture; National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology; 43 Keelung Rd., Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan, 106; kjtu@mail.ntust.edu.tw

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

‘Energy management’ has become an important facility management issue for universities in
Taiwan. Individual departments within universities are usually held responsible for managing
the energy efficiency of their facilities. This becomes an even more challenging task when
several departments occupy the same facility and that individual departments lack
reasonable energy consumption benchmarks or indices. Although Taiwan government has
issued average EUI indicators for different categories of universities as energy benchmarks,
nonetheless, these single indicators are unable to assist facility managers in further
assessing the energy efficiencies of their facilities, spotting the over-consumed areas and
causes, and identifying the subject and directions of energy management (Tu and Lin,
2012). As a result, the average EUI indicators are not as practical and effective for 'energy
management' purpose.

Similarly, several energy efficiency scales, such as the average energy use intensity (EUI) of
various types of building, have been established to indicate the energy efficiency of existing
buildings, or regarded as the external benchmarks or energy saving targets for existing
buildings in different countries (US Green Building Council, 2009; Lee et al., 2007; Poel et
al., 2007; Bohdanowicz and Martinac, 2007; Chung et al., 2006; Haji-Sapar and Lee, 2005).
These energy efficiency scales might be able to indicate the energy performance at the
‘building’ level; yet they fail to inform a ‘department’ or 'institution', who occupies only certain
floors of a building, much about the energy efficiency of its facility at the 'floor' level.

To be effective in building energy management, it's essential to first realize there are three
groups of factors that may affect the energy consumptions of individual departments. The
first group of factors are 'existing environment' factors, including existing climate factors
(such as temperature and relative humidity) and existing building infrastructure factors (such
as building enclosure, opening, types and performance of lighting, HVAC and various
equipment). Since the 'existing environment' conditions of a facility most likely remain
unchanged over the course of its building life cycle, their effects on annual energy
consumptions can be considered stable and predictable. 'Occupancy' factors, such as use
patterns, work and equipment needs, and environmental quality requirement, are the second
group of factors and are the deciding factors that differentiate energy consumptions among
various space types (different functional use), given the fixed 'existing environment'
conditions. For each type of space, the effects of 'occupancy' factors on energy
consumptions can also be regarded as predictable as well, since its occupancy use patterns
are more or less stable over time. Finally, 'management' factors, such as department's
operation strategy and occupant's energy consciousness, are the third group of factors that
have critical and variable effects on building energy consumption. Individual departments
with active energy management strategies are likely to further reduce their building energy
consumptions, and vice versa.

Within the same building (same 'existing environment' conditions), two departments with
different 'occupancy' needs are likely to consume different amount of energy, and it will be

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26
unreasonable to say that the department consuming less energy is more energy efficient
than the other. This study thus argues that it is critical to take into account the 'management'
factors while assessing the energy efficiencies of individual departments within universities.
For effective energy management, individual departments are in great need of a tool capable
of first assessing their energy efficiencies from 'management' perspective to identify problem
areas and improvement plans exhibiting immediate energy saving effects, before any other
expensive energy saving measures such as building renovations are taken.

1.2 Research objectives

To assist individual departments in their complex energy management tasks, this study
adopts the research concepts of 'space type' and 'internal benchmark' proposed by Tu and
Lin (2012). The concept of 'space type' allows us to explicitly observe and distinguish the
effects of 'occupancy use patterns' on energy consumptions among different space types.
When a standard energy consumption can be identified for each space type, then the
standards energy consumptions of all space types can be aggregated as the 'internal
benchmark', which becomes a reasonable energy references for individual departments.

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been generally used in the performance
assessment of resource usage. In the field of building energy management, it has been
adopted to assess the energy efficiencies of several building types, such as hotels (Önüt and
Soner, 2006), commercial buildings (Chung et al., 2006) and school buildings (Filippin,
2000). This study believes that it is potentially applicable to energy efficiency assessment of
various 'space types' within individual departments.

The objectives of this study are to adopt the ‘space type’ and ‘internal benchmark’ research
concepts, and to explore the idea of applying the ‘Data Envelopment Analysis’ method in
establishing the ‘DEA Energy Management System (DEMS)’ to assist individual departments
within universities in assessing the energy efficiencies of their facilities from the
'management' perspective. The underlying DEA theory as well as the methods of the DEMS
in assessing the 'energy management effectiveness' of individual departments are
described. The DEMS is to be implemented in the Department of Architecture of a national
university (NTUST) in Taiwan. The future implementation research tasks are outlined in this
study and assessment results will be reported later.

2. Theory of data envelopment analysis (DEA)

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a method developed to empirically measure the relative
productive efficiencies of multiple 'decision making units' (DMU), such as organizations,
firms or institutions, when the production process presents a structure of multiple inputs and
outputs (Charnes et al., 1978). DEA measures the efficiency of a DMU by evaluating its input
level relative to its output level, and comparing them against those of other DMUs.
Conceptually, a DMU is considered as 'efficient' if it can produce more outputs with less
inputs. A numerical efficiency score is given to each DMU, defining its relative efficiency.
DEA identifies the most efficient DMUs as the benchmarks which form a 'frontier' (line ABC
in Figure 1) against which the relative performance of all other DMUs can be compared.

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27
Those DMUs on the frontier are the most efficient ones and thus are given with the highest
efficiency scores 100%, and all other DMUs are considered less efficient (such as D in
Figure 1) and are given with efficiency scores less than 100% . A DMU can be made efficient
either by reducing the input levels and getting the same output (input orientation) or by
increasing the output level with the same input level (output orientation). In addition to
providing efficiency scores, DEA can inform the less efficient DMUs of their potential
benchmarks and efficiency improvement targets. For example, it is suggested that D in
Figure 1 consider S as its benchmark and improve its efficiency by reducing its input level
from L4 to L3 while remaining at the same output level Q.

DEA has been applied to assessing the performance of organizations such as banks,
hospitals and corporations. Besides, some researches have used DEA for 'project selection'
purpose (Sohn & Moon，2004；Cook & Green, 2000；Sowlati et al., 2005). The main
advantage to this method is its ability to accommodate a multiplicity of inputs and outputs. It
is also useful because it takes into consideration returns to scale in calculating efficiency,
allowing for the concept of increasing or decreasing efficiency based on size and output
levels. A drawback of this technique is that model specification and inclusion/ exclusion of
variables can affect the results (Berg 2010). This study argues that DEA can be potentially
applied to assessing the energy management effectiveness of various space types within
individual departments.

Output

Input

Figure 1: DEA identifies A, B, C as the most efficient DMUs which form the 'frontier',
and suggests that DMU D move towards S by reducing its input level from L4 to L3.

3. Establishing the DEA Energy Management System (DEMS)

3.1 Approaches of DEA application in energy efficiency assessment

3.1.1 The 'space-time' DMU definition

This study considers each 'space' in a given period of 'time' (a given month, week, or day) as
a DMU and assess the 'energy management effectiveness' of all DMUs (Figure 2). To be
more specific, a DMU is defined as 'a space in a month' in this study. In other words, the
monthly input and output of a space (type) will be used to assess its energy management

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28
effectiveness; and each space in different months are considered as different DMUs. The
'space-time' DMU definition allows us to assess and compare the energy management
effectiveness among different space types or that of a particular space over time. In other
words, this approach allows us to identify 'the best practice or worst case' among different
space (types) or those of a particular space (type) over time.

Space type A DMU Space -Time (month, week, or day)

DMU Space A1-Month1
DMU Space A1-Month 2
Space A-1 ........
Space A-2 DMU Space A1-Month 12
Space A-3 …

Space type B
DMU Space B1-Month1
Department DMU Space B1-Month 2 DEA
Energy
Space B-1 ........ Energy
Management
DMU Space B1-Month 12 Management
Space B-2 Effectiveness
System
Space B-3 …

Space type C
DMU Space C1-Month1
DMU Space C1-Month 2
Floor-1 Space C-1 ........
Floor-2 Space C-2 DMU Space C1-Month 12
Floor-3 … Space C-3 …

Figure 2: Each 'space' in a given period of 'time' is regarded as a DMU whose energy
management effectiveness is further assessed by the DEMS.

3.1.2 Multiple regression analysis

As mentioned earlier, the actual energy consumption of each space is an interacting result of
three groups of factors, i.e., the 'existing environment' factors, the 'occupancy' factors and
the 'management' factors. For each space (type), since its 'existing environment' conditions
most likely remain unchanged over time, and its unique 'occupancy' use patterns are rather
stable over time, their effects on energy consumptions can be considered predictable. If the
data of the 'existing environment' and 'occupancy' factors (independent variables) of all
DMUs in a department can be collected and multiple regression analysis performed on their
actual energy consumptions (dependent variable), a regression model can be identified and
used to predict the energy consumption of each DMU. For each DMU, the difference
between its 'actual energy consumption' and 'predicted energy consumption' can be
interpreted as the effect of those 'management' factors. If the 'actual energy consumption' of
a DMU is larger than its corresponding 'predicted energy consumption', it could be due to
poor 'energy management effectiveness or conduct'; and vice versa. The 'energy
management effectiveness' of all DMUs can then be further assessed by the data
envelopment analysis.

In this study, 'monthly actual EUI' (Wh/m2-month) is defined as the dependent variable of the
regression model to be analyzed. On the other hand, the independent variables include ten
'existing environment' factors such as monthly highest temperature (°C), monthly highest

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29
relative humidity (%), space/room orientation (0~360°), room area (m2), envelop surface area
(m2), envelope U-value (W/m2K), fenestration percentage (%), light fixture density (w/m2),
equipment density (w/m2), and HVAC density (w/m2); as well as two 'occupancy' factors such
as occupant density (person/100m2) and space utilization hours (hr/month).

3.2 The DEMS procedure

The DEMS assesses the energy management effectiveness of all DMUs by analyzing their
input levels relative to their output levels. The data envelopment analysis will be conducted
to produce the overall efficiency, scale efficiency, and pure technical efficiency scores for all
DMUs to indicate their energy efficiencies from different perspectives.

3.2.1 Data envelopment analysis

This study designates the 'predicted EUI' as the 'output', and the 'actual EUI' as the 'input' of
the DEMS. Figure 3 shows a scatter plot of the input (actual EUI) and output (predicted EUI)
data of certain hypothetical DMUs (space-time). The solid line in Figure 3-a is the regression
line derived from the multiple regression analysis. The DMUs above the regression line are
considered as 'energy efficient' DMUs. For instance, X in Figure 3, given the same level of
output (predicted EUI), has a lower energy input level (actual EUI = x) than its expected
input level (actual EUI = y) and is therefore regarded as an efficient DMU. It's logical to
reason that the reduction in X's actual EUI could be due to certain positive 'management'
factors such as higher level of energy manager's involvement. On the other hand, Z in
Figure 3 has a higher energy input level (actual EUI = z) than its expected input level (actual
EUI = y) and is therefore regarded as an inefficient DMU, possibly due to certain negative
'management' factors such as lower level of occupant energy consciousness.
Predicted EUI

Predicted EUI

P3

X Y Z

x y z b c d
2 2
(a) Actual EUI (kWh/m ) (b) Actual EUI (kWh/m )

Figure 3: (a) Scatter plot of actual EUI and predicted EUI of a group of DMUs and the
regression line derived; (b) the efficiency frontier of the same group of DMUs.

In Figure 3-b, the line connecting the forefront points of all DMUs, i.e., P1, P2, P3, and P4,
forms their 'efficiency frontier'. All the points on the efficiency frontier are regarded as the
most energy efficient DMUs (spaces at certain time) and are given the highest efficiency
score of 100%. They are the benchmarks for those DMUs away from the frontier which are
not as efficient and are given with efficiency scores less than 100% (the lower the scores,
the less energy efficient they are).

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30
3.2.2 Energy management effectiveness scores

According to the DEA methodology (Charnes et al., 1978; Chauhan et al., 2006), the
following three types of efficiency scores can be produced for all DMUs to indicate their
energy efficiencies. Point D in Figure 3-b is used to illustrate their meanings:

1. Overall efficiency: The line MN in Figure 3-b represents the envelope of the data set
with constant returns to scale (CRS). It is a straight line that connects the origin and the
most forefront data point on the frontier (P2). Those points on line MN are considered
as efficient and has the highest 'overall efficiency' score of 100%. Those points that are
not on line MN are given with 'overall efficiency' scores less than 100%. The 'overall
efficiency' score of DMU D is defined as AB/AD (Figure 3-b). One can interpret that AB
is the 'ideal input' required to produce the output B on MN (actual EUI = b), if constant
returns to scale were to prevail. In the DEMS case, the 'overall efficiency' score of DMU
D indicates its overall energy management effectiveness relative to other DMUs. The
'overall efficiency' scores reflect the effects of three groups of factors, i.e., the 'existing
environment', 'occupancy' and 'management' factors.
2. Scale efficiency: The line connecting the most efficient DMUs P1, P2, P3 and P4 in
Figure 3-b represents the envelope of the data set with variable returns to scale (VRS),
which represents a more realistic phenomenon in reality. 'Scale efficiency' is therefore
defined to quantify the effect of the presence of VRS in the DMUs. The 'scale efficiency'
of D is defined as AB/AC (Figure 3-b), representing the ratio of its 'ideal minimum EUI'
(AB) to the 'minimum EUI' (AC). In the DEMS case, the 'scale efficiency' scores reflect
the influences of the 'existing environment' and 'occupancy' factors on energy efficiency
(since the 'predicted EUI' is calculated by the regression model with the both groups of
factors).
3. Pure technical efficiency: The 'pure technical efficiency' is the 'overall efficiency' that
has the effect of 'scale efficiency' removed. Those points on the frontier are given with
the highest 'pure technical efficiency' score 100%. The 'pure technical efficiency' of D is
defined as AC/AD (Figure 3-b) and is calculated by dividing its 'real minimum EUI' (AC)
by its 'actual EUI' (AD). In the DEMS case, 'pure technical efficiency' scores indicate the
energy management effectiveness of all DMUs and reflect the effects of the
'management' factors on energy efficiency.

With the above three types of efficiency scores, the DEMS allows individual departments to
know the energy efficiencies of all spaces within their facilities from different perspectives,
and further identify appropriate energy saving targets. For example, DMU D will be given an
'overall efficiency' score of AC/AD; and be advised to move towards point C (pure technical
efficiency score of 100%) and try to reduce its actual EUI from d to c ( Figure 3-b).

In addition, the DEMS will assist individual departments in analyzing and comparing the
energy management effectiveness among different 'space types' to understand the
differences and the effects of various ' management' factors on energy efficiencies among
different space types. Finally, the DEMS is able to analyze and compare the energy
management effectiveness of a certain type of space over time to understand the pattern or

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31
 SV4

SV5

trend of its energy efficiency over time and to identify critical 'management' factors that have
great effects on its energy efficiencies over time.

3.3 The DEMS implementation: future research tasks

This study intends to further implement the DEMS in the Department of Architecture (DA) of
a national university (NTUST) in Taiwan, and use it as a case to demonstrate how the DEMS
can assist individual departments within universities in assessing the energy management
effectiveness of their spaces and in improving the energy efficiencies of their facilities. The
implementation research tasks to be conducted are planned and outlined.

3.3.1 The DEMS implementation subject

There are about 350 occupants in the Department of Architecture of NTUST (17 full time
faculty members, 10 research assistants, three full time administrative staff, 200 under-
graduate students, and 120 graduate students). The department occupies the 7th, 8th and 9th
floor of the Research Building on campus. There are a total of 66 spaces in the DA of
NTUST, taking up a total of 3,386 m2 of floor area. These spaces can be classified into five
major types according to their ‘functional uses’: administrative office, faculty office, research
lab (for graduate students), design studio (for undergraduate students), classroom
(excluding spaces such as workshop, lobby, corridor, elevator, toilet and staircase). Each
space type is characterised by its unique occupancy patterns (Table 1).

NTUST is located in Taipei City with a humid subtropical climate. The average temperature
in summer is 29.4 °C and in winter 11 °C. Summers are hot (133 days in a year with
maximum temperature exceeding 30 °C) and humid (mean relative humidity 74.0~81.1%),
and accompanied by occasional rainstorms and typhoons. Winters are short and mild.
Taipei’s average annual sunshine is 1,408 hours (67% of the time is cloudy), and average
annual precipitation is 2,325 mm (46% of the days rain).

Table 1: The five space types and their occupancy patterns in the DA, NTUST.

User type Equipment type Occupancy time (wk, day)

Space type
Density Density Length of daily use

Students Office equip. Variable (wk), intermittent (day)

Classroom
Medium density Low density Short-to-long hours

Admin. personnel Office + special equip. Constant (wk), continuous (day)

Admin. office
Low density Medium density Medium hours

Faculty Office + special equip. Variable (wk), continuous (day)

Faculty office
Low density High density Short-to-medium hours

Graduate students Office + special equip. Variable (wk), intermittent (day)

Research lab
Medium density Medium density Medium-to-long hours

Undergrad. students Office equip. Variable (wk), intermittent (day)

Design studio
High density Medium density Short-to-long hours

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3.3.2 Intelligent energy monitoring system installed

An intelligent energy monitoring system was installed in the DA in August 2011. The system
was set up to record the electricity consumption data of lighting, equipment, and HVAC on
each of the three floors. In addition, the system also records the electricity consumptions in
five typical spaces, each representing one of the five major space types: RB-809 classroom,
RB-810 administrative office, RB-905 faculty office, RB-906 research lab, and RB-909
design studio. The logged data can be tabulated into hourly, daily, or monthly data tables for
reference. As shown in Table 2, the monthly actual EUIs of the five spaces and those of
department average are summarized (data from January to December 2012).

Table 2: The monthly actual EUIs (kWh/m2) of the five space types and the department
average in the DA (data from January to December 2012).

2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2011 2012 2012 2012 Total
2
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec kWh/m
RB-809
4.8 4.0 6.5 6.7 13.4 9.3 6.9 5.5 11.3 9.3 8.6 5.2 91.5
Classroom
RB-810
4.2 4.2 5.6 5.5 7.3 7.5 9.6 7.4 8.4 6.6 6.8 5.3 78.3
Admin. office
RB-905
2.8 3.6 4.0 4.4 5.3 6.9 8.3 5.9 6.5 4.3 3.8 3.9 59.5
Faculty office
RB-906
4.2 4.2 4.7 6.2 8.4 10.1 14.6 9.7 10.7 12.4 13.1 7.4 105.6
Research lab
RB-909
2.3 2.2 4.0 5.3 7.4 9.6 10.9 2.5 5.4 10.0 7.8 5.9 73.4
Design studio
Department
4.2 3.6 6.2 8.1 10.4 10.2 11.2 7.7 8.1 9.1 8.5 6.3 93.7
average

3.3.3 Future research tasks planned

The monthly electricity consumption data of the DA in 2012 is ready for comprehensive data
analysis. This study plans to perform the following research tasks of the DEMS
implementation, and present the actual implementation and analytical results thereafter:

1. DMU definition: For a full year, there will be a total of 60 DMUs (= 5*12) in this study.
2. Regression analysis: Multiple regression analysis will be performed on the ten 'existing
environment' and two 'occupancy' independent variables ('management' factors NOT
included) and one dependent variable 'month actual EUI'.
3. Calculate the 'monthly predicted EUI' of five types of spaces: The derived regression
equation will be used to calculate the 'monthly predicted EUI' (Wh/m2-month) of the 60
DMUs by feeding the values of independent variables of all DMUs into the equation.
4. Data envelopment analysis: The DEA-Solver-Pro software will be used to conduct data
envelopment analysis on the input (monthly actual EUIs) and output (month predicted
EUIs) of all DMUs.
5. Energy efficiency assessment of all DMUs: The overall efficiency, scale efficiency and
pure technical efficiency scores of all DMUs will be inspected. Pure technical efficiency

10
33
 scores will be used to identify benchmark DMUs (on the frontier) as well as those that
are least energy efficient. For the least efficient DMUs, the causes and problems will be
speculated (low pure technical efficiency scores mean less effective in 'energy
management', and the related 'management' factors will be examined) and their energy
saving targets will be identified.
6. Energy efficiency assessment among different space types: The energy efficiency
scores of five space types will be analyzed and compared to realize the most and least
effective space types (in terms of 'energy management'), as well as to understand the
differences among different space types and the 'management' factors that may have
caused them.
7. Energy efficiency assessment of each space type over time: The energy efficiency
scores of each space type over 12 months will be analyzed in order to understand the
its energy management effectiveness over time and identify the 'management' factors
that may have caused them.

After implementing the DEMS and obtaining the analytical assessment results, this study will
further discuss the potential and the limitations of the DEMS. It's expected that certain
problems may arise during the DEMS implementation process. For example, how should the
energy efficiencies between spaces with different envelope construction be compared? Such
issues will be addressed and future research tasks to improve the DEMS will be outlined.

4. Conclusions

This research explores the ‘space type’ and ‘internal benchmark’ research concepts, and the
‘data envelopment analysis’ method to establish the ‘DEA Energy Management System
(DEMS)’ to assist individual departments within universities in assessing the energy
efficiencies of their facilities from the ‘management’ perspective. DEA is a method that
assesses the efficiencies of a number of decision making units (DMU) by analyzing and
comparing their input levels relative to output levels.

The DEMS proposed considers each ‘space’ in a given ‘time’ (such as a month) as a DMU.
Then, regression analysis is performed on data of the independent variables related to the
‘existing environment’ factors (such as highest temperature, highest relative humidity, space
orientation, room area, envelop surface area, envelope U-value, fenestration percentage,
lighting fixture density, equipment density, and HVAC density) and 'occupancy' factors (such
as occupant density and space utilization hours), and of the dependent variable (actual
energy consumption EUI) of all DMUs. The regression equation derived is then used to
calculate the ‘predicted EUI’ for all DMUs. The ‘actual EUI’ is considered as the input data,
and the ‘predicted EUI’ as the output data of the DEMS. Finally, data envelopment analysis
is conducted on the input and output data to produce three types of energy efficiency scores
(overall efficiency, scale efficiency, and pure technical efficiency) to indicate the energy
efficiencies of all DMUs. The ‘pure technical efficiency’ scores reveal the 'energy
management effectiveness' of all DMUs. Those DMUs on the efficiency frontier are the most
energy efficient ones and are given with the highest pure technical efficiency score of 100%;
and those DMUs that are away from the frontier are less efficient ones and are given with
efficiency scores less than 100%. Energy efficiency assessments can also be performed to

11
34
compare the energy management effectiveness among different space types as well as
those of individual space types over time.

The DEMS will be implemented in the Department of Architecture of NTUST in Taiwan to

illustrate how it can be used to assist individual departments within universities in assessing
the energy management effectiveness of their spaces and in improving the energy
efficiencies of their facilities. The implementation research tasks to be conducted are
planned and outlined, and the actual implementation and analytical results will be presented
thereafter.

Acknowledgement

The author thanks the National Science Council of the Executive Yuan of Taiwan for
sponsoring this research work (Project No. NSC 101-2221-E-011-149).

References

Berg, S. (2010). Water Utility Benchmarking: Measurement, Methodology, and Performance

Incentives. International Water Association.

Bohdanowicz, P. and Martinac, I. (2007) Determinants and benchmarking of resource

consumption in hotels – Case study of Hilton International and Scandic in Europe. Energy
and Buildings 39 (1), 82-95.

Charnes, A., Cooper, W.W. and Rhodes, E. (1978). Measuring the Efficiency of Decision
Making Units, European Journal of Operational Research, 2(6), 429-444.

Chauhan, N.S., Mohapatra, P.K.J., and Pandey, K.P. (2006). Improving energy productivity
in paddy production through benchmarking - An application of data envelopment analysis.
Energy Conversion and Management, 47, 1063-1085.

Chung, W., Hui, T.V. and Lam, Y.M. (2006). Benchmarking the energy efficiency of
commercial buildings. Applied Energy, 83 (1), 1-14.

Cook, W. D. and Green, R. H. (2000). Project prioritization: a resource-constrained data

envelopment analysis approach, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 34(2), 85-99.

Filippin, C. (2000). Benchmarking the energy efficiency and greenhouse gases emissions of
school buildings in central Argentina. Building and Environment, 35, 3206-3217.

Haji-Sapar, M., and Lee, S.E. (2005). Establishment of energy management tools for
facilities managers in the tropical region. Facilities, 23, (9/10), 416-425.

Lee, W.L., Yik, F.W.H., and Burnett, J. (2007). Assessing energy performance in the latest
versions of Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (KH-BEAM). Energy
and Buildings, 39 (3), 343-354.

12
35
Önüt, S. and Soner, S. (2006). Energy efficiency assessment for the Antalya Region hotels
in Turkey. Energy and Buildings, 38 (8). 964-971.

Poel, B., Cruchten, G.V. and Balaras, C.A. (2007). Energy performance assessment of
existing dwellings. Energy and Buildings, 39 (4), 393–403.

Sohn, S.Y., and Moon, T.H. (2004). Decision Tree based on data envelopment analysis for
effective technology commercialization, Expert Systems with Application, 26(2), 279-284.

Sowlati, T., Paradi, J.C., and Suld, C. (2005). Information systems project prioritization using
data envelopment analysis, Mathematical and computer modeling, 41(11-12), 1279-1298.

Tu, K.J. and Lin, C.H. (2012). Benchmarking Energy Efficiency by ‘Space Type’: An energy
management tool for individual departments within universities. Journal of Asian Architecture
and Building Engineering, 11 (2), 1-8.

US Green Building Council (2009). LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings Operations and
Maintenance Rating System.

13
36
 Factors Affecting the Maintenance of Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs) Buildings in Nigeria

Mohammed, Adelaja Olowoake1, Song, Wu2

Abstract

The process needed to retain Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) buildings; their services
and facilities to acceptable standards are recently being challenged by the need to sustain
their Utilities and values in Nigeria. The absence of appropriate procurement strategies,
maintenance methods, and adequate maintenance budget in the HEIs in Nigeria led to
keeping a backlog of maintenance and repairs of their built environments (now in dilapidated
conditions) which may impact negatively on staff and learners performance, and reduce
their productivity levels. This paper seeks to assess and evaluate the works and service
departments in higher education institutions in Nigeria by examining the effectiveness of
maintenance works being carried out in connection with identifying the maintenance
programme , maintenance schedules and jobs specifications (as maintenance control
toolkit) have impacted the HEIs, and Proposing a framework to support key decision makers
in Nigeria. Using a case study research strategy, adopting purposive sampling technique to
select twelve HEIs, the approach is qualitative using a series of data collection employing
semi structured interviews with the Directors of works and services from the selected HEIs .
The data analysis employed was the thematic analysis of the data collected. It revealed
that, a general shortage of financial resources has allowed a backlog of maintenance and
repairs of HEIs Buildings to be built up across both the federal and state type. Furthermore,
it identified that, within this context of a maintenance backlog, that the following factors exist,
namely-low level of overall maintenance budget; delays in releasing fund (maintenance
cash); the adoption and use of assets condition surveys and curative maintenance methods;
a shortage of in-house technical staff. Based on the findings a framework is proposed to
assist key decision makers to develop enduring solutions to such maintenance challenges to
HEIs built environment in Nigeria.

Key words: Backlog , Environment, Maintenance, Procurement, Sustainable.

1
Post Graduate Research Student; School of the Built Environment; University of Salford; Flat 1, 15
Oldfield Road Adelphi Sandwich Bar & Café, Salford, Lancashire,M5 4NE United kingdom.
A.M.olowoake@edu.salford.ac.uk.olowo_ake@yahoo.com
2
Reader; School of the Built Environment; University of Salford; Salford, Lancashire, M5 4NT, United
Kingdom. S.wu@salford.ac.uk

37
Taking from The Polytechnic Ibadan,2012.

Figure 1: HEIs Buildings in dilapidated conditions.

1.0Introduction
Chartered Institute of Building (1990) also defines maintenance and refurbishment as “work
Undertaken in order to keep, store, or improve every facility, its services and surrounds to
currently acceptable Standards and to sustain the utility and value of the facility”. The British
Standard (BSI,1993) defines building maintenance as combination of any actions required
to retain an item in, or restore to acceptable conditions. Alan(1998,p.74-90) defines defects
as “ugly spots on both old and new buildings, and such spots reduce the commercial values
of the assets as well as their service years”.

David (1999,p.122) defines facilities or assets management “as managing a facility to

maximise profit or returns on investment to give value for money expended.” He explained
further that frequencies of maintenance works on a building or asset depends on many
factors, such as quality of materials used, quality of workmanship, frequency of use, nature
of use, the age of the asset, ecological factors, nature of activities within and around the
asset-for example activities that can cause vibrations to occur, such as mining, heavy traffic
–vehicle train and air craft movements. David (1999) classifies asset maintenance into three,
namely- preventive, predictive and corrective depending on the type of maintenance
strategies adopted and used by the individuals or corporate organisations concerned. He
explains further that repairs of damaged or worn-out parts of a building is curative and
maintenance is preventive. He classifies repairs into two, namely minor and major
repairs.

38
1.1 Justification of the Study

A cursory look at some Higher Education Institutions buildings in Nigeria, especially those
built more than five years ago, suggests that they are not well maintained .It is suspected
that some Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have not considered budgeting for
maintenance at all. In Nigeria, ownership of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can be
categorised as being Federal government owned, state owned, and those in private
ownership(for the purpose of this study emphasis is on Government owned). In South
Western Nigeria (comprising of six states), there are fifteen Higher Education Institutions
(public owned).This evidently shows the commitment of the Nigerian gover nment towards
ensuring better quality of life for its citizens. However, meaningful skills and knowledge need
to be imparted to learners in a very conducive environment. In addition the workplace for
academic and other faculty staff must also be conducive. The study needs to evaluate
current approaches to asset maintenance in Higher Education Institutions and develop a
strategic framework for (HEIs) Works and services departments in HEIs in Nigeria.

1.2 Aim of The Study

The study needs to assess the constraints of Higher Education Institutions works and
services departments in Nigeria with a view to evaluating their procurement strategies,
maintenance methods, budgets, assets sustainability, and the influence of culture in the
execution of projects. The study aims to propose a theoretical strategic framework on asset
management in Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives Of The Study

*To establish current theoretical approaches to assets maintenance management

*To assess and evaluate works and services departments constraints in relation to
procurement strategies, maintenance methods, budgets, effective maintenance
management, and the influence of culture.

*To develop a theoretical asset maintenance strategic framework for HEIs in Nigeria.

*To validate the framework(through interviews and by attending workshops).

2.0 Research Methodology

Dainty(2008) asserts that there are four philosophical paradigms, namely-1-Ontology,-ii-

Epitemology,-iii-Axiology,-iv-and Rhetorology. The author explains further that, the selection
of any philosophical paradigm should consists of the three essentials, such as Ontology,
Epistemology and Methodology. Crotty(1998) explains that there are three essentials
namely, Ontology which is study of being and concerns with what is the nature of existence
with the structure of reality, such as “meaning”, and realism, epistemology means reality-that
is, what it means to know, and that is a way of understanding and explaining how we know
what we know and methodology is the strategy, plan of action, process or design underlying
the choice and use of particular method and linking the choice and use of methods to the
desired outcomes.

39
2.1 Mixed Method

For the purpose of this study, both the qualitative and quantitative approaches(mixed
method research design based on pragmatism) would be adopted and research questions
shall be drawn to ensure that the study achieves its objectives. However, for the purpose of
this presentation, the researchers used semi-structured interviews(Qualitative) to collected
the data been presented now.

2.2 Methodology and Data Collection strategy

In the whole study, both the hard and soft paradigms shall be used. The first phase of data
collection shall be carried out by conducting semi-structured interviews(qualitative) for the
Directors of works and services departments of the selected HEIs in Nigeria. The second
phase shall be by administration of questionnaires(quantitative) for the users of the HEIs
built environments. The researchers intend to use triangulation method. Robson(2002)
asserts that, triangulation when used removes the bias of the researchers, enable an in-
depth knowledge and understanding of the study area, encourages wider coverage, helps in
validating the results of the research and finally enhance results credibility.

2.3 Research Design

Bryman and Bell(2003,p.32) define “research design as the ways in which the data will be
collected and analysed in order to answer the research questions posed and to provide a
framework for understanding the research”. The study sampled twelve HEIs out of the entire
fifteen of them (Federal and State owned), with one respondent in each HEI(One-Director of
works and services) sampled.

2.4 Sources of Data

For the purpose of the study, the researcher used both primary source and secondary
source of data collection.

2.5 Limitation of Methodology

The study shall be limited to the selected HEIs buildings in six states of the South Western
part of Nigeria. The study shall use semi-structured interviews (qualitative) for the Directors
of works and services and surveys for the users of the assets.

3.0 Current Theoretical Approaches to Asset Maintenance Management.

3.1 Maintenance Strategies

Chika(2008) asserts that, no single maintenance method and strategy can effectively
provide needed remedies to both natural and artificial defects on buildings. The author
recommends the use of a planned maintenance method which is termed as Planned
Preventive Maintenance. Olanrewaju et al.,(2011, p.263) asserts that “there is a need for
shift from maintenance management principles to value-based initiatives”. This argument is
calling for an improvement in maintenance management processes.

40
3.2 Procurement Strategies

Barret and Baldry(2003)describe procurement as the process by which a user employs a

separate organisation under a contract to perform a function or to be performed by in- house
staff. They conclude that HEIs as Corporate entities cannot stick to adoption of a particular
procurement strategy in order to achieve quality of work done and ensure effective project
delivery.

Brian and Brook(2009,p.44) assert that, “the choice between in-house and outsource
services is not always clear cut”. They argue that, the organisation management must
consider first the issue of costs. RICS(2009) agrees that, a high degree of expertise is one
of the advantages of outsourcing. The report further explains that, in-house technical
staff(direct labour) carries out specialist work, especially where breakdowns have to be
attended to immediately or where security is a high priority. An investigation must be made
into the value of the project before a decision is taken as to which of the two strategies or
combination is to be adopted and use (RICS,2009).

3.3 Maintenance Methods

David(1999) classifies building maintenance into three, namely-1-preventive,-2-predictive-3-

and corrective maintenance methods. The author explains further that, repairs or
replacements of works can be minor or major. Chika(2008) recommends the use of planned
preventive maintenance method, while Justine and Keith(2008,p.361) assert that, ”in the
United Kingdom a stock condition survey(combination of predictive and curative) is the
common tool used to assess the need for maintenance. In addition,
(Oyewande,1992;Taiwo,2010 and Akinpelu, 2002) recommend the use of preventive
maintenance method as a measure to avert eventual collapse of buildings. RICS(2009)
asserts that the combination of preventive and corrective maintenance methods are needed
for facilities to be durable and perform well. Iwarere and Lawal(2011) assert that, all public
facilities can be utilised efficiently and effectively if a combination of preventive and
corrective methods are employed.

3.4 Techniques of Maintenance Budget Estimation and Percentage

David(1998,p.215) asserts that, “an annual maintenance budget of about two to four
percentage of the Agency annual budget needs to be allocated to the department of works
and services for minor repairs and replacements”. Justine and Keith(2008,pp.362-363)
assert that “maintenance needs are determined by considering the physical conditions of the
assets components in compliance with the Decent Home Standard”. They assert that,
budgetary and specification standards are the challenges being faced in the restoration of
assets to normalcy. Olanrewaju, et al.,(2011) assert that, most HEIs based their
maintenance budget estimates on the previous year’s budget plus allowances for the coming
year’s budget. RICS(2009,pp.12) in its report that, “maintenance budget should be set up by
taking information from the condition surveys and in particular from the prioritised schemes
of works”.

3.5 Surveys on Users Satisfaction

Emmit and Gorse(2006) assert that, any fault or defect discovered should be recorded and
reported for immediate and appropriate actions(correction of the defects).

41
3.6 Quality Control of Maintenance Projects

Emmit and Gorse(2006) assert that, quality of completed building projects are determined by
design process, quality of materials, components and works undertaken. Soderholm et
al.,(2007) assert that, quality management aims to increase customers’ satisfaction. Brian
and Brook(2009) assert that, works and services departments should have a quality system
in place and have their project designs, planning and execution stages accredited under
ISO9000/9001:2008. RICS(2009) asserts that, many organisations now formally put quality
management regimes in place to conform with ISO 9000:2000-now updated to
ISO9000:2008.

3.7 Sustainability of the Built Environment

Project performance is considered in terms of cost, time and quality(Ding,2005 and

Patermann,199). Alameda(2002) asserts that, sustainability development can be divided into
three types, namely-1-build for durability,-2-make the environment safe-3-and use materials
from sustainable resources. Sustainable development is a development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs(Ugwu and Houpt,2007). Spilans(2009) asserts that, the three fundamental
aspects of sustainability developments are-i-environmental,-ii-economic-iii- and social.
RICS(2009) asserts that, many organisations have put in place local strategies in
environmental sustainability, material sourcing, waste disposal and energy management
policies in an attempt to set up a framework to achieve a sustainability operation.

3.8 Use of Maintenance Control Toolkit

Olowoake(2006,p.3-9) asserts that the use of maintenance control toolkit, such as

maintenance schedule, maintenance programme, job specification and facility register make
maintenance project planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation efficient and effective
and reduce maintenance costs.

4.0 Research Questions

4.1 Which of the procurement strategies do you adopt and use for-1-maintaining building
structures -2-domestic equipment-3-and other services provided?

4.2Which of the maintenance methods do you prefer to use-and why?

4.3How do you estimate your annual budget-and what percentage is it of the Institution
overall budget?

4.4How often do you carry out a survey on users satisfaction of the built environment that
your department manages?

4.5How often do you ensure the delivery of quality in your projects-and how do you improve
on it?

4.6What are your department programmes in sustaining the assets that you managed?

42
 5.0 Summary of Current Work Done and Findings on Semi-Structure
Interviews(Qualitative) Conducted for Directors of Works and Services of the
Selected Twelve HEIs in Nigeria.

The outcome of the recent semi-structured interviews (qualitative) conducted for the
Directors of works and services departments of the selected twelve HEIs in Nigeria revealed
as follow: All the twelve departments of HEIs in Nigeria adopt and use outsourcing for large
and complex maintenance projects, and in –house technical staff for supervision, monitoring
and controlling of such projects. In addition, they all use in-house technical staff for small
and simple maintenance projects.

*Majority of HEIs works and services departments don’t use planned preventive
maintenance method, instead, they prefer the use of conditions survey and curative
maintenance methods-due to paucity of maintenance funds and delays in releasing same
where available.

*Many of the HEIs works and services departments base the estimation of their annual
maintenance budgets on consideration for the previous year budget and the prevailing
market prices of materials, components and labour plus a percentage or lump sum increase,
while some of them use budget forecasting.

*Almost all of the HEIs works and services departments in Nigeria don’t carry out surveys
on users satisfaction. They rely on letters of complaints from the assets users.

*In general, design of new maintenance projects are carried out by Commissioned
Consultants. Such projects are executed via outsourcing, while the in-house technical staff
carry out the supervision monitoring and controlling of the projects materials, components
and workmanship.

6.0 Suggestions

*The HEIs works and services departments should on yearly basis prepare and attach their
maintenance schedules and work programme with their departments annual budgets for
their HEIs management approval and release of maintenance funds to time. The department
should also create a quality control unit within-comprising of seasoned professionals from
the consulting firms and the in-house technical staff (Olowoake 2006;Olanrewaju et al.,2011)

*The HEIs works and services departments should endeavour to carry out reconnaissance
surveys of their built environment with a view to identifying likely problematic areas, do the
costing, prepare and attach annual maintenance schedules and works programmes for the
approval and release of maintenance cash by their HEIs managements(Olowoake
2006;RICS,2009).

*The HEIs works and services departments should twice in a semester (at the beginning and
the end) carry out surveys on users satisfaction of the buildings they use. This is necessary
to get to know the needs and feelings of the users(David,1998;Justice and
Keith,2008;Olowoake,2006;RICS,2009).

*The HEIs works and services departments should create a project control unit within, and
the duties of the unit is to supervise, monitor and control maintenance projects materials,

43
components and workmanship in order to ensure cost saving, quality deliveries of projects
within time limit (Olowoake,2006).

*The HEIs works and services departments to sustain built environment effectively, they
should endeavour to prepare and use environmental sustainability toolkit-such as –
maintenance schedules, work programme, facility register, history record, maintenance
planning and others (Brian and Brook,2009; Chika,2008;RICS,2009;Olowoake,2006;Iwarere
and.Lawal,2011).

7.0 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS(DIRECTORS OF TWELVE SELECTED HEIs IN

NIGERIA.

7.1 Adediran,M.M.(2012) Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Nigeria

7.2 Wahab, S.(2012) Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Nigeria.

7.3 Oyediran, A.T.(2012) Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

7.4 Oyebanji,M.(2012) The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria.

7.5 Olaniyan,S.(2012) University of Ibadan, Nigeria

7.6 Layode,K.(2012) Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria.

7.7 Ayeye,O.(2012) University of Lagos, Nigeria

7.8 Adenuga,O.(2012) Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria.

7.9 Ogunbadejo, O.A.(2012) Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

7.10 Williams, S.T.(2012) Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.

7.11Oyekunle, F.A.(2012) Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.

7.12 Banjo,O.T.(2012) Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

44
8.0 A Theoretical Framework Designed to Support Assets Maintenance

Management of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)Buildings in Nigeria.

Figure 2: Culled from the semi-structured interviews-2012.

7.0 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS(DIRECTORS OF TWELVE SELECTED HEIs IN

NIGERIA.

7.1 Adediran,M.M.(2012) Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Nigeria

7.2 Wahab, S.(2012) Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Nigeria.

7.3 Oyediran, A.T.(2012) Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

7.4 Oyebanji,M.(2012) The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria.

7.5 Olaniyan,S.(2012) University of Ibadan, Nigeria

7.6 Layode,K.(2012) Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria.

7.7 Ayeye,O.(2012) University of Lagos, Nigeria

45
7.8 Adenuga,O.(2012) Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria.

7.9 Ogunbadejo, O.A.(2012) Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

7.10 Williams, S.T.(2012) Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.

7.11Oyekunle, F.A.(2012) Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.

7.12 Banjo,O.T.(2012) Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

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Building Industry in Nigeria. The Professional Builder, Nigeria Institute of Buildings,2(1) 11-
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England,p.74-90.

Barret, P.and Baldry, D.(2003). Facilities Management, Towards Best Practice, Blackwell
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Bryman, A. and Bell, E.(2003).Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press,

Oxford.

BSI(1993) BS 3811-Glossary of Maintenance Management Terms in Terotechnology, British

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CIOB(1990), Maintenance Management-A Guide to Good Practice, Chartered Institute of

Building ,Ascot.

CIOB(2011) ISO 9001 Quality management case studies, Construction Standards Report.
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Creswell,J.W.(2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and mixed methods

approaches Second Ed.London:Sage Publications.

Crotty,M.(2005)The Foundations of social research; meaning and perspective in the

research process. London:Sage publications.

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David,G.C. (1999) The Facility Management Hand book, American Management
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David, L. (1998). Selected Issues in the philosophy of social science. In S.Cleave (1998),
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performance. Building Research and Information 3391),3-16.

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48
 Factors Threatening the Cultural Heritage- the
Windows of Europe

Paul Dettwiler1

Abstract

Today, historical windows of Europe are disappearing from the façades in a magnitude that
can possibly be compared to the destruction of the building stock during the World Wars.
The purpose of this paper is to give a structure to the problematic and to discern factors that
contribute to such circumstance. Even though the European legislation generally protects
historical buildings since the last 30 to 70 years, the vigour of law seems toothless in favour
of market forces and weak insights of the consequences of establishing sustainability
policies. One factor that has in recent years grown in significance seems to be divergences
of policies between sustainability and protection of the cultural heritage. Another contributing
factor to the rate of destruction seems to be economic wealth that correlates to inappropriate
change of windows. The paper proposes a more holistic view of the consequences when
sustainability measures and decisions are taken. Finally the paper contributes to a
proposition how the unfortunate development should be hindered or mitigated.

Keywords: Architecture, Change, Cultural Heritage, Sustainability, Windows.

1. Introduction

Windows are the openings in the walls of buildings, which originally were merely holes. In
order to enable daylight entering the inside of buildings and in the same time excluding wind
and cold temperatures, transparent material were sought as covering material in the wall
openings. The first glass windows were already created in ancient times, when the Romans
were capable to produce glass. Windows were a luxurious artefact of a building and grew
continuously in importance and contributed with a development of specialized craftsmen in
the field. In the middle ages windows of composed pieces of circular (or hexagonal) crown
glass with plumb frames was the predominant way of creating a window. From the 17th
century larger pane surfaces where sought, which lead to a development of the technique of
producing cylinder (plain) glass. During hundreds of years until the last century the same
technique of producing pane of glass remained the same, however with increased sizes and
refinement. A mouth-blown glass square was produced through a two-step procedure: first a
glass-cylinder was moulded in a form. After cooling, it was cut up alongside the height and a
second time put into the oven where the cylinder opened to a flat rectangular pane of glass.
(also called cylinder blown sheet glass). With this technique it is impossible to create a
perfectly flat surface; instead it contributes to an almost inimitable and special character of
windows and in a larger context: the perception of the façades. The thickness of glass panes
is from 2 to 5 mm that render the panes quite sensible; a minor impact is enough to destroy

1
F:A Arch. SIA, CTH, Schlossbergstr. 49, CH-8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland, cthdettw@gmail.com

49
a pane of glass. The cylinder glass windows relates to the architecture that succeeded the
medieval building with crown glass. Larger glass surfaces became a significant architectural
resource of expression of European architecture; e.g. from Versailles in the 17th century to
every common buildings until the 1920s. During the early 20th century cylinder glass for
windows were replaced with a number of new techniques of producing considerable large
surfaces (e.g. float glass) with a perfection of a flat surface. Uncontestably the new glass
production technique contributed together with the development of steel and concrete
techniques to the characters of the various trends of modern architecture during the 20th
century. However in the beginning of the modernistic era, when perfect plain surfaces were
sought, particular unevenness of windows in buildings can be found until the 1930s. The
window ratio of the façade area before the 1930 generally was 10% to 50 % and afterwards
the span extended until 20% to 100%. This fact suggests that the character of the glass
surfaces play undoubtedly a mayor role of how we perceive the architecture of a building.
The texture of mouth-blown the glass panes get lost when they are replaces with modern
windows. This paper want to raise the question if it is possible to maintain a more subtle and
careful way to deal with windows in old houses, that in fact would be more sustainable in a
holistic viewpoint and ultimately “is there any willingness to do so?”. (This article is limited to
the topic of “Casement window” which is the traditional window of Northern and Central
Europe, hence named here merely as “window”)

2. Architectural values

Old windows have generally a frame of timber (rare alternatives are iron, steel or lead),
which in particular in Northern Europe have often a very high quality (often heartwood of
pine and spruce) a low propensity to decay even if the coats of paint have fallen away. In
central Europe hardwood like oak was the domineering material for the frames. Panes of
glass are fixed in the wooden frames with small nails and putty. Traditionally linseed oil is an
important ingredient in window manufacturing: (1) As impregnation as a primer of the timber
frame, (2) As binder for the putty and (3) As binder of the coat of paint. Through the ages
linseed oil loses its elasticity through an oxidation process; when it becomes dry it does no
longer protect the window. Due to the winter season, parallel frames of windows were
common from Northern Europe until the alpine region. In southern Europe sun protection is
solved through shutters and blinds. In Northern Europe the whole year’s windows are
nearest to the façade and opens outwards. The windows for the cold season are hooked
inside with opening inwards. In Switzerland and Central Europe the season windows are
often contrarily hooked nearest the façades. Traditional window frames are subdivided into
smaller sections because the glass panes were not technically possible to produce large
enough for the size of one window frame. The glass panes are separated by slender timber
parts; the horizontal are called saddle bar and the vertical bar: stanchion bars. Windows are
often symmetrical; a vertical timber part, the mullion, separates the left and right window
frames. The timber parts of a traditional window have often elaborated and refined design of
profiles (www.buildingconservation.com).

50
2.1 Irreplaceable qualities

The concept of “Nordic Light” is related to early skills of milling appropriate profiles of timber
of the interiors in order to optimise the daylight in morning and evenings and has thus a
functional role apart from the decorative appearance. The timber profiles together with
composition of multiple uneven glass panes enable daylight to enter a building smoothly
without sharp contrasts that occur between shadow and light. The handicraft of windows of
traditional windows consists furthermore of elaborated details of metal: fittings, hinges,
catches and handles (e.g. Figure 1). All mentioned materials compose together a
characteristic element of the architecture of a façade, and are consequently utmost
significant for our cultural heritage.

Figure 1. Details and Texture of old windows do not exist in modern windows:
Original Window 18th century, Skottbergska Gården, Karlshamn, Sweden

3. Energy Saving vs. Protection of Cultural Heritage

The oil crisis of 1974 gave rise to energy saving requirements in Europe and has since then
continuously been a theme in European Governments and Financial institutions, which has
given a rise in industry to produce windows with higher thermal insulation. The façades of
existing buildings got an additional layer of thermal insulation; the windows were replaced
with new windows with better U-value. Since the 1960s, city cores in Europe have endured a
time when historical buildings, often several hundreds of years, have disappeared to larger
extent than during the world wars. All cities cores in Sweden (that did not even participate in
the world wars) must during the 1960s sacrifice an important stock of historical buildings in
favour of new constructions for supermarkets (Primarily the chain “Konsum”, politically
related to the Social Democratic Party with its ideology of “The People’s Home”) and office

51
buildings. The remaining historical buildings often have been radically changed from the
1970s due to energy requirements; new facade layers, new roofs and replacement of
windows. Undoubtedly large amount of the historical values have thus vanished or been
changed to a considerable extent.

3.1 Questionable Vigour of Protection of Cultural Heritage

Since the beginning of the 20th century, governments of Europe have to a various extent
created regulations of protecting the cultural heritage; initially building of spectacular value
like castles and churches became protection early whereas private buildings (dwellings,
factories, offices and commercial building) from medieval to 19th century become protected
after WWII. Despite status as protected heritage, changes of windows are frequently made.
In the archives of the building authorities the blue prints of façades often have the scale of
1:100, which means that a window with measure of let us say 2 x 1 meter has the size on
the blueprint 2 x 1 cm. Certainly on such tiny size, details of a window cannot be seen or
evaluated of its architectural or historical quality, nor can a difference between old and new
windows be distinguished. In reality, it is undoubtedly a considerable difference between an
original window with substitute of a modern window: (1) modern glass panes a perfectly
even, which can be easily detected in the mirroring of the glass pane. Instead of multiple
glass panes, a single glass pane fill the entire frame where saddle bars and stanchion bars
are often mere decoration and fixed inside the glass pane (2) Instead of wooden parts, the
windows have frames are often of plastic or aluminium. The profiles of the frames (and the
“false bars”) are of standardised form paying no heed to the above mentioned functions of
the original windows profile. Furthermore, from inside the frame create a sharp contrast to
the daylight instead of the particular character of the subtle light dispersion of old windows.

3.2 Movements of Protection in Academia and Practice

During the 1970s, a wave of demolition of old buildings took place. Voices of protecting
historic values arose, often as a protest to market and political forces. The protests against
the extensive demolition of historical building resulted in higher academic interests at the
architectural schools in Sweden (primarily the Professors Boris Schönbeck at Chalmers and
Ove Hidemark at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) where maintenance of old
art and crafts within the building sector acquired new-born interest. Relations to artisans
were established that were invited to architectural school to work-shops. One example was
Hans and Sonia Allbäck from Ystad, Sweden who specialized in the art and craft of old
window at its traditional materials. Hans Allbäck invented a glass-tube that heated the old
putty of windows and thus facilitated removal of putty without damaging the mouth-blown
glass panes. It must be said that specialists in repairing old windows have in the recent
decades found its market segment in Europe. Another example is the firm Glomet AG in
Horgen Switzerland (www.glomatag.ch) who as well has a stock of old windows and thus is
capable to provide original window parts for their clients. The interests for preserving old
buildings have become institutionalised phenomena in Sweden; outside academia
organisations like The Swedish Association for Building Preservation
(www.byggnadsvard.se) has been established. Contacts to specialised artisans and
providers of traditional building material are provided from several sources.

52
Intermediary solutions between old and new windows were as well of interest; for example in
the 1970s the firm EMDE Inredningar, (design Max Dettwiler) in Sweden pursued
experiments by preserving the old glass panes and transferring them to new timber frames
with an internal additional window frame with a modern isolation glass pane. Contrarily the
authorities of building preservation (www.ag.ch/denkmalpflege, Switzerland) recommend a
method of replacing old glass-panes with modern glass panes and preserving the timber
parts of the windows. There are today some manufacturers of mouth-blown glass pane in
Europe that have to reconstruct forgotten techniques of various times; for example the
degree of organic pollution in the sand resulted in particular textures that are difficult to
reconstruct (www.byggnadsvard.se). Moreover there is a large amount of modern glass
panes with market label as “antique”. They are however far from the character of mouth-
blown glass panes and cannot function as a substitute.

3.3 Two main categories of old windows

The character of a building in relation to an urban context must be paid better attention
where details such as Figure 2 that render historical traces have great significance for the
architectural understanding and historic traceability (Schönbeck, 1994).

Figure 2. Details and Texture of old windows do not exist in modern windows:
Original Window from 17th century, Dijon, France
Schönbeck (1994) suggests that if changes of a historical building must be made, it should
be elaborated with prudence. Distinction is made between restoration and renovation:
traditional techniques should be used in repairing measures (restoration); whereas new
building parts must pay heed to the character of the place. The Venice charter of 1964

53
stipulates that new building elements should represent the present time, thus not being a
pastiche of past times.

In this paper it is argued to divide the management old windows into two categories: (1).
Buildings where the windows earlier have been replaced one or several times (medieval to
19th century) and (2) Buildings where façades and windows have the same age like Figure 3
(frequent example, houses from 1870, art nouveau buildings from beginning of 20th
century). According to “The Venice Charter 1964” a new window might have its place in a
historical building that have changed the character of the façade throughout the centuries
and where the existing windows have little historical and cultural value. The second category
however deals with historical buildings where a considerable part of the original surface is
threatened; if possible it would have high value if the entire building to a maximum can
maintain its original materials. Nypan (2009) compares short life cycle of modern windows
and maintenance of old windows; thus put to question the necessity of a change. Dettwiler
(2012) conclude that changes often occur without a rational reason and often the change per
se can be of nuisance. An example are the art nouveau buildings in Eastern Germany that
after the opening 1989 were renovated for symbolic reasons; having now lost their original
windows the buildings must probably already have their second generation of plastic
windows.

Figure 3. A residential building from beginning last century in Davos, Switzerland

where the upper floors have changed to new windows, whereas the lower floor has
maintained the original windows.
In several ways, the original windows can in fact have sustainable features: (1) they old
windows were repairable, the new windows not, (2) maintenance consists of a layer of
linseed oil each fifth year, enabling a quality as a new window (3) societal cost of energy

54
would be saved by avoiding manufacturing, transport, installation and waste, (4) cultural
value would be maintained etc. (Ohlén, 2005).

4. Analysis of Sustainability

In recent decades Switzerland have agreed to achieve a so-called 2000 Watt Society
(introduced by ETH in Zurich, 1998), which is a target of energy consumption per head in a
future. Such a political target has resulted in requirement of energy savings among the
existing building stock. If house-owners commit themselves to transform their houses to new
energy standards they receive lower interest rates on the loans. Similarly cultural values
seems to be forgotten when it matters of energy saving in historical buildings; methods of
renovation is well spread in Germany. It means thus that Financial Institutions and
Governments contribute to the disappearance of old windows. The manufacturing industry of
plastic windows fulfilling the new requirement has grown and offers easy delivery and
replacement of desired sizes.

The Swiss authorities accept that old glass panes of cultural heritage classified buildings are
replaced with new glass panes and thus would the timber parts of the window saved (for
example www.ag.ch/denkmalpflege). Windows in historic city cores have to a considerable
extent been replaced by new windows (often of white plastic frames and false bars behind
the glass pane): examples are Appenzell (Figure 4), Zermatt, Zürich, Geneva, Lausanne and
more. Being classified as a Unesco Heritage more prudence of window repair and
preservation can be seen in Bern.

4.1 Architectural Design vs. Energy Saving

The manufacturing of windows during the post WWII era has been developed from
handicraft to large scale industrialisation. The technical qualities of windows has continuous
been enhanced in terms of acoustic and thermal insulation. Glass panes have become
thicker with a significant more flat texture and can be produced of considerable larger sizes
than it is possible with mouth-blown glass panes. Together with steel and concrete as
building materials, the technical development of glass production has incontestably
contributed as an important material of the architecture of modern buildings. Old windows
have poorer thermal insulation however compensated by its minor part of the surface of the
façade. Modern windows often have a larger part of the façades with less wall surface. In
Northern and Western Europe, the floor surface per capita grown as well as the floor size of
apartments has as well continuously grown since WWII. On one hand we have thus an older
building stock with smaller surface of windows with on the average small apartments. On the
other hand we have an architectural trend of increasing glass surfaces and a design of larger
apartments with more floor surfaces per capita. As a part of discussion on sustainability, this
observation argues for not studying only the physical aspects of windows as an isolated
building element but rather as in ingredient in a larger context in briefing, building physics
and architectural design.

Sustainability labels generally do not pay heed on culture values, rather they tend to be
directed to incorporate insulation materials and thus attain targets of energy saving. Ohlén

55
(2005) suggests that old windows in fact can be better than new windows; the differences
should be about 4% of the entire heating cost between preservation and new windows.
Energy can be saved in a number of other changes in a house like more efficient ventilation,
roof insulation, efficient re-use, low energy household equipment etc. A balance with
humidity and temperature is relevant; historical timber houses with historical painting layers
suffer from damages of continuous level of heating because water evaporates and dry the
timber with results of volume changes. It causes cracks and peeling of paint and plaster. The
other extreme is too much humidity in the building which often were the case of the
additional insulation of the 1970s (due to the oil crises 1973) were the condensation point felt
inside the wall through openings in the moisture barrier.

4.2 A Philosophic Comment on Sustainability

It is remarkable that there seems to be a correlation between wealth and destruction of

cultural heritage; Dettwiler (2012) exemplifies with the opening of Eastern Germany and how
Art Nouveau houses were badly damaged through unskilled renovation. The same can be
seen in Switzerland where cultural heritage seems primarily have an image role for tourists;
one of the Landmarks of Switzerland; the Kappelbrücke in Luzern was completely destroyed
in 1993 through an intense fire. It was originally constructed in the 14th century with 111
paintings from 17th century. A new copy was quickly reconstructed in its place. The newly
built Kappellbrücke is still a photographic symbol of Swiss tourism.

Figure 4. A residential building from 17th in Appenzell, Switzerland after a “Sanierung”

with a new coat of paint and new windows (NB. Plastic bars, without function, behind
a single glass pane)

Furthermore; houses from 15th century until 19th century that are renovated (German:
“Sanierung”, literarily translated “Cleansing”) in Switzerland often got a new perfect facade
with new layers of paint and new windows whereas more prudence can be seen concerning
old houses in neighbouring countries with lower GDP. During the 1960s the Swedish word

56
“Sanering” (Cleansing) was as well frequently used when a considerable part of the historical
building stock insensitively disappeared and is today avoided due to its negative
associations. “Sanierung” is however today frequently used in Switzerland, which implies
that there might be cultural differences of the attitude to cultural heritage (Figure 4). Through
insensitive restoration the original character vanishes and a have a new “look”; a building
with the same treatment of its surface can in fact easily be reproduced elsewhere in the
world. It can be associated to newly built city centres aimed for tourist; e.g. the collection of
copies of various European old houses in Macao or the copy of Venice in Las Vegas. The
question arises “Is it indifferent whether buildings or building parts are original or copies?”

Investments in historical buildings have often a dual character. Buildings in city cores with
high symbolic values and rentable surfaces are a subject of investment and speculation.
Negative aspects are risks of costly and complicated renovations with restrictions due to
protection of cultural heritage. Most frequently old windows of old houses seem
disconnected to the value as an old house. The contractors specialised in renovation do
seldom want to exhibit a renovated window as an enhancement of value, whereas
ornaments of the walls are often new painted or cleaned. The outcome of a renovation is (as
the name implies) a new “look”.

It is probably a matter of status of a building if a window renovation should take place. For
example, we cannot accept that the glass panes of the royal castle in Stockholm should be
replaced by modern glass panes. An extensive and most prudent renovation lead by
Professor Ove Hidemark maintained all original glass panes, the oldest from 1741
(www.gardochtorp.se). Auditing of real estates is a fundamental element of valuation and
information for real estate archives, where a multitude of physical aspects are documented.
In Italy old building parts are included in the auditing process (Bellintani and Ciaramella,
2008). Documentation might in fact be a step to establish a value of old windows and other
original building parts. It is a well-known fact that investment and value has a psychological
background. As far, old windows have frequently been regarded as a financial burden where
the easy solution is replacement. If old windows would be ubiquitously regarded as valuable
objects, more balance could be found in the future between change alternatives.

The concept of “sustainability” deserves some analytical remarks. There is apparently a

divergence of policies and interests between sustainability and the protection of the cultural
heritage. Alternatives of managing old windows are highlighted in Table 1.

One can assume that the targeted 2000 watt society to a large extent is biased not only to
fulfil political goals but as well of an emerging industry. If the approach of achieving
sustainability would be to cause a minimum of nuisance by a change it is not certain that a
manufacturing of new production, and its related processes, like transports would the best
alternative. Decision of changes can be related to variables of pro- activeness, re-activeness
and weighting of functional and symbolic values (Dettwiler, 2012): We might feel that we
have done something good for the environment if we replace old windows by new ones
when we actually are influenced by governmental and market goals. In the same time we
have invested financial means that result in a new painted façade with new windows (that
have a life-cycle of about 25 years and cannot be repaired). Certainly it would be a sacrifice

57
of renouncing for a short-sighted economic profit in favour of altruistic ideals of preserving
cultural heritage for the benefit of coming generations.

A comparison between the two alternatives of managing windows in Table 1 can be further
deducted to the utilitarian thoughts of Mill (1863) where a human action should be
transferred to a satisfaction, ethics and moral. It is not evident that users and owners of
buildings would be immediately happier by preserving old windows with the disadvantages of
inferior acoustic and thermal qualities. Shall the mouth-blown glass panes be sacrificed in
favour of comfort requirements of today or shall possibly moral and ethics be a means to
fulfil conservation aspirations?

Table 1. Alternatives Maintaining existing Windows or exchanging them.

New windows (discharge of old windows)
• Loss of cultural heritage
• Change of 10-50% of façade architecture
• Improvement of Energy Cost for the
building
• Improvement of acoustic quality
• Risk of humidity damages and
contribution to “sick houses”.
• Limited life cycles, Replacement with
another window each 25 years>recurrent costs
• Higher Societal energy cost of
transporting, manufacturing and waste windows
(thus less sustainable?)
• Easy to realise accessible on market
(Economies of Scale, Standardisation and
Supply)
• Governmental request of energy saving,
promotion through financing
• Gives jobs and business opportunity for
manufacturing industry
• Plastic, Aluminium cannot be repaired
Sustainability from Political and Market Forces’
viewpoint
Maintaining old windows (maintenance and
repair)
• Maintenance of cultural heritage
• Maintenance of façade architecture
• Some Improvement of Energy Cost for
the building if maintained and repaired
• Some Improvement of acoustic quality if
maintained and repaired. Otherwise poorer
quality than new windows.
• Higher energy cost for owners
• Undefined life-cycle if maintained and
repaired
• Recurrent cost of maintenance and repair
• Lower societal costs of energy and
material (assuming that maintenance and repair
is less energy demanding than replacement,
thus more sustainable?)
• Difficulty to find competent artisans in
the field
• Timber repairable and easily
maintainable.
• Growth rebirth of old art and crafts
Sustainability from a scientific viewpoint?

5. Summary: What can be done?

Building authorities are the institution that primarily can promote a more sober and
differentiated view on windows. Original windows that are repaired could be entered as part
of the value enhancement of a historical building: information to the public has a preventive
effect. Such information has a multidisciplinary duty: from historical, architectural values to
technical advices and guidance to the few artisans in the field that are capable to repair and
maintain old windows. The architectural (and engineering) school might have a course in
preservation of cultural heritage and traditional arts and craft as a mandatory theme. An

58
advice for the future would be more prudence and balance by identifying the real needs and
necessary changes.

5.1 Recommendations

Some ideas in the paper that can be transformed to practice:

• Profound investigation whether a certain change must take place. An analysis of

consequences can be motivated. What is sustainability in a societal and larger
context? Contradictions can be found in a limited context as that of a singular building.
More subtle weighting should be made between energy saving and preservation.
Finding alternative ways between preservation and fulfilling acoustic and energy
saving requirements (like intelligent and variable heating of spaces) are motivated.

• Educational measures: (1) Education of more artisans capable to repair appropriately

windows and in fact open a market to the public as an alternative to pre-fabrication
window suppliers. (2) Historical values that might be transformed to economic values.
Elite of educated real estate investor would appreciate original windows of a real
estate. Might such attitudes be spread to a broad category of owners?

• Documentation performed by municipalities, investors and owners as a part of the

auditing process and value creation. Better routines among authorities: details of
façades should be better protected against changes with higher degree of details in
drawings (from 1/100 to 1/20 for example). The development of technologies, ICT, BIM
etc. gives large opportunity to manage large amount of data concerning windows.

• Energy savings of old building relate often lower interest rates of loans when original
windows of old buildings are replaced with plastic or aluminium framed windows.
Probably such rule has caused the high degree of disappearance of old windows
during recent years. Governmental financial support of repairing old windows might
give balance to the today’s financial promotion of replacement alternative.

• Two categories of old windows have been distinguished that lead to various measures:
(1) original windows with same age as the facade and (2) old windows, but younger
than the facade itself. Repair and maintenance is more motivated in the first category
in order to maintain an original facade, whereas the second categories represent
another window in a succession of several previous generations of windows.

6. Conclusive Remarks

This paper has highlighted the imminent problematic of the loss of historical building and
windows in Europe; in particular the loss of mouth-blown glass panes (cylinder blown sheet
glass) has been treated. It is furthermore most remarkable that the institutionalised ideas of
energy saving, sustainability labels, political and market targets seem more or less to have
been forgotten the architectural and historical values of old windows. Recommendations are
made in order to safeguard the remaining part of the old-window stock. A holistic view of the

59
consequences would be motivated when sustainability measures and decisions should be
taken. New windows imply that energy can be saved in a limited perspective but is more
doubtful in a larger and societal context. Various alternatives should be considered in the
decision process before making a change. Ultimately, it can be said that this paper has an
underlying research question: “What is sustainability from a scientific perspective?”

References

Bellintani, S. and Ciaramella, A. (2008) “L’audit immobiliare, Manuale per l’analisi delle
caratteristiche degli edifici e dei patrimoni immobiliari”. Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy.

Buildingconservation.com (available online

www.buildingconservation.com/articles/windowfurn/windowfurniture.htm [accessed on
22/11/2012])

Byggnadsvard.se (available online http://www.byggnadsvard.se/byggnadskultur/ola-

wetterberg-professor-i-kulturv%C3%A5rd [accessed on 22/11/2012])

The Venice Charter 1964 (available online www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf

[accessed on 22/11/2012])

Dettwiler, P. (2012) The Change Management Challenge in Growth Firms, IN “Facilities

Change Management”, (Ed. Finch, E.), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. pp. 42-56.

Gard och Torp (available online www.gardochtorp.se/en-kunglig-fonsterrenovering.aspx?

article =6007 and www.gardochtorp.se/ hantverkstorget/index.aspx?category=119
[accessed on 22/11/2012])

Glomet AG (available online www.glometag.ch [accessed on 22/11/2012])

Kantonale Denkmalpflege Aargau, (available online www.ag.ch/denkmalpflege [accessed on

22/11/2012])

Mill, J.S. (1863), “Utilitarianism”, Parker, Son, and Bourn, London.

Nypan, T. (2009), Effects of European Union legislation on the built cultural Heritage, Report,
Riksantikvaren, Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Norway.

Ohlén, B. (2005) Gamla fönster kan bli bättre än nya, Byggnadskultur, No. 1

Schönbeck, B. (1994) ”Stad i förvandlinguppbyggnadsepoker och rivningar i svenska städer

från industrialismens början till idag” Byggforskningsrådet, Distribution, Svensk Byggtjänst in
Stockholm,Solna, Sweden.

60
 How Can Facilities Management Add Value To
Organisations As Well As To Society?

Per Anker Jensen1, Anna-Liisa Sarasoja2, Theo van der Voordt3,

Christian Coenen4

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present lessons learnt from a 3 year collaborative research
project on the added value of Facilities Management (FM) involving institutions in five
European countries. The starting point was the so-called FM Value Map developed earlier
by the leader of the research group. The project applied three basic theoretical perspectives:
FM, Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) and Business to Business (B2B)
marketing and started with a major literature review on added value based on each of these
perspectives. The collaboration included a series of workshops and preparation of research
papers covering theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects. The results were
published as an anthology in May 2012. The three basic perspectives of FM, CREM and
B2B marketing provide both overlapping and complementary focus areas in relation to
adding value. Four conceptual models are presented and compared. They include
parameters and strategies for how FM can add value with many similarities and a trend
towards convergence. Stakeholder relationships and relationship management are seen as
crucial in adding value, which for instance is expressed in the concepts FM Value Network
and Value Adding Management. Besides adding value for the core business of
organisations it is becoming increasingly important for FM to add value for society, for
instance in terms of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The advancement in
knowledge and understanding presented in the paper offers a new state of the art, which
can give inspiration and guidance for cutting edge FM organisations and professionals as
well as for advanced teaching and future research.

Keywords: Facilities Management, Corporate Real Estate Management, B2B

Marketing, Added Value, State of the Art.

1
Professor, Centre of Facilities Management, Technical University of Denmark; pank@man.dtu.dk,
2
Senior Researcher, Aalto University, School of Science and Technology;
anna-liisa.lindholm@tkk.fi
3
Associate Professor, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture & Center for People
and Buildings, Delft; D.J.M.vanderVoordt@tudelft.nl
4
Professor ZHAW - Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Facility Management;
coen@zhaw.ch

61
1. Introduction

This paper is based on the work of a EuroFM research group on “The Added Value of FM”
established in 2009. The group included researchers from Denmark, Finland, Switzerland,
The Netherlands and the UK. The background for the collaborative research is that the
perception and application of Facilities Management (FM) during the last few decades have
seen a gradual shift from a focus on cost reduction towards managing of facilities as a
strategic resource to add value to the organisation and its stakeholders and to contribute to
its overall performance. The main results of the work so far are presented in the anthology
“The Added Value of Facilities Management – Concepts, Findings and Perspectives”
(Jensen et al., 2012), which was launched during the European Facility Management
Conference (EFMC) in Copenhagen, May 2012.

The book shows why and how this shift occurred and how the supply of facilities and
services can or should be aligned to the different interests and needs of various
stakeholders. It connects concepts, theoretical frameworks, research data and measurement
tools from different countries and different disciplines, including Facilities Management (FM),
Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM), and Business to Business Marketing (B2B
Marketing). The empirical studies explored different sectors such as offices, higher
education, industry and health care.

This paper presents some of the main results of this collaborative research with a focus on
how FM can add value to organisations as well as society. The three basic theoretical
perspectives of FM, CREM and B2B marketing will be outlined and four models of how FM
and real estate can add value will be presented and compared. Furthermore, some
important lessons learnt and new insights concerning relationship management and
sustainability are presented.

2. The Three Basic Theoretical Perspectives

It was clear from the outset, that the researchers in the group had different academic and
theoretical backgrounds. Even though they all did research in relation to FM, some of the
researchers were more engaged in the related field of CREM. There were also differences
with some researchers from architectural and engineering backgrounds and others from B2B
marketing and similar marketing related backgrounds. These different backgrounds were
seen as fruitful in providing different types of insights into frameworks and challenges in
reaching common understanding of the benefits and shortcoming of the different theoretical
frameworks.

2.1 Facilities Management (FM)

The activities that today are regarded as part of FM have existed in organizations for a long
time before the term FM was used and the profession of FM was established starting in the
1980’s. The development of FM as a new management discipline in many countries during
the 1980’s and 1990’s has very much been driven by an aim to control and reduce cost by
new ways of organizing and managing a number of disparate activities, which formerly had

62
been without much management attention. With the introduction of centralisation, internal
markets, benchmarking, outsourcing, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs), a new management regime has been introduced and in
many cases resulting in tremendous cost savings. Around the change of the millennium the
role of FM has changed in many corporations. Controlling cost is no longer sufficient. In
periods of expansion and with strong demand for new generations of a limited number of
highly skilled professionals from the creative class, it is for many companies more important
to attract and retain employees. Providing attractive workplaces with excellent services has
become increasingly important as a primary requirement for FM. This forces FM to focus on
how facilities can be managed to add value to the core business. The same applies to the
changes in society towards an experience economy. The financial crisis which started in
2008 may, for a period, change the focus back towards cost reduction, but the underlying
change to knowledge and experience economy has not changed. The new focus on
sustainability and corporate social responsibility are other trends that, drives FM towards a
focus on added value.

One of the first manifestations of the new focus on added value in FM was the establishment
of a NordicFM work group in 2006 to ‘Highlight the added values for the core business
provided by Facilities Management’. The members were mostly practitioners. The only
researcher participating in meetings in the work group was Per Anker Jensen, Technical
University Denmark, who alongside participating in the NordicFM work group was leading a
research project at the Technical University of Denmark on FM Best Practice in the Nordic
Countries. The project included 36 case studies. One of the general conclusions was that
there had been a change in FM from mainly focusing on cost reductions towards a higher
degree of focus on adding value. By analysing 21 cases from the first phase of the research
project he developed the so-called FM Value Map, which was partly inspired by strategic
mapping from the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) methodology (Kaplan and Norton, 2000). The
FM Value Map was published together with the 36 cases in books in English and Danish
(Jensen et al., 2008) and as a research paper in the scientific journal Facilities (Jensen,
2010).

2.2 Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM)

During the last few decades there has been a shift going on from perceiving real estate as a
necessary burden, toward a rising awareness of the possible contributions of real estate to
corporate performance. Contrary to the transaction-oriented focus of real estate
management from an investors’ point of view, aiming to get the best possible return on
investment in the short and long run, CREM focuses on alignment of real estate to corporate
needs and objectives, incorporating the needs and wishes of shareholders and different
stakeholders at strategic, tactical and operational levels. While real estate resources and
capabilities were initially controlled and managed by the individual corporations, activities
and responsibilities are nowadays delegated more and more unto professional parties
outside the corporation. In the field of public real estate, i.e. real estate owned or rented by
ministries, municipalities and other governmental agencies, a shift is going on from
decentralised real estate management with a focus on facilitating primary processes towards
integration of FM and CREM in centralised shared services.

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As a consequence of this changing context and the changing scope of corporate and public
real estate, real estate managers working in or for public or private companies are in urgent
need for clear conceptual frameworks, data and tools for “evidence based” decision making
on linking real estate decisions to corporate strategy and adding value by real estate. Nourse
and Roulac (1993) were the pioneers who started to investigate how alternative real estate
strategies can contribute to business objectives. They found that too often the dominant
emphasis is on the financial goal of cost minimization. In order to effectively support a range
of corporate objectives, multiple rather than single real estate strategies are required. They
linked eight types of real estate strategies to a number of possible aims of a firm. This
research has been followed up by Anna-Liisa Lindholm (Lindholm et al., 2006), who
developed a model based on strategic mapping from Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
methodology (Kaplan and Norton, 2000) to show how real estate strategies can lead to
profitability growth and/or revenue growth and thereby maximize the wealth of shareholders.
Jackie de Vries investigated the impact of real estate interventions on organisational
performance through a survey among Institutes of Higher Professional Education in the
Netherlands (De Vries et al., 2008). The empirical study was based on a theoretical model
that takes its starting point in the thinking of Joroff et al. (1993), that real estate is the fifth
resource after human resources, technology, information and capital. A recent dissertation
by Alexandra den Heijer on Managing the University Campus (Den Heijer, 2011) further
explored how policymakers and real estate managers incorporate ways to add value to the
core business in campus management and how they balance the needs of different
stakeholders such as the daily users, controllers and society.

2.3 Business to Business Marketing (B2B Marketing)

Marketing - in the sense of development of new products or pricing decisions - has been
playing a role in market transactions for several centuries already. The early phase of
marketing’s development was characterized by the idea of selling products. In the 1950s and
1960s, the so-called marketing-mix was defined (McCarthy, 1964), which integrated the
existing concept of marketing as advertising and sales into a broader system of classifying
marketing activities. In recent years the discipline has witnessed a shift to issues addressing
marketing implementation, which called for a more multi-disciplinary viewpoint combining
marketing with other business disciplines such as organizational behaviour, psychology or
finance (Workman et al., 1998). A new approach addressed the question of to what extend a
company should be managed as a market-oriented organization (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993).
Parallel to the emphasis on market-oriented management, customer relationships
increasingly gained more importance and attention from both marketing practice and theory
(Homburg et al., 2009). The basis of this perspective is the awareness that the
establishment and sustainability of profitable long-term customer relationships pose a central
challenge to business in general and marketing in particular. The concept of relationship
marketing implies that the individual transaction with customers is replaced by a focus on
long-term business relationships (Berry, 1983; Grönroos, 1990).

In the 1980s a string of research evolved around the difference between marketing of goods
and services (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Basically, service marketing was established as a
research and management discipline, because services needed different marketing

64
approaches than physical goods. Services are mostly intangible and the customer takes part
in the delivery process (Zeithaml et al., 2006). Because of this the customer and his/her
perception of the service process plays an even more significant role than in evaluating
physical goods. Based on the original idea of the value chain (Porter, 1998), the Service
Value Chain structures value creating processes of service firms (Bruhn and Georgi, 2006).
In addition, the concept of the Service Profit Chain (Heskett et al., 1994) by Harvard
Business School structures the impacts of service provider’s activities on the customer’s
perceptions and behaviours. At the same time it shows how customer value is created.
Services marketing activities are evaluated by the customer and will lead to certain
customer’s behaviours, e.g. loyalty and repurchasing. This positive behaviour will ultimately
lead to increased firm value. It can be stated that the Service Value Chain encompasses
value activities by organizations; the Service Profit Chain encompasses the value effects of
these activities (Bruhn and Georgi, 2006).

2.4 Comparison of the three perspectives

The difference in scope between FM and CREM is that CREM has its focus on real estate as
physical and economical assets utilized by an organization, while FM has a wider service
focus including demands related to space and infrastructure as well as people and
organization (CEN, 2006). As professions, FM and CREM can be overlapping with different
traditions in different countries and organizations. The difference in scope between FM and
CREM on one side and B2B marketing on the other as professions is that FM and CREM
are related to organizations’ use of built facilities and the input side of business processes,
while B2B marketing can concern the sale of any product or service and is related to the
output side of business processes. B2B marketing as a discipline is mostly based on social
science with research and teaching at business schools, while FM and CREM have a more
multi-disciplinary character with a knowledge base from social science, architecture and
engineering. FM and CREM are strongly related to the resource based view in strategic
management thinking. Marketing in general has a longer tradition as a profession than FM
and CREM.

Table 1 presents a comparison of the different aspects included in the scope of the three
basic disciplines. FM and CREM both have a strong focus on the physical assets of an
organisation in terms of facilities, real estate, property and buildings. FM has a much
stronger focus on services and service management than CREM, whereas B2B marketing
also can have a strong focus on services, particular when applied to the FM domain. B2B
marketing naturally has a strong focus on marketing, which is not the case for FM and
CREM. Relationships are also very much in focus for B2B marketing, but that is increasingly
the case for both FM and CREM too, particularly in terms of stakeholder relationships and
management and regarding partnerships between providers and customer organisations.
Economy is important for all perspectives, but with major differences in focus. FM has a
strong focus on operational cost and CREM has a strong focus on investments and life cycle
costs, while price and income generation is the main economical focus of B2B marketing.

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Table 1: Comparison of the three basic perspectives

Aspect Physical Services Marketing Stakeholders Economy

assets
Perspective

FM X XX X X

CREM XX X X X X

B2B marketing X XX X X

3. Four Conceptual Models

When the collaborative research started there were three main conceptual models of
mapping added value – The FM Value Map by Per Anker Jensen and two models from
CREM by Anna-Liisa Lindholm (now Sarasoja) and Jackie de Vries. The model of Jackie de
Vries is shown in Figure 1. The FM Value Map is shown in the generic version in Figure 2.
An updated version of the model by Anna-Liisa Sarasoja is shown in Figure 3. It includes
“Supporting environmental sustainability” as an additional real estate strategy and also
shows possible Green FM influences for the other real estate strategies. Alexandra den
Heijer developed a fourth model shown in Figure 4 as part of her PhD-study at Delft
University of Technology (Den Heijer, 2011). It is partly based on the model by Jackie de
Vries, but it rephrased and added new values and as such is seen as a new model.

A comparison of the added value parameters in the four conceptual models is shown in
Table 2 structured according to the four headings: People, Process, Economy and
Surroundings. The parameters related to People are quite similar in model A and D. All
models include (employee) satisfaction. Model B defines “Culture” as including “Image”,
which are separated as different parameters in model A and D. Model C only includes
“Increase employee satisfaction” under People, but this model as the only model includes
“Promote marketing and sale” under Economy, which can be seen as an economical
expression of “Image”, similar to brand. All four models include at least three parameters for
Process with many overlaps; the differences can partly be seen as different degrees of sub-
dividing. In relation to Economy, model B (the FM Value Map) only includes the parameter
“Cost”, while the three other more CREM based models include parameters for “Value of
real estate”, “Value of assets” or “Possibility to finance”. The parameter “Controlling risk” in
model D is defined as related to financial goals, but it is also strongly related to the Process
parameter “Reliability” in model B. In model A “Risk control” is included as well, partly related
to reducing financial risks, but also to improving health and safety. Model B was the first
model to include parameters related to Surroundings, including the “Environmental”
parameter, but the other more recent CREM based models C and D also include a
parameter for “Environmental sustainability”.

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Figure 1: Model 1 by Jackie de Vries (De Vries et al., 2008)

Figure 2: Model 2 by Per Anker Jensen (Jensen et al., 2008)

67
Figure 3: Model 3 by Anna-Liisa Sarasoja (Jensen et al., 2012)

Figure 4: Model 4 by Alexandra den Heijer (Den Heijer, 2011)

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Table 2: Comparison of added value parameters in the four models
A. B. C. D.
Jackie de Vries Per Anker Jensen Anna-Liisa Sarasoja Alexandra den Heijer

Core business
People Image Satisfaction Increase employee Increasing user satisfaction
Culture Culture satisfaction Supporting image
Satisfaction Supporting culture
Process Production Productivity Increase innovation Increasing flexibility
Flexibility Reliability Increase productivity Supporting user activities
Innovation Adaptability Increase flexibility Improving quality of place
Stimulating innovation
Stimulating collaboration
Economy Cost Cost Increase value of Controlling risk
Possibility to assets Increasing real estate value
finance Promote marketing and Decreasing cost
Risk control sale
Reduce cost
Surroundings Economical Supporting Reducing the footprint
Social environmental
Spatial sustainability
Environmental

The structure of the FM Value Map (B) differs basically from the three CREM based models
(A, C, D) by including a clear separation between FM and core business and inclusion of FM
processes. The distinction between FM as a support function to a core business is a
fundamental part of much theory on FM – although not undisputed. The CREM based
models A and D also include a process view with input and output. However, the process in
question is obviously the core business process with no distinction of a separate CREM
process. Model C does not include a process view but focuses on different real estate
strategies and their impact on revenue growth and productivity. Model C is also different by a
focus on maximizing shareholder value, while the two other CREM based models include
multiple stakeholders like the FM Value Map. The distinction in the structure of the FM Value
Map and the CREM based models can be related to the basic theoretical understanding in
FM and CREM. CREM is a resource based management discipline and connects building
science with business administration and business economics, while FM is a service and
process oriented discipline.

4. Lessons Learnt and New Insights

Several chapters in the book discuss relationship management and the subjective nature of
value, making clear that added value of FM cannot be created without cooperation and by
understanding the different value perspectives. Coenen et al. (2012a) presents FM as a
“Value Network” and propose to consider FM as a network of relationships, which create
perceived value amongst key stakeholders i.e. clients, customers and end users.
Furthermore, they claim that perceived value can only exist and be produced within this
specific network of relationships. They extend the idea of the FM Value Map by taking up a
demand-driven, co-creating, and subjective perspective of value and differentiating between
various dimensions or perceived value in FM. Coenen et al. (2012b) goes a step further to

69
find a way to capture relationship value in FM. Various value dimensions and relevant
drivers of FM relationship value are described and analysed, including trust, reliability and
adaptability. The key learning point is that the success of a collaborative relationship leads to
the success of value delivering to the stakeholders. Jensen and Katchamart (2012) present
the concept of “Value Adding Management”, which focuses on the relationships between FM
and the core business at strategic, tactical and operational levels and argues that the
relationships with the stakeholders should be managed differently at each level. At the
strategic level FM should have a business orientation, where considerations for the whole
corporation are in focus. This calls for joint decision making involving all main stakeholders
at management level, which can take the form of a coalition. At the tactical level FM should
have a customer orientation, where the specific needs of each business unit are in focus.
This calls for a bilateral negotiation and decision making. At the operational level FM should
have a service orientation, where the individual users’ needs are in focus and the services
are either provided based on price per order or based on a service charge.

Just like everywhere else, sustainability is discussed more and more - also in connection to
FM. It is already a widely known fact that at present, buildings contribute as much as one
third of total global greenhouse gas emissions and that the building sector has the most
potential for delivering significant and cost-effective green house gas emission reductions in
western economies (UNEP, 2009). However, less recognized is that over 80% of
greenhouse gas emissions take place during the operational phase of buildings (Junilla et
al., 2006) and is (or should be) under the control of FM. Sarasoja and Aaltonen (2012)
studied environmental sustainability from the occupier organisation perspective and
identified in a case study the ways to create added value through greener FM processes.
This case study shows that improving the environmental performance of facilities and
services does not only decrease the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions,
but also contributes to the organisation in other ways. Greener FM services have a potential
to affect employee wellbeing and productivity, improve image of the occupier organisation,
and last but not least decrease costs at the same time. These kinds of studies are good
examples also on the strategic nature of FM and how FM had a potential to contribute at the
strategic level to the client organisation. With proven and commercially available
technologies, the energy consumption in both new and existing buildings can be cut by an
estimated 30 to 80% with potential net profit during the building life-span. Consequently, it is
not overstating to say that FM has a potential to influence the world more than ever before.

5. Conclusion

The comparison of the three basic perspectives of FM, CREM and B2B marketing show that
they provide both overlapping and complementary focus areas. FM and CREM has a strong
focus on the physical assets. FM and B2B marketing both have a strong focus on services,
which is not so much a focus area in CREM. All three perspectives share a focus on
stakeholders and relationship management. Comparisons of the added value parameters of
four conceptual models from FM and CREM show many similarities and a trend towards
convergence. It is particularly noticeable that the recent models from CREM like the FM
Value Map include “Environmental sustainability” as a parameter. However, the basic

70
structures of the models are different, which can be related to CREM being transaction and
project oriented, while FM is more service and process oriented.

One of the important lessons learnt is that relationship management is an essential aspect of
FM and a careful management of stakeholders and relations is a prerequisite for FM to add
value. The different conceptual models are important tools to analyse and demonstrate how
FM and real estate can add value, but there is a need to further develop management
concepts, which can guide facilities managers to develop strategies and relationships that
enhances the implementation of value adding activities. The concept of FM Value Network
and Value Adding Management are attempts to develop such concept. Another lesson learnt
is that sustainability is a crucial aspect of FM in relation to adding value to both organisation
and society and is particular attractive as it can at the same time increase staff satisfaction
and corporate image and result in cost savings, particularly in relation to reduction in energy
consumption. But the wider aspects of sustainability in relation to social aspects needs to be
developed much further and Corporate Social Responsibility is another area, which is
expected to be essential for FM to create value in the future.

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Perspectives of Service Marketing, Chicago, 25-28.

Bruhn M and Georgi D (2006) “Services Marketing – Managing the Service Value Chain”,
Prentice Hall, Harlow.

CEN/TC 348 (2006) Facility Management – Part 1: Terms and definitions. EN 15221-1.

Coenen C, Alexander K and Kok H (2012a) FM Value Network: Exploring Relationships

amnongst Key FM Stakeholder. Chapter 5 in Jensen et al. (2012).

Coenen C, von Felten D and Waldburger D (2012b) Beyond Financial Performance:

Capturing Relationship Value in FM. Chapter 7 in Jensen et al. (2012).

De Vries J (2007) Presteren door vastgoed [The influence of real estate on performance].
PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, Eburon, Delft.

De Vries J C, de Jonge H and Van der Voordt T J M (2008) Impact of Real Estate
Interventions on Organisational Performance. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 10: 4, 208-
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Heskett J, Jones T, Loveman G, Sasser W and Schlesinger L (1994) “Putting the service-
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Perspective”, McGraw Hill, London.

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Jensen P A (2009) “Theoretical Model Demonstrating the Value Adding Contribution of

Facilities Management”. Proceedings from EFMC 2009 Research Symposium. Amsterdam,
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Jensen P A (2010) “The Facilities Management Value Map: a conceptual framework”.

Facilities, 28: 3/4,175-188,

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Chapter 7 in Jensen et al. (2012).

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Nordic Countries – 36 cases. Centre for Facilities Management – Realdania Research, DTU
Management Engineering. Technical University of Denmark.

Jensen P A, van der Voordt, T and Coenen C (eds.) (2012) The Added Value of Facilities
Management – Concepts, Findings and Perspectives. Centre for Facilities Management -
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Joroff M L, Louargand M, Lambert S and Becker F (1993) Strategic Management of the

Fifth Resource. Report no. 49. Industrial Development Research Foundation.

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in Europe and the United States”, Journal of Infrastructure Systems, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 10-
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Kaplan R S and Norton D P (2000) “Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It”.
Harvard Business Review, September-October 2000.

Lindholm A-L (2008) Identifying and Measuring the Success of Corporate Real Estate
Management. PhD-thesis, Helsinki University of Technology.

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443-475.

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Porter M (1998), Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,

The Free Press, New York.

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12 in Jensen et al. (2012).

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 Issues of breadth and depth in Facilities
Management - Reflections of 30 years of educational
development

Danny Shiem-Shin Then1

Abstract

Facilities Management (FM) has been around for almost three decades. As a profession,
FM is now recognized in all six continents with recent movements of international
collaborations between national institutions in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
This paper will trace the development of FM and critically examine issues relating to the
breadth and depth of FM from an educational perspective against the backdrop of a
dynamic business environment and changing corporate demands for facilities provision and
facilities services. The paper advocates that education in FM must balance theory with
practice with emphasis on identification of context and culture, hard and soft skills,
procurement and administrative processes, appropriate application of tools, and increasingly
in a regional and global scale. In particular, issues relating to the role of FM, scope of
functions, strategic and operational support to business units have been considered, with a
view of justifying the contributing role of this rapidly growing profession. A focus of the
paper is to provide a framework for postgraduate education and training in Facilities
Management. The framework has been evolved out of the author’s experience as program
leader in developing and teaching postgraduate FM courses in three universities in three
countries – i.e. United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong.

Keywords: facilities management, educational development, trend.

1. Why FM is needed in a dynamic business environment

In a recent white paper by i-FM (www.i-fm.net UK, 2012) “Facilities Management – New
needs. New solutions? it is stated that “…Facilities Management is an essential
management discipline, and a multi-billion pound business sector employing hundreds of
thousands of people. ……” This is generally true for most countries; the differences are
perhaps in the perception of facilities management (FM) as a distinct economic activity or an
industry sector. There is also a consensus that while FM are tactical in its day-to-day
operations, it is nevertheless closely related to, and should be involved in the corporate
strategic planning and decision-making processes in both private and public sector
organizations. There is greater corporate management acknowledgement that in realizing an
organization’s business objectives, the provision of facilities and support services is an
integral part of strategic business planning. The recent global financial crisis have brought
home to many organizations, the need to seriously consider the facilities dimensions of

1
Associate Professor; Department of Building Services Engineering; The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University; Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong ; danny.ss.then@polyu.edu.hk

74
business planning – a resource which commonly constitutes 20-40% of total corporate asset
value and consumes 10-15% of corporate expenses. The unique characteristics of facilities
assets in terms of modes of ownership, functional adequacies, essential support services
and long-term asset care demand management competencies that are often underestimated
by corporate managers.(Apgar 2009) More recently, the growing awareness of impact of
climate change has added the agenda of sustainability and corporate social responsibility on
shoulders of facilities managers.

Over the last two decades, the discipline of facilities management and the FM industry that
had developed to support it have both grown in complexity and maturity in response to the
ever-shifting social, economic and technological trends. As the nature of work itself changes,
so does the design and operation of the workplace, as do the drivers behind an
organization’s facilities strategy in relation to facilities design, provision and on-going
management. The impact of globalization and the growing trend towards outsourcing of non-
core functions, have also led to the transformation of client-service provider relationships
within large multi-national corporations which are promulgating long-term, bundled or total
FM contracts on a national or regional basis.

1.1 Key trends and influences and their impact on FM practice

FM delivers critical business services that underpin the day-to-day operations of major and
minor operations within any economies. A scan of learned papers in facilities management
journals over the last two decades will reveal that the general development of FM thinking
has evolved over four distinct phases (Jensen , et al. 2012):

1. FM merely considered as an overhead to be managed for minimum cost rather than

optimum value.
2. FM as in integrated continuous process in relation to the organization’s core business.
3. FM as resource management concentrating on managing supply chain issues
associated with the FM functions.
4. FM as strategic management to ensure alignment between organizational structure,
work processes and the enabling physical environment according to the organization’s
strategic intent.
A key theme across the four phases of change is a shift from pre-occupation with tactical
concerns to addressing strategic concerns as illustrated in Figure 1. (Then 1998)

Key factors that drive the changing focus in facilities management include:

• Dynamics of business environment – need to cater for the speed of change.

• Demand for flexibility – need to incorporate built-in exit strategies in facilities provision.
• Demand for global connectivity – impact of technology and communication network on
nature of work and business delivery
• Changes in work and workplaces – need to cater for employees’ diversity and mobility.

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Figure 1: Changing focus in Facilities Management

It can be surmised from the above that the role definition of facilities managers is predicated
on change which necessitates abilities to respond to organizational change, to predict and
manage facilities changes and changing service delivery models. Facilities managers should
regard this as an opportunity to promote themselves as a catalyst of change within their
organization as any change in the corporate strategic business direction are likely to impact
on some facilities dimensions of facilities management.

1.2 Review of FM Practice in Corporate Organisations

Facilities management is now a recognized component of the business delivery supply chain
but its mantra has been associated with ‘reduced costs’ and ‘improved efficiency’. This tired
proposition is in danger of becoming irrelevant since cutting cost and process efficiency are
a means to an end, and not the end itself. The massive economic and societal changes the
world is currently experiencing require a more fundamental rethink of how the provision and
management of real estate and facilities services can add value to businesses by taking a
more strategic view of organizations’ operational needs.

Figure 2: What businesses expect from Facilities Management? (Then 2012)

76
The above 4-phase change in FM development described in the last section clearly reflects
a change from the initial dominating focus on cost reduction towards stronger strategic focus
on actively supporting the core business. However, such a shift in focus and approach must
be accompanied by a conscious attempt to understand the various facets of facilities
management and their demands, as illustrated in Figure 2.

Ultimately, the justification for FM professionalism to corporate management demands a

proactive integrated management system with ability to:

Provide strategic facilities options and advice to corporate business planners.

Demonstrate to corporate senior managers that facilities managers possess the ability
and competences to provide facilities solutions to business challenges by leveraging
facilities resources and services at a strategic level.
Demonstrate the contributions of real estate and facilities services interventions to
human resources productivity, business profitability and competitive advantage, through
innovative facilities solutions – whether they be sustainable design and operations,
branding, portfolio rationalization, high performance facilities, continuous improvements
through technology, innovative procurement, etc.

2. Educational provision in Facilities Management

This paper represents an overview of my involvement in facilities management as an

academic in three universities: Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh; Queensland University
of Technology in Brisbane and the last decade at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. As an
academic offering high level education to practicing professionals from various disciplines, a
primary challenge is to provide a credible knowledge framework from which the content of
the program remains relevant and attractive to potential students. In this respect, I am
constantly challenged to keep up-to-date on the latest pressures from the realities of
economic and social shifts in an increasingly competitive, globalized and networked world.
The aim has always been to develop a framework for postgraduate education in FM that is
relevant, logical and credible. In this respect, I was particularly conscious of a comment by
Adrain Leaman in an article in Facilities in 1992, which I shall quote:

“..At present, the agenda of facilities courses sometimes appears as unco-ordinated or

illogically-formed lists, with no one quite knowing what to put in or what to leave out and
with items sometimes included on the basis of staff availability or enthusiasms rather
than on a clear idea of overall course structure…” (Leaman, 1992, p.20).

Formal university courses in FM (including variants of it) at certificate, undergraduate and

postgraduate levels are now available in many countries in North and South America, UK,
Western and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Asia and Africa. A scan of course content of
existing programs in the internet confirmed a wide mix of subject topics. It would be fair to
say that Leaman’s statement still holds true for some programs. A critical examination of the
breadth and depth of FM may provide a basis for differentiating different product offerings.

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2.1 Issues of breadth and depth in defining Facilities Management

Professional institutions’ definitions of FM tend to focus only on competencies – with an

emphasis on getting the job done. Educational development in FM, on the other hand,
focuses on personal development and extending knowledge acquisition. For the continuous
development of facilities managers, both knowledge (theory) and competencies (practice)
are essential.

Given the potential scope of functions/services that could be included under the umbrella of
facilities management, in practical terms, the unit of analysis has to be the business entity
per se – i.e. it is the nature of business and the structure of business organization which
provide the context within which the FM role has to operate. In an organizational context,
‘breadth’ can be taken to be synonymous with the scope of FM services needed to support
the core business deliverables and how they are procured and managed. In terms of ‘depth’
this is a reflection of how the FM role is perceived at corporate management level and
actually reflected in organizational positioning, in level of resourcing and in value adding
potential to the core business – i.e. the current FM practice in the business entity.

From an education and training viewpoint, issues of breadth and depth in FM take on a
different perspective in that they are a by-product of the program’s or course’s intent and the
target population.

The breadth of FM has been variously described by a range of functions in relation to

competences required to get the job done, much in line with the approach taken by FM
professional institutions like IFMA, BIFM and FMAA. Similarly, FM has also been described
in relation to the range of services needed to support the core business, particularly in
decisions relating to procurement and outsourcing strategies. However, In terms of the
knowledge areas, decisions relating to FM actions often rely on understanding and
application of theories and principles that underpin:

Economics and finance – e.g. financial control, budgeting, asset life-cycle cost
evaluations;
Human relationships and people management – e.g. working with service provider(s);
Technology – e.g. its role and impact on work and workplace design, technology as a
management tool;
Physical asset management – asset life-functional, technical and economic,
maintenance and component renewals, long-term care.

There are inherent tools and processes for each of the above knowledge areas that must
somehow be incorporated in the individual subject content of FM programs.

As depth in FM is embedded in current practice within a business entity, the approach to

learning is to assess and understand the context of actual practice. The learning outcomes
rely essentially on soft skills in terms of understanding the determining variables (factors)
that had influenced the current practice. These factors may be cultural, organizational,

78
political, internally or externally driven, and can only be abstracted through knowledge in soft
skills.

In my opinion, it is the delicate balance in choice that has to be struck between the
appropriate breadth and depth in FM that underpins the core of a well-structured course in
FM. This has been the governing principle that has guided my program design.

3 A framework for postgraduate education in Facilities

Management

It has taken me a greater part of three decades to complete the development what I consider
to be a dedicated FM program that is comprehensive in coverage of FM functions that may
be found in most business organizational settings. In the three universities that I have had
the privilege of serving, I have sought to adopt a path of integrating the activities associated
within the realm of FM as part of business resource management, albeit with a biased
towards the effective management of the provision, servicing and management of physical
assets within business settings, be there private or public sector organisations.

My initial thoughts of FM as a discipline started at Heriot-Watt University when I started my

research career in public sector housing maintenance management in the early 1980s when
FM first ‘arrived’ in UK with much confusion as to its role and content. Having spent a year
discussing with FM consultants and professionals, I came to the conclusion not to attempt to
seek a definitive definition for facilities management, but resolved to chart a course that
attempts to map its context within business settings. Over the last 30 years or so, I have
continued to explore what I consider to be essential facets of the practice of FM from a
strategic management perspective. (Then, 1992, 2003, 2004) The emphasis on ‘strategic’ is
both deliberate and critical, especially for post-degree programs with an emphasis on
broadening an individual’s knowledge horizon in a managerial role within an organizational
setting.

3.1 Key facets of Facilities Management

In the more mature markets like in North America, Western Europe and U.K. the market for
facilities management services appears to have developed to cater for three interrelated
areas associated with the management of operational property assets. The search for value
for money has had one important implication for the whole spectrum of industries selling
products and services of all kinds - the need to describe (specify), to measure (performance
criteria) and to quantify (price) the outputs (end products). In terms of facilities
management, the response for more effective utilisation of operational property assets has
been on three main areas: (1) strategic evaluation of the real estate portfolio which has led
to the development of strategic facilities planning in many of the larger organisations; (2)
space management and post occupancy evaluations which have been driven by the need
to maximise utilisation of the workspace but with considerations on the well-being of
occupiers; and (3) premises audits and condition assessments which have raised the
awareness and need for cost effective long-term asset management. (Then 1994)

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The above developments have reinforced my personal view of the scoping of facilities
management. There are many definitions of facilities management that have been proposed
by professional institutions around the world. Personally, I have found them to be unhelpful
from the business point of view, especially from the perspective of corporate management,
as their focus tended to be on required competences rather than what corporate
management should focus on. From my experience, the core of facilities management can
be considered as management relating to three key aspects of corporate facilities - assets,
workspace and support services – all three are impacted by technological developments.
(Figure 3)

Figure 3: Management Aspects in Facilities Management (Then 2012)

The scoping of facilities management under assets, workspace and support services also
conveniently define the distinct sectors of the FM services market that have evolved in the
more mature economies. This categorization also defines the specific competencies
relevant to facilities asset management, workplace management and service management
respectively.

Corresponding to the three facilities management facets, the last two decades have seen
major fundamental changes on the demand side and supply side of the facilities
management market that has resulted in shifts in the management approach and focus as
illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Changing Management Focus (Then 2012)

The adoption of the above scoping necessitates fundamental shifts in the current
conceptualization of facilities management in terms of:

80
 FM beyond transactions – about people, investments, assets and space.
FM beyond buildings – about effective deployment and utilization of functional space.
FM beyond cost – about alignment of supply to demand, value contribution to core
business, affordable and appropriate services, and whole-life asset management.

3.2 Main components within each facet of FM

In terms of implications on competencies, the four core components of FM become apparent

covering strategic, tactical and operational aspects of facilities management activities:

Strategic Facilities Planning – responding to business dynamics.

Space Planning and Workplace Strategies – workplace location, workspace design and
space utilisation.
Asset Management and Maintenance – asset value, asset care and performance.
Facilities Support Services Management – defining services, procurement and
monitoring delivery.

Figure 5: Integrated Facilities Management – Main components (Then, 2004)

The need for an integrated management approach is critical in that the prevailing business
strategic direction will drive strategic facilities planning, the outcome being an agreed
workplace strategy which in turn feeds into the needs for facilities support services and asset
management and maintenance. It is within such an integrated management approach that
the need for corporate management to consider their operational assets as a business

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resource and integrates facility-related considerations within the strategic business planning
processes. Figure 5 proposes a model that sees facilities managers’ involvement spanning
from facilities provision (strategic components) to facilities services management
(operational components). The four components of Strategic Facilities Planning, Space
Planning and Workplace Strategies, Facilities Support Services Management and Asset
Management and Maintenance, reflect a broad, but inter-related resources base (people,
place, process and technology) that the practice of FM must manage effectively to bring
about favourable outcomes to business demands. The inter-relationships of the four
components within an integrated management framework are illustrated in Figure 5.

The growing acceptance that an optimum facilities solution must be a by-product of

considerations of the business operational needs (for space), the users (people) of the
facility in performing their work tasks (process), and the necessary support infrastructure
(technology and support services) to carry out their tasks efficiently and effectively; has had
the impact of promoting this integrative view of managing business resources. The
integrated components of FM in Figure 5 above points to a need to understand the business
needs for space (demand) as the driver of facility provision (supply) – the start of the building
development cycle. The use of new procurement methods has led to the integration of
design-build-operate necessitating a partnership approach between traditional professions
and taking a whole-life view of buildings as functional, durable assets.

From the above review, three features of the ‘professional core’ for FM are apparent:
• A broad framework of competencies for facilities management is identifiable; its
coverage spans from facilities provision to facilities services delivery;
• Facilities management is multi-disciplinary embracing a blend of generic management
skills with a range of facility-related technical knowledge that are specific to the asset
portfolio needed to support the core business; and
• FM education and training must cater for career development from different traditional
disciplines and at different entry levels.

3.3 A working model for postgraduate education and training

In my opinion, the theming of a program is critical in differentiating one from other

competition in the marketplace. The reality will always be – the customer’s choice. My
journey to aspire to develop a dedicated FM graduate program started at Heriot-Watt
University, Department of Building Engineering and Surveying, in Scotland where I initiated
the MSc. in Facilities Management and Asset Maintenance in 1992. In 1997, at the
Queensland University of Technology, School of Construction Management and Property,
the first Graduate Program in Facilities Management (offering certificate, diploma and
masters level qualifications) was jointly developed with the Graduate School of Business. I
joined the Department of Building Services Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University in late 2001 where an existing MSc program in Facility Management already
existed. As program leader since 2003, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to guide the
development of the MSc program in FM in terms of its subject content, pedagogy and
international accreditations. The development of each program’s content progressed in

82
stages as I was fortunate to move from one university to the next which all wanted FM as a
discipline.

The current working model of the MSc in Facility Management offered by the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University is based on the conceptualization articulated above (3.1 and 3.2).
Perhaps, a point of departure in the approach I have taken is to view the requirements of FM
from the business perspective, rather than, from a professional viewpoint, whatever the bias
may be; i.e. from a surveyor’s, engineer’s or real estate/facilities manager’s viewpoint.

I am also fortunate to have colleagues who share my view of FM and contributed by

developing specialist subjects in legal aspects and sustainability. Figure 6 illustrate the
subject headings of the current program. The program is currently on its 17th year of self-
funded existence with a consistent applicant-intake ratio of 2 to 3 for the last decade. It is
perhaps worth mentioning that all the subjects on the program are specifically designed with
the FM perspective in mind. In terms of pedagogy, almost all the subjects have a workshop
component aimed at applying theory into practice via real-life case scenarios developed with
experienced practitioners from the FM industry. The aim of incorporating the workshop
(lasting 11 formal scheduled hours) for each subject is to provide a business context, via a
case study scenario. Students (working in teams of 4) are required to generate realistic
solutions against issues raised in the particular scenario based on knowledge, concepts,
processes and tools covered during lectures and prescribed readings. The workshop
scenario sessions also provided valuable opportunities in role playing and in considering
realities of soft issues relating to organization culture and politics in terms of managing
change through facilities-related initiatives and projects. This approach to pedagogy has
proven to be effective, with positive feedback from students, who are all working
professionals.

Figure 6: MSc in Facility Management - Course Structure

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4 Reflections

As an academic, I have been very fortunate to have been given the opportunities and
support in the three universities that I have the privilege of serving. I have the luxury of
realizing a postgraduate program that was conceptualized during my doctoral research –
even though the fruition of the complete package took a greater part of the last three
decades and over three continents.

Over the same period, facilities management, as a recognized profession, has grown in
strength, in numbers and in countries around the world. However, its recognition as an
academic discipline is still somewhat patchy, due mainly to a perceived lack of its own
knowledge base when compared to the more traditional disciplines. Nevertheless, healthy
discourse amongst academics have already emerged in recent years that points to possible
avenues of research to redress the knowledge or theoretical gap that beset it recognition as
a valid discipline. (Jensen, et al 2012; Drion and Melissen 2012; Then 2004a; Price 2001,
Wagenberg 1997). On the other hand, there are some practitioners in FM who argue that its
lack of a clear definition is a source of FM’s strengths rather than weakness.

Personally, I subscribe to the view that there is a growing consensus that acknowledges FM
as potentially central to an organisation’s core business processes. My view of FM
comprising essentially of the management of assets, workspace and services, testifies to the
potential breadth of FM within an organisational context. Issues of depth are manifested in
the practice of FM within an organisation and is a consequent of knowledge, awareness of
the potential role of facilities design in changing human behavior and hence, organisational
performance. Ultimately, I believe, the pressures to remain competitive, coupled with the
need to cope with rapid changes, driven by technological, social, environment and political
developments, will drive the need to optimize all business resources, The management of
physical assets and the facilities and services within them, being one of the most under-
managed business resources, offers ample opportunities to add value to business by being
more effectively matched to business requirements. (Apgar 2009, de Valence 2004; Ward
and Holtham 2000, Then 1998). I concur with Wagenberg’s assertion that ‘development of
FM theory has to take place in the practical context of FM… Theory proofs itself in the reality
of management of facilities.’ (Wagenberg 1997; 6).

5 Conclusion

Educational offerings in FM education and training will continue to evolve worldwide, but the
nature and content of programs offered in each country will be influenced by the level of
maturity of the local FM industry in terms of developments in the demand side by clients’
organisations, and supply side by FM service providers, FM professionalism and awareness
of the need to better manage the built environment in a more sustainable manner. Given the
broad scope of facilities management as a professional practice and field of research, it is
hoped that this paper goes some way to provide considerations of potential avenues of
specialisation in courses offering by institutes of higher learning in different countries in
relation to their respective level of development in facilities management.

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References

1 Apgar IV, M, ‘(2009) What every leader should know about real estate.’ Harvard
Business Review November 2009: 100-107.

2 Drion, B., Melissen, F. and Wood, R. (2012) “Facilities management: lost, or regained?
Facilities 30 (5/6): 254-261.

3 I-FM (2012) “Facilities Management – New needs. New solutions?” UK. (available online
http://www.i-fm.net/documents/file/whitepaper/New%20needs%20New%20solutions.pdf
[accessed 12/06/2012)

4 Jensen, P. A.; van de Voordt, T.; Coenen, C, and von Felten, D.; Lindholm, A,; Neilsen,
S.B.; Riratanaphong, C.; and Pfenninger, M. (2012) “In search for the added value of
FM: what we know and what we need to learn.” Facilities. 30 (5/6): 202.

5 Leaman, A. (1992) “Is Facilities Management a Profession? Facilities 10 (10): 20.

6 Price, I. (2001) “Can FM evolve? If not, what future?” Journal of Facilities Management 1
(1): 56-69.

7 Then, S S and Akhlaghi, F. (1992) “A Framework for Defining Facilities Management

Education.” FACILITIES MANAGEMENT - Research Directions, Ed. Peter Barrett,
University of Salford, 1992 (ISBN 0-9519060-1).

8 Then, Danny Shiem-Shin. (1996) A Study of Organisational Response to the

Management of Operational Property Assets and Facilities Support Services as a
Business Resource - Real Estate Asset Management. PhD. Thesis. Heriot-Watt
University. (Published in 2012 as “Real Estate Asset Management – Operational
property assets and facilities support services as a business resource.” LAMBERT
Academic Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-8465-2785-6).

9 Then, S.S. (1998) “Corporate leadership in real estate and facilities management.”
Proceedings of CIB W70 Singapore ‘98 Symposium on Management, Maintenance and
Modernisation of Building Facilities – The Way Ahead into the Millennium, edited by
Quah Lee Kiang; 18-20 November 1998. pp.A9-A16. (Keynote paper)

10 Then, S.S. (2000) “The role of real estate assets in supporting the fulfilment of corporate
business plans - key organisational variables for an integrated resource management
framework.” Facilities 18(7/8):.273-280. Highly Commended Award 2001 by LITERATI
club.

11 Then, S. S. Danny. (2003) “Integrated resources management structure for facilities

provision and management.” Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 17(3): 34-
42.

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12 Then, Danny Shiem-shin (2004) “The Future of Professional FM Education in the Asia-
Pacific Region. New World Order in Facility Management.” HKIFM-PSDAS Conferences
in Hong Kong and Beijing. 3-5 June 2004. (available online
http://www.psdas.gov.hk/content/doc/Prof_Danny_Then.pdf [accessed on 12/07/2012])

13 Then, Danny S. S.. (2012) “Developments in Facilities Management – Coming of age,

what are the expectations? Keynote paper - Proceedings of New Zealand FM Summit
FMANZ 2012. Auckland 23rd May 2012. (available online
http://www.newzealandfmsummit.org/images/Paper%20-%20Danny%20Then-
%20Keynote%20speaker%20FMANZ%202012.pdf [accessed 12 June 2012])

14 de Valence, G. (2004) “The FM industry and added value for clients.” Proceedings of the
3rd European research symposium in facilities management, Copenhagen 12-14 May
2004; 16-23.

15 Wagenberg, A.F. (1997) “Facility management as a profession and academic field.”

International Journal of Facilities Management. 1 (1): 3-10.

16 Ward, V. and Holtham, C. (2000) “Physical Space: The most neglected resource in
contemporary knowledge management? (available online www.sparknow.net/cgi-
bin/eatsoup.cgi?id=602 [accessed 20/5/2006])

Bibliography:

Danny Shiem-Shin Then and Wes McGregor. (1999) Facilities Management and the
Business of Space. Arnold, UK. Reprinted (2001) under Butterworth-Heinemann. UK.
ISBN:0-340-71964-8.

Danny Then Shiem Shin and Tan Teng Hee. (2013) Facilities Management and the
Business of Managing Assets. Routledge. ISBN:978-0-415-27494-4.

Danny S. S. Then, (2004) “Concepts in Facilities Management.” Chapter in Architect’s

Handbook of Construction Project Management. Editors: Michael Murray and David
Langford. RIBA Enterprises. 2004. pp.297-312. ISBN:1-85946-123-9.

Danny S. S. Then, (2003) “Strategic Management.” Chapter in book Workplace Strategies

and Facility Management - Building in Value. Editors: Best, R; Langston, C; & de Valence G.
Butterworth-Heinemann, UK. January 2003. pp. 69-80. ISBN:0-7506-5150-4.

Price, I. Chapters on ‘Facility management as an emerging discipline’ and ‘The development

of facility management’ in Workplace Strategies and Facilities Management – Building in
value. Editors. Best, R.’ Langston, C. and de Valence, G. Butterworth-Heinemann 2003. pp.
31-66.

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 Marketing, Programme and Project Management:
relationship building and maintenance over project lifecycles

Hedley Smyth1

Abstract

Business development is in transition with its increasing focus upon relationship building and
maintenance. Theoretically this represents a shift from the transactional marketing mix
towards relationship marketing (RM). Four international main contractors were examined to
identify the extent of transition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst
Directors with Marketing responsibilities, Business Development Managers, Heads of
Procurement, Project Directors and Project Managers in each contractor. The analysis was
conducted inductively and evaluation was made against the literature. The analysis
presented draws upon three findings common to the four contractors: i) an emergent key
account management function (KAM), ii) the lack of a RM system, iii) the absence of an
internal relationship and system between procurement and business development (BD). The
evaluation of the findings against the literature shows KAM to be partially conceived in
different ways by each contractor both at project and programme management levels. It
shows that all contractors lack integrated cross-functional systems over the project lifecycle,
and the absence of a RM-cum-management systems means that the gaps between
functions during the lifecycle are not overcome and RM as a function is compromised.
Whilst the procurement function at a programme level was found to be well-developed
internally, from which marketing could benefit, the systematic and behavioural dislocation
between BD and downstream functions constrains marketing and inhibit the development of
value propositions that aligns with RM. The conclusion is that international contractors are in
early stages of transition towards RM. The consequence is that configuring and delivering
coherent value propositions and quality service experience remain highly constrained.

Keywords: Business Development, Procurement, Key Account Management,

Relationship Marketing, Systems Integration

1. Introduction

The twenty-five year shift from the marketing mix (MM) to relationship marketing (RM) in
many sectors has marked a move from viewing exchanges as discrete transactions towards
building long-term business-to-business (B2B) relationships (cf. Grönroos, 2000). A time-
lagged transition is underway in construction (Skitmore and Smyth, 2007). Business

1
Director of Research; School of Construction and Project Management; UCL; Torrington Place
Site, Gower Street, London W C1E 6BT; h.smyth@ucl.ac.uk.

87
development (BD) in construction increasingly focuses upon relationship building (Smyth
and Fitch, 2009). This is part of a broader shift in project management towards an emphasis
upon strategic front-end and “soft” management issues to support technical and engineering
expertise (e.g. Walker, 2002). This is conceptually underpinned by strategic input from the
corporate centre via portfolio and programme management to project management (Morris,
2013). Marketing and BD are located in this ‘hierarchy’ at the project front-end.

Firms have restructured since the 2008 “credit crunch”. The emergent pattern in construction
has been to delayer and reduce costs. The research investigates whether the downturn has
affected marketing and BD practices in construction: (i) To what extent have there been any
significant changes in marketing and business development since the 2008 “credit crunch”?
(ii) To what extent do business development processes interface with other functions? (iii)
How is business development evolving as an effective function? The prime focus centres
upon serving client interests. Four international main contractors are examined using semi-
structured interviews across a range of management roles. The analysis was conducted
inductively and evaluation was made against the literature. The analysis particularly draws
out the role of key account management (KAM) over project lifecycles as part of programme
management, and upon the paucity of RM systems for marketing in relation to other key
functions. Conclusions and recommendations follow.

2. Setting the Scene – a short literature review

2.1 Marketing mix and relationship marketing

Levitt (1983) defined marketing as creating and keeping a customer. Kotler et al (1996)
adopted a catholic approach, as do many professional bodies and institutes. Definitions also
arise from paradigm choice. The MM is based on the 4Ps, of product, place, promotion and
price (Borden, 1964; McCarthy, 1964) and its variants. RM (Berry, 1983) is based on B2B
relationships for intangible services.

The MM is transactional. It dominated project markets (Cova et al, 2002) and still remains a
strong force where price is an overriding criterion (Skitmore and Smyth, 2007). BD is largely
reactive, soliciting project pipeline information and engaging with clients to prequalify for
projects. BD is project specific once market segments are identified, often defined in
administrative “silos” by procurement routes and building type (Pryke and Smyth, 2006). RM
is client focused. Tailor-made services are configured for segments of one. The objectives
are to add product and service value through in-depth understanding of clients to induce
improved satisfaction levels and loyalty. Increased repeat business and premium profit are
direct benefits to the contractor (e.g. Grönroos, 2000). Suppliers are proactive market
managers and shapers of projects (Cova et al, 2002). RM requires support from systems
(Storbacka et al, 1994), procedures and through behavioural guidance across networks and
interrelated markets (Christopher at al, 2002). Thus, links between the corporate centre and
the project, articulated through portfolio and programme management down to the project
management level, are necessary for effective RM.

88
2.2 Marketing and project management

Marketing, which is conceptually strategic, (Preece et al, 2003) in practice is confined to

communications and promotion in many construction companies (Preece et al, 1998). It is
frequently separated from BD. BD traditionally has been isolated at the start of the front-end
of projects (Pinto and Covin, 1992; Turner, 1995), terminating at prequalification or bid
submission. BD under RM starts prior to a project being identifiable (Cova et al, 2002) and
continues during execution beyond completion and final account towards seeking repeat
business, that is, managing sleeping relationships (Cova and Salle, 2005). The relationship
value or the client lifetime value to the contractor carries greater significance than project
values. Project lifecycles therefore require management from project through programme to
corporate management for developing competencies and capabilities that are articulated
through the systems, procedures and behaviours (Smyth and Fitch, 2009).

BD is claimed to be transitioning from the MM approach towards RM (e.g. Preece et al

2003). The transition stage reached has yet to established. The effects of the post-2008
“credit crunch” upon marketing need scoping. The extent BD interfaces with project
management and other project lifecycle functions has yet to be empirically established. RM
conceptually provides one system to be integrated with technical and functional systems for
delivering solutions that satisfy clients.

2.3 Portfolio, programme and project management

Portfolio management administers bundles of assets (e.g. Morris 2013). Contractors’ assets
include technical, technological and social capital. Portfolio management develops fixed
capital resources, competencies and capabilities, and their allocation to programmes and
projects, including the development of RM systems and procedures (cf. Storbacka et al,
1994). Portfolio and programme levels overlap in order to assess and allocate resources for
project management. Morris (2013) claims portfolio management is analytical, operating at a
more strategic hierarchical level. Programme management is managerially directional on a
day-to-day basis. Programmes have a pool of resources to share and trade-off, choosing
between projects on an opportunity cost basis under MM and choosing between clients and
their programmes under RM. Programmes focus on strategic coordination, projects focus on
task outputs (Morris, 2013). Detailed resource allocation might include a programme of
behavioural competencies to consistently serve clients and projects.

3. Methodology and Methods

An interpretative methodology was applied, respecting the information provided and

emanating context (Denzin, 2002). Interpretation recognises subjectivity and embodied value
judgments (Sayer, 1992), including how facts are selected and articulated in different ways
(Krige, 1979). It recognises respondents are subjective (Sayer, 1992). Respecting key actors
perceptions enriches understanding of attitudes present, the strengths and weaknesses of
organizational artifacts, processes and behaviour, yielding meaning to generate patterns of
events, draw out experiences, draw attention to outcomes of significance (Smyth and Morris,
2007). A case study method (Yin, 2003), specifically a case-based approach, was applied

89
inductively (Eisenhardt, 1989). The UK operations of four major international contractors
were examined via semi-structured interviews conducted in the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2012.
The number of interviews per contractor varied slightly; the aim being to cover a Board
Member with responsibility for Marketing, Head of Marketing/Business Development, two
Business Development Managers, Head of Procurement, and two Project Managers. All
companies and personnel interviewed are kept anonymous as organizational rather than
individual performance and business effectiveness provided the focus – see Table 1.

Table 1: Schedule of case study contractors and personnel

Contractor Ownership Primary Divisions Interview Respondents

Alias Activities Interviewed
EUCo EU country Civil Civil Chief Executive
Engineering & Engineering & 2 Regional Business Development Managers
Infrastructure Infrastructure (BDMs), 1 Senior BDM and 2 BDMs
and Specialist Head of Public Relations and
Subcontracting Communications
Contracts Manager
Head of Business Processes & Sustainability

EuroCo European Building, Civil Building, Civil Customer Solutions Director

Engineering & Engineering & Head of BD
Infrastructure Infrastructure Sector BDM
and Specialist BD Coordinator
Subcontracting Head of Procurement
Commercial Director
Technical Service Director
2 Project Directors

AntCo Antipodean Construction Construction Head of New Business

and Head of Procurement
Development Bid Manager
Head of Project Management

UKCo UK Building, Civil Infrastructure & BD Director

Engineering & Consultancy 2 BDMs
Infrastructure, Head of Procurement
Consultancy 2 Project Managers

4. Findings from the Field and Inductive Analysis

4.1 Marketing and top down management

The case companies restructured post-“credit crunch”. Headcount loss was conducted by

90
hierarchical delayering of BUs as opposed to considering markets and what capabilities
were anticipated for future competitive advantage. Specialist BD capabilities were lost in
AntCo and EuroCo. The claimed benefit is that others took up additional BD roles, resulting
in becoming more outward facing. Yet important opportunities were lost, the understanding
of clients needs was compromised, and ineffective gathering of pipeline information were
consequences. For AntCo, the current aims are to “incubate” markets for entry, although
capabilities to optimize this objective may be constrained.

Marketing was found to operate in two ways in the case companies. First, it is considered in
terms of Communications and Promotion functions, which operated separately (cf. Preece et
al, 1998). This is most evident in EUCo and EuroCo. Second, marketing focuses upon
producing a marketing strategy. These are configured at board level as part of an integrated
business plan or as separate documentation. Marketing options are constrained by the case
companies being structured into BUs around procurement, contract and/or building
types/construction types for ease of management. These become procurement and task
driven market segments. For example, AntCo is structured around project execution, not
around clients in a complementary fashion. Consequently, they are good at developing the
“big picture”, but capturing and cascading the implications down the hierarchy and along the
project lifecycle from the front-end through delivery is weak. There is an absence of
programme management to facilitate coordination in all the cases with the consequence that
BD is largely disconnected from marketing. BD is further subdivided by BU and coordination
across BUs is sporadic: They do work fantastically well together if they are joined together in
the right way (Interview with a Bid Manager, AntCo). Recognition of this problem at senior
management and operational levels is described as a “silo mentality. These findings inhibit
effective implementation and constrain the implantation of RM principles and systems.

BD is perceived as an information gathering to help the companies prequalify. A Senior

Business Development Director in EUCo reported he briefs his teams: Is there anything out
there you think we should know? The next step is to communicate information to the team
producing prequalification documents; a division of labour between BDMs and
prequalification. The extent to which BDMs were involved in the bid management process
varied between the case companies. In all cases BDM is marginalised beyond
prequalification, a constraint for service continuity where other managers are performing the
marketing and BD functions in subsequent project stages. BDMs largely contribute to
winning work as a confined transactional task. A comprehensive marketing management
system to coordinate action from senior management to the operations level and across
projects is absent. Coordination from the corporate centre or through explicit portfolio and
programme management (Morris, 2013) is underdeveloped. Although EUCo is rolling out a
customer RM initiative, it is said to be “fairly simplistic”, relying upon individuals taking
responsibility. There is a rudimentary customer relationship database, a CRM software
system, in place to support from below, yet no systematic coordination from above. CRM
databases depend upon employee engagement. This is also left to individual responsibility in
EUCo, AntCo and UKCo. CRM engagement levels are low.

All the companies stress the importance of relationship building in line with RM theory, which
seems to arise from two sources. First relational contracting where several respondents in

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AntCo and EUCo stress the benefits derived from internalising the lessons of partnering.
Senior management in both companies said informal partnering is necessary to respond to
clients, cost drivers and for effective project management. Second BD where relationship
building is seen as key to increasing strike rates. There was recognition of its importance
along project lifecycles amongst BDMs, in accord with previous claims that contractors are in
transition from MM towards RM (Preece et al, 2003). Previous research has failed to clarify
the stage reached. This research found that BDMs are a disparate group that understand
and build relationships differently in each company. All BDMs cite the importance of
relationships, using similar language: It all about people and relationships (Interview with a
BDM, EUCo); It boils down to some trusted relationships (Interview with the Head of New
Business, AntCo). The companies are not developing systems for managing relationships, i)
for each relationship type within BD, ii) for continuity along project lifecycles, iii) for cross-
functional coordination to ensure, a) the understanding of client organisational and project
needs beyond stated requirements, and b) value propositions are passed along the project
lifecycle for the development of win-strategies and for delivery in execution.

Although all BDMs cite the importance of building relationships, when asked what this
entailed, phrases such as “understanding client drivers” are used. To all interviewed, “client
drivers” meant building relationships to get information on the project pipelines and
requirements, to some it meant understanding the motivations and considerations of the key
decision-makers (clients and their professional representatives), to a few it meant
understanding client business solutions or organisational purposes projects are addressing,
and to one person alone it meant understanding the client’s own core business to get to the
bottom of what they perceive as valuable. All levels are important in RM.

Leaving relationship building to individual responsibility has consequences: You do end up

living in an area of ambiguity a lot of the time (Interview with the Head of New Business,
AntCo). There is a lack of awareness and partial implementation of RM principles. There is a
great deal of evidence of hiding behind business jargon, such as “right behaviours”. For
example it was stated: It’s all about behaviours and culture (Interview with a Regional BDM,
EUCo); Behaviours are key to making this a success (Interview with a Project Manager,
EUCo). This lends a false impression of standardization, yet the meanings held for these
terms are different and action is inconsistent. BD was repeatedly described in terms of
“instinct”. There is no guidance about how to build and manage relationships i) through
relationship systems, ii) through procedures to address types, continuity and coordination of
relationships, and iii) behavioural codes of conduct to establish norms and specific guidance
on behaviour. A code provides a baseline upon which the interpersonal skills of BDMs can
flourish. There is sporadic evidence of trying to manage behaviours at a micro-level. It was
stated: There’s a lot of behavioural-cultural work that goes on (Interview with the Head of
New Business, AntCo), which was described as mobilising propositions by “socializing the
idea”. This seems reliant upon informal routines and is reactive. This research found weak
interface linkage between functions, confirming other research (Roberts et al, 2012).

4.2 KAM, programme and project management

Key account management (KAM) is being adopted in the case companies. KAM is an RM

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concept for coordinating client interests across the internal actors responsible for customer
contact and service delivery (e.g. McDonald et al, 1997). AntCo first introduced KAMs in the
boom market pre-2008. They were appointed from Project Managers with responsibility for
client programmes. KAMs are client facing. The ability to resolve client issues was hampered
by a lack of an independent budget. The result was inward facing vying for resources and it
was abandoned. It was recently reintroduced with the title of Key Account Holders and a
banner of “Loving the Customer”. Key clients are provided a single contact point and a
consistent approach, supported by “correct behaviours”. The AntCo approach is fragmented.
Awareness creation, training and induction for the role have not been addressed. Internal
systems and procedures are absent for coordinating KAM. Bidding teams are put together
project-by-project. Although a more centralized resource and support are being developed,
bid development does not relate to KAMs to generate value propositions of technical and
service value. KAMs are not guided as to how to build relationships.

UKCo’s Managing Director of the Civil Engineering & Infrastructure division has sought to
build relationships. Core clients have been allocated KAMs. KAM is described as “quite open
and loose”, aligning with the lack of formal guidance for relationship building. Information
feedback is sought to improve responses in reactive ways, complying with MM rather RM
principles. EUCo takes a selective approach to KAM, only allocating “key customer contacts”
to key clients. The aim is to improve coordination, however, formal procedures are lacking
and informal processes are hampered because some KAMs are BDMs who occupy isolated
positions over the project lifecycle. EuroCo adopts a lower profile, the Customer Solutions
Director assigning Directors to counterpart key client contacts. Reports at Monthly Board
Meetings include monitoring and scoring content to assess attractiveness and progress with
the key clients. In practice reports are inconsistent in timing and content.

For project businesses KAM has a twin function: coordination across the interface with
clients on and across projects. It covers programme management and project management,
potentially providing relationship feedback to inform strategic resource allocation from the
portfolio management level. KAM is partial in the companies and without linkage to
programme management. There is an absence of resource consideration and how costs can
be defrayed against other BD and bid costs by increasing repeat business, improving strike
rates and enhancing reputation in the longer term. There also seems to be a lack of
awareness throughout the hierarchy as to the conceptual contribution KAM can make to RM
and project execution. A stronger integrating function could be developed, extending KAM
across project lifecycles for each project and coordinating a programme from the client
perspective. Whilst KAM is not an essential component of RM, it could make a significant
contribution because the companies have commenced implementation.

4.3 Marketing and the project lifecycle

The companies are structured around projects rather than clients. It was found that project
management during execution provides the primary focus, constraining the ability to link
client interests identified through BD to the execution phase. Morris and Hough (1987) drew
attention to the importance of the front-end to secure project success, and therefore,
inductively analysing how this is manifested in marketing and BD is important. EuroCo states

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the organisation is structured around project execution and not around clients in a
complementary fashion. This is echoed in UKCo, evident in underdeveloped portfolio and
programme management. The integration of different BUs is described as a work-in-
progress. The company is highly decentralised and tends to focus efforts upon internal
matters, inhibiting service integration: There is an aura of ‘we don’t like our client and they
are very difficult to work with’ (Interview with the Business Development Director, UKCo).

How BD is structured affects handovers between functions along project lifecycles. In

EuroCo there has not historically been a strong lead from the centre. This is changing and
solutions development is part of the central enabling pre-construction function. Yet, BD is not
part of that function. Estimating, bid management and front-end planning are formally and
informally dislocated from BD – an absence of formal understanding and informal dialogue.
The situation is described as “confusing”. Board members have an “engagement process”
with counterparts in key client organisations and “Customer Plans” to scope a 5-10 year
pipeline and procurement routes. BDMs are not always linked to this action. Relationship or
client lifetime value are not considered by EuroCo. EUCo BDMs do not produce the
prequalification documentation. Whilst this may be ‘efficient’, it relies upon effective
coordination. Formulating value propositions for win-strategies is poor. EUCo’s Chief
Executive stated that value identification is now conducted during business development, yet
BDMs do not see themselves as identifying value. Prequalification producers, bid managers
and subsequent functionaries along the lifecycle do not see the need to work with BDMs to
develop value propositions: It is hard to shoehorn those things in post-prequalification
(Interview with a Regional BDM, EuCo). In UKCo, BDMs focus upon project pipelines and
bid opportunities. UKCo BDMs do not consider relationship value or client lifetime value. Bid
managers, procurement and project managers address projects from their respective areas
of expertise. It is a task orientation rather than a service or client focus. Portfolio and
programme management are underdeveloped, the net result being a lack of systematic
integration along the project lifecycle. A similar pattern is found in AntCo. One respondent
used the analogy that the company needs to move from an Encarta to a Wikipedia approach
to information and relationship management (Interview with the Bid Manager, AntCo). The
same respondent reports the bid team process is rather chaotic, “it's a mess”, yet a general
belief exists that it is more coordinated than it is. Self-interest amongst BDMs is present:
They want to be able to say, ‘I won that job!’ (Interview with the Bid Manager, AntCo).

BDMs are involved marginally in subsequent stages. They do not shape projects towards
developing specific win-strategies (cf. Cova et al, 2002). Other functions are insufficiently
involved to shape the value proposition at prequalification stage. It is found that bid
management and project management are not perceived to add value in later stages. Bid
management takes place without reference to the KAM function, lacking detailed
understanding of clients and projects at the front-end. The front-end and project
management lack integration. Project Managers have no direct involvement or coordinating
linkage with BDMs across the case companies. All companies have a cut-off between BD
and project management. In every case the procurement and supplier systems are amongst
the most robustly developed on their own terms, yet are not linked to other stages and client
needs are not specifically linked to procurement. Project managers do not receive guidance
on value propositions from marketing and procurement.

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Risk is a major consideration for all the contractors, especially EUCo. At tender stage EUCo
had a “Financial Bid File” and have recently introduced a “Technical Bid File” to brief project
managers. Yet, they do not have a “Service Bid File’ to standardize and add value to the
service component of project management. The Director of Business Process stated he is
not quite sure what that would look like, showing a lack of focus upon service consistency on
projects and continuity for (implicit) programme management (Interview with a Director of
Business Process, EUCo). It general EUCo think value is lost between prequalification and
bid submission. This perception probably arises from regularly coming first or second at
prequalification, yet a lower strike rate at bid stage. Inductive analysis suggests the lack of
integrated systems, including relationship management systems, is a large contributory
factor. Bid teams become locked into the minutiae of operations rather than responding to
customer understanding and developing aligned value propositions. Bid managers can be
Estimators, Planners or Project Managers. They do not necessarily understand the bigger
picture. There is a tendency for a bid to develop its own strategy based upon the logic of
expertise of engineering and procedures (Interview with a Contracts Manager, EUCo). EUCo
knows that bids won are those where they understand the client in detail, yet action to
improve this is lacking. Project management focuses upon “the sharp end”. A Contracts
Director states there is still work to be done to convince Project Managers that they are
“marketeers”. This and other case companies exhibit a project task focus (cf. Handy, 1997)
rather than a complementary customer focus now prevalent across most sectors.

At AntCo bid teams are put together ad hoc and typically without consideration for carrying
forward client understanding, nascent value propositions and requirements. Nor do bid
teams engage with KAM functions. There are tensions between Operations Directors that
hold the resources and other functions, especially BDMs wishing to have further input.
Operations Directors in EuroCo appoint Estimators and Project Managers without reference
to BD or bid management. Procurement talk to Bid Managers and Project Managers in
response mode rather than proactively. Although EuroCo has not developed an explicit KAM
function, there is awareness of the need for integration. A Project Director stated that
marketing and BDM have improved and are recognized in project management: We are just
being more professional in our tenders, presentations and all we are putting forward. Yet the
approach tends to be somewhat transactional, pushing information and ideas into its
marketplace rather than drawing the client to them. It is described as tactical with a “very
short-term view”. The value of a client over extended timescales is selectively addressed, yet
the primary focus remains project specific. Project Managers on both the Building, and the
Civil Engineering and Infrastructure divisions appear to value relationship building more than
their counterparts in other case companies, although how this is achieved is left to individual
responsibility. At UKCo BD stops at prequalification and bid management is conducted via
estimating and tendering under the commercial management. There is scant evidence of
cross-functional working for this case company. Project briefing for UKCo starts with
workshops during the bid stage and post-bid briefings before starting on site. There is no
direct link for relationship continuity. The project management perspective is that early
contractor involvement (ECI) helps align design with construction planning and project
management methodologies. Project Managers also perceive ECI to be central to
developing effective relationships for execution.

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Summarizing, there is a lack of linkage and alignment of systems, added value development
and relationship management across the stages of the project lifecycle. Further, there is a
similar lack of cross-functional working for support functions such as procurement. This
questions whether there is any effective feedback loop into marketing and BD upon project
handover and completion. Feedback in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs) and
other lessons learned can be seen as purely operational functions. Yet, lessons can be the
raw material for improving value propositions from a marketing perspective. In addition, there
is a need for relationship continuity to enhance opportunities for repeat business, especially
from an RM perspective. Several of the case companies use marketing and BDM personnel
to solicit KPI data. Customer feedback for UKCo, especially from a major infrastructure
client, shows the company as offering generic services, lacking the specificity to give
“confidence” at prequalification and bid stages. This is a management concern at multiple
levels; continuous improvement and investing in capabilities is reported as being poorly
understood by top management. The decentralized structure and absence of cross-
functional working also results in proposed improvements meeting resistance down the
hierarchy. AntCo’s KPI processes tend to focus upon contract and client compliance rather
than embedding feedback and applying lessons learned for developing and delivering value
propositions. EuroCo do not apply KPIs as learning opportunities to develop enhanced
technical and particularly service value propositions.

Client and consultant relationships that EuroCo claim to nurture during projects tend to
“disappear” during defects liability – closing the loop with BDMs is largely absent. A Project
Manager recognized this as “a huge inefficiency in the industry”. This is because junior staff
tend to close out projects, lacking awareness of the benefits and the link with repeat
business. It is not picked up in BDM, probably as it detracts from meeting targets on
prequalifying for new opportunities.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations

International contractors were found to be in early stages of transition towards RM. Some
partial understanding and implementation of the main concepts and principles were found.
Relationship building and KAM were most prevalent, but were not linked into investment and
capability development from the corporate centre. Relationship management systems to
support RM were absent. Other functional systems and procedures did not enable formal or
informal integration. Explicit and implicit portfolio and programme management systems
were not in place. This was apparent in the partial implementation of KAM as a programme
function. Configuring and delivering value propositions remain highly constrained.

Main contractors have become less responsible site production. There were some in-house
capabilities, but these were exceptions. In-house providers were treated as ‘subcontractors’.
Main contractors have become systems integrators. Integrating a range of professional,
supplier and subcontractor activities requires integration between contracts and work
packages to deliver value whilst spreading risks. It requires internal integrations, which was
found to be absent. They may be selling systems integration (Davies et al, 2007), but
delivery falls short of solutions that go beyond requirements compliance. A task focus rather
than enhanced and complimentary service orientation and value was lost or compromised.

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There have been changes in marketing and BD since the 2008 “credit crunch”, yet reversion
to a transactional MM under cost driver pressures in the downturn has not occurred. Cost
drivers have encouraged the case companies to internalize relational contracting benefits,
even where formal partnering has ceased. This trend informs a gradual transition to RM
practices. Those firms that effectively embed processes are likely to be the most successful.

BD processes remain disconnected to other functions hierarchically, cross-functionally and

over project lifecycles. Functions operated under distinct and separate systems that
constrain delivering effective value propositions. Marketing and BD were organisationally
isolated, not only due to a lack of systems integration but also poor understanding of
marketing and BD amongst senior management, other management and amongst many
BDMs. Appropriate systems for RM were lacking. In the absence of “hard” systems to
integrate stages on the project lifecycle and ensure cross-functional working, the “soft”
systems of RM become more significant to counterbalance hard system deficiencies (cf.
Storbacka et al, 1994). This was another aspect of the lack of awareness amongst senior
management levels. The task focus resulted in the service value component being
overlooked. Adding service value continues to be something of an anathema, which is rather
telling for a sector classified as a service industry. This research confirms a number of
claims and suppositions about the way marketing and BD are organized (e.g. Preece et al,
2003). In-depth comparative case studies have not been developed previously. This study
also maps for the first time the extent of transition from MM to RM approach in construction.

The primary recommendations for research are to i) extend study into construction in several
nations and contractors of different sizes, including SMEs; ii) extend study into other project
sectors. The primary recommendations for contractors are to: a) improve awareness of
marketing and BD functions; b) introduce systems, procedures and behavioural processes to
coordinate marketing along the project lifecycle and from the senior management level
through portfolio and programme management to project level (front-end and execution).

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 Post-occupancy evaluation of university student
hostel facilities: a case study in Hong Kong

Joseph H.K. Lai1

Abstract

With the new 4-year university curriculum of Hong Kong implemented in 2012, the volume of
university students has continued to expand, leading to the increasing development of
student hostels. In order to assess if the facilities in the hostels have performed to the
satisfaction of their end users, it is necessary to carry out post-occupancy evaluations
(POEs). A search from the open literature, however, could hardly find any recent POE
studies on university hostel facilities in Hong Kong. Therefore, a two-stage POE study
targeting a typical hostel was conducted. In the first stage, a research model was formed
based on a review of relevant literature and past studies. On this basis and referring to the
findings of a focus group discussion among the hostel’s end users, a questionnaire was
designed for use in a survey. By way of face-to-face interviews in the second stage, the
survey solicited the end users’ expected performance levels and perceived satisfaction
levels of six main aspects of facilities, namely lighting, air-conditioning, fire safety, acoustic,
internet, and hygiene. The largest gap between the expectation and satisfaction levels was
found with the air-conditioning aspect. Gender was not a factor affecting the orders of
perceived satisfaction with the facilities. The importance levels of the various aspects were
determined using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) but the respondents’ judgments
based on which the AHP weights were computed were not of good consistency. Further
work is needed to overcome this deficiency and study if there are factors other than gender
that would affect the end users’ expected and perceived performances of the hostel
facilities.

Keywords: expectation, importance, post-occupancy evaluation, satisfaction,

university hostel facilities.

1
Associate Professor; Department of Building Services Engineering; Hong Kong Polytechnic
University; Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong; joseph.lai@polyu.edu.hk.

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1. Introduction

Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is the process of evaluating buildings in a systematic and

rigorous manner after they have been built and occupied for some time (Preiser, 1989). In
order to evaluate the performance of existing facilities in a building, a POE is usually
needed. Results obtained from a POE will inform how well the building matches its user
needs, and reveals ways for improving any design, construction and performance of its built
facilities.

POE studies, particularly those on student hostels, have been growing across the world. For
instance, Hassanain (2008) conducted a POE study to investigate the major technical and
functional elements of performance of the facilities in a student housing in Saudi Arabia.
Adewunmi et al. (2011) carried out a POE study on the facilities of a postgraduate hostel in
Nigeria. In Malaysia, Najib et al. (2011) completed a POE study which identified the level of
student satisfaction with campus student housing facilities.

In Hong Kong, the new 4-year university curriculum, which supersedes the original 3-year
curriculum, has been implemented since September 2012. This change has led to an
increasing number of university students and hence a rising demand of hostel facilities for
the higher education institutes. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University serves as an
example. In addition to the existing Halls of Residence (i.e. the Hunghom Halls), a new Halls
of Residence (Homantin Halls) has been completed for occupation in 2012. Yet a search
from the open literature could hardly find any recent research findings on university hostel
facilities in Hong Kong. Therefore, it is not known whether the performance of the facilities in
the existing hostels is satisfactory.

In order to investigate the performance of the facilities in the hostels, a POE study was
conducted on a typical university student hostel. In the following, a review of some previous
POE research models is given and the formation of a research model for the present study is
outlined. The major characteristics of the hostel and the design of the questionnaire used for
collecting data from the hostel’s end users are described in the next section. Then the data
analyses, including those made on the demography of the interviewed end users, the levels
of their expectation of and satisfaction with the hostel facilities, as well as their perceived
levels of importance of the facilities, are reported. The final section covers the conclusions
drawn from the findings and the future work required.

2. Research model

The model based on which a POE should be performed may vary from one case to another,
depending on the circumstances. As reviewed before (Carpenter et al., 1995), there are
various POE models, e.g. the Merri Model (Merri Inc.,1993), the Performance-Based POE
Model (Preiser, 1989), the System of Building and People (Markus, 1972), and so on.
According to the life-cycle facility evaluation (LiFE) continuum (Carpenter et al., 1995), there
are four facility performance categories in relation to occupancy: (1) physical system; (2)
environmental quality; (3) functional system; and (4) behavior factors. Under each of these
categories, there are multiple elements of performance.

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Generally, the quality of a service involves a comparison of expected performance of the
service and its actual performance (Gronroos, 1978). Parasuraman et al. (1988) developed
the SERVQUAL model to enable evaluation of customers’ expectation of the quality of a
service and their perception of the service’s actual performance. Along this line, the
performance of facilities in a hostel can be assessed by detecting any gap between the end
users’ expected level of performance of the facilities and their level of satisfaction with the
facilities’ performance.

In an earlier study (Lai and Yik, 2007), it was found that factors such as gender and duration
of stay of building end users affect their perceived importance of various indoor
environmental qualities of commercial buildings. Similarly, this kind of findings was observed
in another study (Lai and Yik, 2009) which, based on a conceptual framework of tendencies
of perceptions (Figure 1), investigated the users’ perceptions of importance and performance
of the environmental qualities of residential buildings. These studies illustrated that by using
the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of Saaty (1980) to analyze the users’ perceived relative
importance between pairs of environmental quality attributes, their orders of importance and
performance can be determined. According to the evaluation framework of Lai (2010), the
importance and performance of facilities in buildings can be further analyzed using the
matrix in Figure 2 to determine which aspect of facilities should be monitored, maintained,
improved or capitalized.

Figure 1: Tendencies of perception and perceptions of importance and performance

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 Performance

Maintain Capitalize

Monitor Improve

Importance

Figure 2: Importance-performance evaluation matrix

Based on the above, information about the studied hostel was gathered and a questionnaire
was designed to collect data from its end users.

3. The hostel and data collection

Housing over 3,000 boarders, the hostel has been occupied for 9 years. It is 22-storey high,
with its majority (3-20/F) being student accommodations, and the remaining floors include:
21-22/F for warden suites and staff quarters; 2/F for function rooms; 1/F for dining hall; and
G/F for reception and lobbies. There are three types of rooms for the boarders, namely A:
double room in a conventional 4-person-suite; B: double room in a 5-person-suite, and C:
triple room in a 5-person-suite. An example floor plan of room type A is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Typical layout plan of a 4-person-suite

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A walk-through visit was paid to the hostel to obtain an overview of the facilities there. A
focus group consisting of five users of the hostel was then formed to discuss on the facilities
affecting their living and activities in the hostel. The main aspects of such facilities were
found to be: lighting, air-conditioning, fire safety, acoustic, internet, and hygiene.

A questionnaire comprising three sections was designed to collect data from the hostel’s end
users. The first section enquired into the demographic information of the respondents. The
second section asked the respondents to indicate, based on a 7-point scale (1: lowest to 7:
highest), their expectation and satisfaction levels of performance of the six facilities aspects
in their accommodations. In the final section, the respondents were requested to make a
series of comparisons between pairs of the aspects based on the same 9-point scale (Figure
4) adopted in an earlier study on residential buildings (Lai, 2012).

Aspect X Aspect Y

Point Description
1 Equally important
2 Intermediate level between the two adjacent levels
3 Moderately more important
4 Intermediate level between the two adjacent levels
5 Strongly more important
6 Intermediate level between the two adjacent levels
7 Very strongly more important
8 Intermediate level between the two adjacent levels
9 Most important; no compromise acceptable

Figure 4: The 9-point scale for pair-wise comparisons

The questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews with the end users, who were invited
to participate in the study on a voluntary basis. In total, 204 interviews were completed and
the collected data were analyzed.

4. Analysis and discussion of findings

4.1 The interviewees

There were 101 female and 103 male among the interviewees. The vast majority (94.6%) of
them were regular residents of the hostel although their residence durations varied from 1 to
12 months, with the majority having lived there for 5 months (Figure 5). The proportions of
the interviewees staying in room types A, B and C were 47.5%, 31.4% and 21.1%,
respectively.

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Figure 5: Residence durations of the interviewees

4.2 Expectation of and satisfaction with the facilities

The responses given by the interviewees to the second section of the questionnaire were
taken to figure out the key statistical values - minimum, maximum, mean, and standard
deviation (S.D.) (Table 1). Among the six main facilities aspects, air-conditioning was given
the highest mean level of expectation (4.99), showing that the end users desired this aspect
to outperform the remaining aspects. The aspect with a lower level of expectation was
internet (4.65), followed by lighting (4.47), acoustic (4.17), hygiene (3.95), and fire safety
(3.79).

Table 1: Levels of expectation and satisfaction

Aspect Expectation Satisfaction Gap

Min. Max. Mean S.D. Min. Max. Mean S.D.
Lighting 1 7 4.47 1.25 2 7 5.13 1.24 +0.66
Air-conditioning 1 7 4.99 1.14 1 7 3.56 1.40 -1.43
Fire safety 1 7 3.79 1.48 1 7 4.80 1.40 +1.01
Acoustic 1 7 4.17 1.46 1 7 3.30 1.32 -0.87
Internet 1 7 4.65 1.46 1 7 3.04 1.37 -1.61
Hygiene 1 7 3.95 1.27 1 7 3.86 1.39 -0.09

The lighting aspect, the mean expectation level of which being 4.47, was most satisfied by
the end users. While fire safety was given the lowest level of expectation, its level of
satisfaction (4.80) was only second to that of the lighting aspect. The hygiene aspect, with a
satisfaction level of 3.86, ranked third. Apart from this aspect which was perceived by the
end users as lower than the neutral satisfaction level (rating being 4), the remaining aspects
falling within this category, in descending order of satisfaction levels, were: air-conditioning
(3.56), acoustic (3.30), and internet (3.04).

105
Analyzing only the expectation levels or satisfaction levels of the facilities aspects, however,
could not inform whether or not their actual performance were able to meet with the end
users’ expectations. The differences between the calculated mean satisfaction levels and
mean expectation levels of the various aspects revealed that the lighting and fire safety
aspects, both with a positive gap value, were able to satisfy the end users’ expectation.
Nevertheless, the gap values of the remaining four aspects were all negative, meaning that
their performance levels failed to meet the levels that the end users expected.

The mean levels of expectation of the various aspects of facilities drawn from the female and
male respondents were computed. Similarly, the counterparts of the satisfaction levels were
obtained. Based on such mean expectation and satisfaction ratings (Table 2), the
corresponding rank orders were determined, which show that the air-conditioning aspect
recorded the highest order of expectation from both the female and male subgroups. While
the hygiene aspect ranked bottom according to the male respondents, the female subgroup
expected its performance to be higher than that of the acoustic and fire safety aspects.

Table 2: Mean expectation and satisfaction ratings of the female and male subgroups

Aspect Expectation Satisfaction

Male Female Male Female
Lighting 4.544 (3) 4.396 (3) 5.243 (1) 5.010 (1)
Air-conditioning 4.961 (1) 5.020 (1) 3.476 (4) 3.653 (4)
Fire safety 3.816 (5) 3.762 (6) 4.709 (2) 4.901 (2)
Acoustic 4.252 (4) 4.089 (5) 3.320 (5) 3.277 (5)
Internet 4.835 (2) 4.465 (2) 2.893 (6) 3.198 (6)
Hygiene 3.786 (6) 4.119 (4) 3.951 (3) 3.772 (3)
Note: Rank orders are in parentheses.

Referring to the results pertaining to perceived satisfaction levels, it was found that the rank
orders across all the rated aspects were identical between the female and male subgroups.
This indicates the existence of perfect positive correlation between the subgroups of
satisfaction ranks. On the other hand, the rank orders of expectation of the two subgroups
were not identical. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient (range: -1 to +1) calculated
based on these rank orders was found to be 0.829, indicating the existence of a strong but
imperfect positive correlation.

4.3 Importance of the facilities aspects

Under the final section of the questionnaire, the interviewees were asked to make
comparisons on the importance they perceived between each pair of the facilities aspects.
Given that there were six such aspects, each interviewee had to make 6C2 (i.e. 15) pairwise
comparisons. The response given by each interviewee was processed by the AHP method
to give the importance levels they perceived for each of the six aspects. Statistics of the
calculated AHP weights, including the minimum, maximum, S.D. and mean values, are
shown in Table 3. Also listed in the same table are the importance ranks of the aspects,
which were determined with respect to their mean importance weights.

106
Table 3: Statistics of importance (AHP) weights

Min. Max. S.D. Mean Rank

Lighting 0.029 0.414 0.068 0.180 2
Air-conditioning 0.053 0.457 0.076 0.231 1
Fire safety 0.030 0.377 0.055 0.145 5
Acoustic 0.026 0.321 0.060 0.160 3
Internet 0.029 0.274 0.061 0.129 6
Hygiene 0.042 0.316 0.052 0.154 4

Inspections across the minimum values of the importance weights found that they were of
the same order of magnitude, and a similar observation was noted from the maximum
values. Among the standard deviation values, the one pertaining to the air-conditioning
aspect (0.076) was the highest, indicating the widest spread of its importance weight values.
On the other hand, the spread of the importance weight values of the hygiene aspect was
the smallest given that its standard deviation was the least (0.052).

As the total AHP weight of all the rated aspects is unity (1.000), the nominal weight of each
of the six aspects is 1/6, or 0.167. The calculated mean importance weights show that the
perceived importance levels of the air-conditioning and lighting aspects were higher than the
nominal level. The greatest importance weight of the air-conditioning aspect reflects that the
air-conditioning facilities were dominant elements affecting the end users’ perceptions. The
importance levels of the remaining four aspects, ranging between 0.129 and 0.160, were
lower than the nominal importance level.

Whereas the above results have informed the levels of importance of the various aspects of
facilities, the credibility of these findings depends on whether or not the pairwise
comparisons made by the interviewees were made from consistent judgments. In order to
determine such consistency, the consistency ratio of each interviewee’s response was
computed following the same process used in the study of Lai and Yik (2009). The
distribution of the calculated consistency ratios is displayed in Figure 6.

The majority of the consistency ratios lied in the range of 0.22-0.34 and the mean value was
0.4494. According to Saaty (1995), the consistency ratio of responses made from consistent
judgments should not exceed 10%. But the smallest consistency ratio was found to be
0.1202, meaning that none of the responses was made from consistent judgments. Although
the analysis thus far is unable to explain the cause for this finding, the fact that the
interviewees had to make 15 pairwise comparisons on the importance levels of the six
facilities aspects is a factor that probably contributed to the inconsistent judgments. In the
study of Lai and Yik (2009) where six pairwise comparisons were made for four attributes
under study, 33% of the responses were made from consistent judgments. A lower
proportion (31%) of consistent judgments was obtained in another study (Lai, 2011) where
the respondents had to make 10 pairwise comparisons for five attributes.

107
Figure 6: Distribution of consistency ratios

5. Conclusions

The POE study, focusing on a typical university student hostel in Hong Kong, was carried
out based on a research model incorporating the SERVQUAL model of Parasuraman et al.
(1988) and the performance-importance model of Lai and Yik (2007; 2009). The six main
aspects of facilities affecting the living and enjoyment of the boarders, as identified from the
focus group discussion, were: lighting, air-conditioning, fire safety, acoustic, internet, and
hygiene. By interviewing the end users of the hostel, their perceived expectation of,
satisfaction with and importance of these aspects of facilities were solicited.

While air-conditioning recorded the highest mean level of expectation, the end users
indicated their lowest satisfaction with this aspect of facilities. The evaluation so far,
however, was not able to inform the root cause of this finding. The users’ qualitative
comments on the performance of the air-conditioning facilities need to be analysed in future
in order to identify what improvements are required for such facilities.

Lighting and fire safety were the only two aspects which were given a satisfaction level
higher than the respective expectation level. In other words, the performances of the other
four aspects of facilities have yet to be improved in order to meet with the expectation of the
end users. Although the analysis of the responses given by the male and female users
revealed that gender was not a significant factor affecting the rank orders of satisfaction with
the facilities, whether other factors such as residence duration, room capacity, level and
orientation, etc. would have influence on the end users’ perception of the facilities’
performance should warrant further investigation.

Using the AHP method, the importance levels of the six aspects of facilities were
determined, with air-conditioning bearing the highest importance. In contrast, internet
facilities were perceived as the least important. Examination of the consistency ratios of the
responses unveiled that the judgments given by the interviewees for the pairwise
comparisons between the various facilities aspects were not of good consistency. While it

108
may be ascribed to the large number of comparisons the interviewees had to make, further
work is needed to find ways to tackle this problem.

Acknowledgement

The study reported above was supported by a research grant (No. G-YL16) of The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University.

References

Adewunmi Y, Omirin M and Famuyiwa F (2011) “Post-occupancy evaluation of postgraduate

hostel facilities” Facilities 29(3/4): 149-168.

Carpenter C L and Oloufa A A (1995) “Postoccupancy evaluation of buildings and

development of facility performance criteria” Journal of Architectural Engineering 1(2): 77-81.

Gronroos C (1978) “A Service-Oriented Approach to Marketing of Service” European Journal

of Marketing 12(8): 588-601.

Hassanain M A (2008) “On the performance evaluation of sustainable student housing

facilities” Journal of Facilities Management 6(3): 212-225.

Lai J H K and Yik F W H (2007) “Perceived Importance of the Quality of the Indoor
Environment in Commercial Buildings” Indoor and Built Environment 16(4): 311-321.

Lai J H K and Yik F W H (2009) “Perception of Importance and Performance of the Indoor
Environmental Quality of High-Rise Residential Buildings” Building and Environment 44(22):
352-360.

Lai J H K (2010) “Investigating the quality of FM services in residential buildings,

Proceedings: W070 - Special Track”, 18th CIB World Building Congress (CIB Publication
343), 10-13 May, Salford UK, 13-25.

Lai J H K (2011) “Comparative evaluation of facility management services for housing

estates” Habitat International 35(2): 391-397.

Lai J H K (2012) “Analytical Assessment and Comparison of Facilities Management Services

for Residential Estates” International Journal of Strategic Property Management 16(3): 236-
253.

Markus T (1972) Building performance, New York, N.Y., John Wiley & Sons.

Merri Inc. (1993) A framework for assessing sustainable environmental development

practices, Report written for the United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Washington, D.C.

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Najib N U M, Yusof N A and Abidin N Z (2011) “Student residential satisfaction in research
universities” Journal of Facilities Management 9(3): 200-212.

Parasuraman A, Zeithaml V A and Berry L L (1988), “SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for

measuring consumer perceptions of service quality” Journal of Retailing 64(1): 12-40.

Preiser W F E (1989) Towards a performance-based conceptual framework for systematic

POEs. In: Preiser W F E, (ed.) Building evaluation, New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press.

Saaty T L (1980) The Analytic Hierarchy Process: Planning, Priority Setting, Resource
Allocation, McGraw-Hill.

Saaty T L (1995) Decision Making for Leaders: The Analytic Hierarchy Process for Decisions
in a Complex World, RWS Publications.

110
 Sustainability in FM: Trends in Policy and FM
competence consequences

Abbas Elmualim1

Abstract
Sustainability is emerging as a core business strategy and obligation for many organisations.
The facilities management (FM) profession is at the forefront of delivering sustainable
practices at the operational, tactical and strategic management levels. The profession,
however, faces more demands and challenges as the goals of sustainability agendas
change over time and must be equipped with new knowledge, tools and competencies to
overcome the challenges. An annual sustainability survey was conducted to examine how
facilities management (FM) professionals are engaging with sustainability in their business
environments over the past 4 years. The objectives are to provide insights to the relevant
knowledge, skill sets and best practice that can enhance their professional competencies. It
further aims to provide the FM professionals with up to date sustainability toolkits,
techniques and information that can enhance their competencies in dealing with the
challenges posed by the sustainability agenda. The sustainability survey report provides an
insight into the issues and trends influencing the delivery of sustainable policies and
practices across different organisations and economic sectors. The analysis provided
valuable information on the overall impact of the sustainability agenda on Facilities
managers’ professional work. Similarly, the findings provided the FM professionals with
information that may be used to enhance professional competences of facilities managers in
dealing with sustainability management and operation issues, develop sustainability good
practice guides and education and training in particular continuous professional development
(CPD) modules/courses.

Keywords: Sustainability, facilities management, policy, CPD and competences.

1. Introduction
Benefits of sustainability in the built environment are well known to facilities managers but
the practice of sustainable FM is rapidly evolving due to the three Cs of customer demands,
competition from competitors and climate change (Department for Environment Food and
Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 2005; Elmualim et al. 2009; Warren 2010). Global, national and local
sustainable development agendas continue to demand that organisations develop and
implement sustainability policy that respond to the challenges. However, identifying the
most appropriate approach is a major test for most organisations especially facilities
managers who are often tasked to deliver sustainability goals and objectives with financial
prudence (Elmualim et al. 2010). Although, this is an opportunity for FM professionals to

1
Senior Lecturer; School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading,
Reading, RG6 6AW, UK; Email: a.a.elmualim@reading.ac.uk

111
make a real and measurable difference in improving businesses they seem not to have easy
access to the specialist knowledge, tools and case study material necessary to make this a
reality (Loch 2000; Shah 2007). As a leader in advancing the FM profession, the BIFM
seeks the relevant knowledge, information and skill sets that will enhance FM professionals’
competencies in dealing with the demand, challenges and opportunities of delivering
sustainability in business environments.

The Sustainability in FM research programme aims to provide the FM profession with

sustainability toolkits, techniques and information to ensure FM organisations or managers
become more reactive or proactive towards sustainability challenges. The project objectives
are to develop tools and information on sustainable FM; help FM professionals respond to
the increasing importance and challenges of climate change and meet their environmental
responsibilities. A key component of the Sustainability in Facilities Management programme
(SFM) is the annual sustainability survey. The annual survey aims to investigate how FM
professionals are engaging with sustainability in their business environments. The
objectives are to provide insights to the relevant knowledge, skill sets and best practice that
enhance professional competencies in delivering sustainability developments and practices.
The survey identifies the most relevant issues and emerging trends being emphasised by
facilities managers. The 2010 survey builds upon previous studies. Previous annual
sustainability surveys were conducted in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The insights gained set the
objectives of future sustainability surveys enabling any changes in the data collected to be
measured.

Importance of FM in driving sustainability

Sustainability is now a major obligation and expectation across many businesses (Stern
2006). Pressure from key stakeholders, governments and competitors are driving
organisations to implement the sustainability agenda in business activities (Department for
Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 2005; Nousiainen and Junnila 2008). For
example, economic, social and environmental factors like climate change and limitation of
energy resources point toward FM professionals being challenged to do more for their
organisations. As most business activities occur in built environments, the quality of the built
environment can be a noticeable manifestation of an organisation’s sustainability credentials.
Walker et al (2007) suggest that “the only credible route an organisation has to achieve for
appropriate environmental management is to take a systematic approach to promote a
sustained, continuous improvement in performance.” Though final organisational
responsibility for committing sustainability rests on the highest level of management, FM
professionals are at the forefront of integrating sustainable practices to their operational and
management activities (Shah 2007; Elmualim et al. 2009).

In the past FM professionals were responsible for managing the non-core business activities
that support the core business strategies. Increasingly facilities managers are at the
forefront making valuable strategic contributions toward their organisation’s sustainable
business as sustainability and CSR become a core business in many organisations (Loch
2000; van Ree 2007). Hence, the FM profession has an opportunity to drive sustainability
policies within business environment by addressing core business strategies (Brandon and

112
 Bentivegna 1997; Tay and Ooi 2001; van Ree 2007). In addition to their technical and
operational skills, FM professionals have a great opportunity to expand their activities into
boardrooms as they provide managerial skills in support of core business strategies for
organisations as a whole. As a result facilities managers need to understand how the
growing emphasis on sustainability is affecting the way they discharge their duties. FM
professionals must become professionally competent and knowledgeable about
sustainability issues that will impact on their business environments both operationally and
strategically (Cooper 1996; Puddy et al. 2001; Warren 2010). By examining the emerging
trends and issues influencing FM professionals’ engagement with sustainable practices
across different sized organisations and economic sectors, the new knowledge gained will
help develop FM professionals’ understanding of the issues underpinning effective
sustainability management. In addition, the new knowledge can be used to support trade
organisations interested in sustainability to develop more effective approaches to interact
with FM audience.

2. Survey Method

As in the previous surveys, the questionnaire was primarily distributed and administered by
BIFM to its members and other interested stakeholders as an online survey. The
questionnaire instrument involved 20 closed questions and 5 open questions. Compared to
251 respondents in 2007, 168 in 2008, and 222 in 2009, a total of 268 respondents
completed this year’s survey online. The data was transferred into spread sheet for analysis
(See Appendix for a copy of the questionnaires). To draw out new knowledge, similarities
and differences in trends and shifts a simple comparison of the perceptions of respondents
conducted for each question. The new results are then compared to previous years’ results.
As with previous survey data and reports, the analysis of the current data is based on the
following format:

• Demographics of respondents. This provides information on the background of the

respondents and organisations completing the survey.

• Trends on Sustainability/CSR Policy development, implementation and management issues

especially areas of concern to facilities managers.

As respondents were self-selected, the results of the survey should be taken as only an
indication of the perceptions and observations of facilities managers in general. They
represent the views of facilities managers interested in sustainable FM. Furthermore, as
respondents were not asked to specify their position within their organisations, perceptions
and observations reported here may not necessarily represent the views of specific
organisations and professionals – however the BIFM status of respondents allows for a high
proportion to be practicing FMs.

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3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Demographics of respondents

This section provides demographic information about the background of the respondents
and the organisations they work in. The respondents were asked questions about their
current BIFM membership status, academic qualifications gained, type of organisation and
its economic sector, the level of annual turnover and the size of the organisations in terms of
employee numbers. These data will be analysed for changing trends in surveyed
professionals. A total of 268 people responded to the 2010 annual sustainability survey.
The data collected were as reliable as the survey will allow.

over 90% of the respondents are either associate, corporate, certified, student or full
members of the BIFM. Over 63% of the respondents are identified as full member of BIFM
meaning they have at least five years of management experience and over three years of
FM experience. over 50% of respondents worked FM departments in End-user organisations
(in-house departments). A further 16% worked in FM companies that have been out-
sourced as FM service providers. Other FM organisation where respondents worked were
Independent FM Consultancies (11%), FM service providers (9%) and FM product suppliers
(1%). 10% of respondents, however, indicated “other” type of FM organisation. over the last
four years, over 50% of respondents worked as facilities managers in in-house FM
departments (End-users organisation) even though the proportion of respondents from the
End-user organisational category has decreased by 10% since 2007. The proportion of
respondents from out sourced FM organisations and consultancies has remained fairly
constant over the years. The only exception is that respondents from full FM service
provider organisations have increased by 7% since 2007. As a whole, the result reveals that
overall, 68% of the respondents worked in large organisations employing more than 250
people while the remaining worked in SMEs (organisations employing less than 250 people).

3.2 Development and management of sustainable FM

This section of the paper focuses on respondents’ perception of the levels of sustainability
policy and the effectiveness of sustainability management within their organisations. The
results showed that in 2010, as shown in Figure 1, 72% of respondents indicated that their
employers had a sustainability policy in place. 6% did not know whether their employers had
one or not. The remaining 22% indicated that their employers did not have a
sustainability/CSR policy. Clearly, a majority of the respondents believe that their
organisations do have sustainability/CSR policies in place.

Figure 1 also indicates the proportion of respondents indicating that their organisations do
have a sustainability/CSR policy rose steadily from 65% in 2007 to 84% in 2009 but dropped
significantly by 12% in 2010. The proportion of respondents who indicated their organisation
had no sustainability/CSR policy, however increased by 6% (Figure 1). Also a sizeable
amount of respondents do not know whether their organisations do have a
sustainability/CSR policy. The results are worrying given that sustainability is growing in
importance as a core business strategy and the FM profession has a great opportunity to

114
add value to their organisation’s sustainability agenda. Although there might be reasons for
the sharp drop and the increase of respondents who don’t know, there is an urgent need to
encourage FM professionals to develop and manage sustainability policies and activities in
their organisations.

Regardless of the levels of uptake, the issue of “effective implementation” is not addressed
in this question; therefore one should not assume that the “development” of a policy
framework implies appropriate management of the policy. The management of the policy is
a much broader concept that considers the core project cycle stages (Identification,
formulation, appraisal, implementation, monitoring and evaluation). shows that
approximately 40% of the respondents´ revealed that their organisations have had either a
sustainability or CSR policy for a period of 2 years or less. 30% of respondents indicated
their employers have had a sustainability or CSR policy for 2-4 years. A further 30%
indicated that their organisations have had a sustainability or CSR policy for more than four
years. Clearly, majority of the respondents believe that their employers have had a
sustainability/CSR policy in place in the last four years or more.

90.0 84.0
80.0
71.8 73.0

70.0 65.0

60.0
Rercentage of responses

50.0

40.0
31.0
30.0 27.0
2010
21.8
20.0 16.0 2009
2008
10.0 6.4
2007
0.0
Yes No Don't Know
Presence of sustainability/CSR policy in organisation

Figure 1: Organisations with a Sustainability/CSR policy

The survey shows nearly 40% of respondents rated their organisation’s effectiveness in
implementing and managing sustainability responsibilities as adequate. An additional 25%
of respondents rated their organisation’s effectiveness as very good to excellent, while 24%
of respondents ranked their organisation’s effectiveness as inconsistent. 11% of
respondents however, rated their organisation’s effectiveness as poor. Clearly nearly two-
thirds of Facilities managers rank their organisations’ effectiveness in implementing and
managing sustainability/CSR policy as ranging from adequate to excellent. However, the
remaining third view their organisations’ effectiveness as ranging between poor and
inconsistent. Comparing the present result with previous findings as shown in Figure 2, a
majority of respondents have consistently ranked their organisation’s effectiveness as
adequate (nearly 40%). On the other hand, the proportion of respondents ranking their
organisation’s effectiveness as poor has consistently decreased since 2008 (overall by
13%). Similarly, the percentage of respondents ranking their organisation’s effectiveness as

115
“very good” has decreased by 10% (31% in 2009 and 21% in 2010). Presently, nearly 66%
of all respondents rank that their organisation (s effectiveness as ranging from adequate to
excellent compared to 72% in 2009. The overall decrease may be attributed to fewer
respondents ranking their organisations effectiveness as excellent or very good.

45.0
39.6
40.0

35.0 33.0
31.7 31.0
30.7
30.0
Percentage of respondents

25.0 24.4
24.1
25.0 22.6
20.8
19.6
20.0
16.0
15.0 14.7
15.0 13.8
11.0 10.8 2010
9.2 2009
10.0
2008
4.7
5.0 2.4 2007

0.0
Excellent Very good Adequate Inconsistent Poor

Organisational effectiveness in managing sustainability responsibilities

Figure 2: Organisational effectiveness of implementing and managing

Sustainability/CSR responsibilities over last four years

3.3 What aspects of sustainable development are covered by the

sustainability Policy

Figure 3 shows that 90%, 89% and 81% of the respondents reported that waste
management and recycling, energy management and carbon footprint respectively, are the
key aspects covered by their sustainability policy. Also highlighted were Health and safety
(69%), and sustainable travel (66%). Other aspects covered by the sustainability policies
are targets, measurement and reporting, ethical purchasing and community engagement,
specification of sustainable products and services. Only 35%, 30% and 26% reported that
building disposal, biodiversity and staff productivity has coverage in their policies. Clearly,
the surveyed facilities managers consider waste management and recycling, energy
management and carbon footprint as the aspects of sustainability mostly covered by their
policies. However, there could be a danger of these areas being the easiest to implement
hence their presence in sustainability policies. Hence there is a need to develop
professional competencies and knowledge in all aspects so that only the relevant issues and
activities are included in the policies. Although the least covered aspects are biodiversity
and staff productivity, there is also a need to develop competencies in all aspects of
sustainability.

Comparing similar results from previous studies (Figure 3); there are significant similarities
as well as differences over the years. For example, the 2007, 2008 and 2009 surveys
indicated that the three key issues covered by sustainability policies were waste
management and recycling, energy management, and health and safety (Figure 3). Carbon
footprint was not significantly covered then. However since 2009, there has been steady
rise of carbon footprint coverage by sustainability policies. A reason is the increase in tighter
legislation and higher taxes on carbon emissions and the efforts made by organisations to

116
gain financial savings on the carbon-end. In addition, Carbon footprint is intrinsically linked
to other aspects such as Energy, Waste and Sustainable Transport management issues,
hence leading to wider coverage.

Waste management & recycling

Energy management

Carbon footprint

Health & safety

Sustainable travel

Targets, measurement and reporting

Ethical purchasing

Community engagement

Specification of sustainable products & services

Training

Flexible working

Building disposal 2010

2009
Biodiversity
2008
Staff productivity 2007

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
Percentage of respondents

Figure 3: Aspects covered by sustainability policies over last four years

As shown in Figure 3, coverage for Health and Safety issues has declined. A reason may
be these issues are highly regulated by legislation anyway and therefore addressed outside
the sustainability frameworks. An important distinction is continued coverage of issues such
as training, staff productivity biodiversity and an increased coverage community
engagement. This is a reflection of increased awareness by policy developers of the value
of sound sustainability frameworks that address environmental, economic and societal
issues through more balanced approaches. Clearly Waste management and recycling and
energy management continue to dominate issues covered by sustainability policies.
However, carbon footprint issues are seen as highly relevant and thus covered by the
policies. Other aspects of sustainability issues covered are health and safety, flexible
working, ethical purchasing, staff productivity and biodiversity.

With regard to stakeholders that are recipients of sustainable development reports. 53% of
respondents indicated that they reported their sustainability to Clients/customers. A further
46% reported to employees, 42% to Government and 40% to Shareholders. Only 22% of
the respondents reported their sustainability activities to the local community. Perhaps
indicating that either the benefits from actively engaging with local communities are not fully
known, or knowledge regarding effective methods for achieving this is not well known. At
10%, Donors/Sponsors remain the least reported to. Often the donors and sponsors who
require sustainability activity reports are the Charitable and Not-for-profit organisations.
However, it is important to notice that a small yet significant percentage of respondents (7%)
have selected not to report to any group of stakeholders. Although reporting may be seen

117
as a complex activity by some organisations, learning and understanding the issues involved
in reporting appropriately should be part of any organisation´s agenda in its pursuit to trigger
a wider range of benefits from its sustainability policy.

The showed that over the last three years, Employees, Client/customers, Shareholders and
the Government remain as the top four most popular stakeholders for whom sustainability
reports are produced. Although most respondents identified Employees as the top
stakeholders to whom sustainability reports were prepared for in 2009, in 2010 as in 2008,
most organisations are now reporting to their clients/customers. A reason may be that either
clients/customers are now demanding such reports or organisations are reporting the
benefits from its sustainability policy to its customers/clients instead of employees. The
findings indicate that clients/customers, Employees, Governments and Shareholders are the
main stakeholder organisations for whom sustainable reports are produced.

3.4 What aspects of sustainability does your organisation report on?

As shown in Figure 4, Majority of respondents identified Energy Management (79%), Waste

management and Recycling (76%) and Health and Safety (68%) as the top three aspects of
sustainability most organisations reported upon. A further 67% of respondents identified
Carbon footprint as a key aspect that organisation reported on. 44% identified Sustainable
Travel an aspect closely related to managing carbon emissions. Other topics include
Training (39%), Community engagement (35%) and Specification of Sustainable Products
(33%). The aspect least reported upon is biodiversity (18%), building disposal (21%) and
ethical purchasing (23%). Biodiversity may be least reported as a result of organisations not
engaging with the wider community and/or specialist organisations in the field. Overall, the
results highlight aspects of sustainability seen as intrinsic parts of the process for
implementing an effective sustainability policy. Although much effort is placed on reporting
on issues such as Energy Management, Waste management and Recycling, Health and
Safety and Carbon footprint, other aspects of sustainability should be encouraged and
reported upon. Such a report may be seen as a collective effort seeking to drive forward
wider sustainability goals. The findings indicate Energy Management, Waste management
and Recycling, Health and Safety and Carbon footprint as the main aspects of sustainability
most organisations report on. The least is biodiversity.

Figure 4 showed that the most popular aspects of sustainability reported upon over the past
three years are Energy management and Waste and recycling, and Health and Safety.
However, Carbon footprint is increasingly becoming a popular topic in sustainability reports.
Its continuous rise probably exacerbated by the introduction of new carbon related legislation
such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) (Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC) 2010). This also confirms the weight that legislative drivers place over the
implementation of sustainability policies. Interesting, respondents who identified the
Targets, measurement and reporting, and Ethical purchasing aspects has declined by a
massive 30% (Figure 4). A reason may be that organisations are responding to the needs
and requirements of their clients/customers and stakeholders rather than the organisation
itself (Loch 2000; Nousiainen and Junnila 2008). On the other hand, Biodiversity, Building

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disposal and Ethical purchasing continue to be the least popular topics reported upon during
the last three years.

Energy management

Waste management & recycling

Health & safety

Carbon footprint

Sustainable travel

Training

Community engagement

Specification of sustainable
products & services
Targets, measurement and
2010
reporting

Flexible working 2009

Staff productivity 2008

Ethical purchasing

Building disposal

Biodiversity

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0

Percentage of respondents

Figure 4: Aspects covered in sustainability reports over the last three years.

3.5 What methods of reporting are used in communicating sustainability

aspects?

Figure 5 indicates that 52%, 50% and 36% of respondents identified Separate reports,
Annual reports and Intranet are the most preferred methods of communicating sustainability
issues respectively. Separate reports are excellent methods for reporting on sustainability
as the criteria (e.g. time and audience) are defined according to the specific needs of the
organisation. The use of Intranet is also effective as it presents an easy and direct way for
organisations to engage with their employees. However, it may restrict any other
organisational efforts to communicate their performance. Other methods of communicating
aspects of sustainability identified use of websites and other forms of reporting mechanisms.
Other forms of reporting include monthly reports, notice boards, community newspapers,
emails, weekly toolbox talks, Case studies and regular meetings. A reason for using other
forms is that different people have different preferred methods for learning. The best
approach is to provide a balanced approach.

As shown in Figure 5, for the fourth year in a row, a steady decline has been observed
concerning the use of Annual Reports as a mechanism for sustainability reporting (71% in
2007 and 50% in 2010) while the use of separate reports has remain essentially the same.
Interesting, the use of intranet is identified as the recent survey (36%) while it had not been
selected in earlier surveys. However the use of websites is in decline while other forms have
remained the same. Clearly, Separate reporting, annual reports and intranets are now the
preferred method for reporting on sustainability.

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 80.0

70.0

60.0
Percentage of respondents

50.0
2010
40.0
2009
30.0 2008
2007
20.0

10.0

0.0
Separate report Annual report Intranet Website Other

Method of reporting

Figure 5: Methods used in reporting on sustainability over the last four years

3.6 FM responsibility on sustainability issues

The study findings revealed that more than 80% of the respondents identified waste
management and recycling, energy management and carbon footprint as the key issues
covered in organisations’ sustainability policies. The trend is correlated in sustainability
aspects covered in sustainability reports, with energy management, waste management and
recycling, health and safety, and carbon footprint rated as the key issues reported upon.
Similarly the trend is correlated with the management responsibilities of Facilities managers.
Survey findings indicate that Facilities Managers are increasingly being put forward by
organisations to manage their sustainability activities. Nine out of every ten of the
respondents are in charge, formally or informally implementing and managing activities that
support the organisations´ wider sustainability strategy.

Accordingly, majority of Facilities managers have responsibility for energy management,

waste management and recycling health and safety, carbon footprint management and
targets, measurement and reporting. However these issues have been part of FM
professional agenda long before the sustainable development (Alexander 1996; Pitt and
Hinks 2001; Tay and Ooi 2001). Carbon footprint, however, is quickly climbing up the
responsibilities list. The ever tightening legislation around the carbon market like the carbon
reduction commitment (CRC) legislation and carbon emission related issues means that
facilities managers are expected to increasingly take ownership over activities flagged under
the carbon emissions or energy management arena. The findings indicate that the issues
covered within sustainability policies are ultimately reflected in sustainability reports. The
issues then become an intrinsic part of the process for implementing sustainability policy.
Such an approach can overshadow equally important sustainability issues like biodiversity
and staff productivity in FM organisations, and limiting knowledge, expertise and
competence in such issues. Ultimately such diverse issues should be encouraged as a
collective effort to drive forward a wider sustainability agenda that protects the environment
and sustains development (Cooper 1996). Professional institutions like the BIFM can
improve its members understanding of sustainability by providing relevant information,

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knowledge and guidance materials that are up to date especially where it is less
emphasised. Awareness and understanding sustainability issues can be aligned with the
core competence requirements of members.

3.7 Uptake of sustainability policy, management effectiveness and associated

barriers to implementation

The findings indicate that 72% of respondents believe that their organisations have
sustainability/CSR policies in place. Similarly, 70% of the respondents indicated that their
organisations have had a sustainability/CSR in place for less than four years. Worryingly, a
significant 22% of respondents also suggested that their organisation do not have any policy
on sustainability/CSR and 12% less respondents believed their organisation had a
sustainability/CSR policy. Clearly, there is a need to encourage facilities managers to
become competent and knowledgeable in sustainability issues as new demands, challenges
and opportunities arise in their organisation. Institutions like the BIFM can provide relevant
information and knowledge resources by raising members’ awareness through the education
and training services it offers. Two-thirds of the respondents suggest that their organisations
are performing at either an adequate to excellent level, a noticeable improvement regarding
2009 results. However findings also indicate that FM organisations’ effective in
implementing and managing policies sustainability/CSR policies were rated as only
‘adequate’ and ‘poor’ by a significant 40% and 35% of respondents, respectively. It is
evident that the importance and relevance of sustainability in FM continues to grow as a
primary requirement and expectation. Therefore there is a need to encourage all FM
professionals to improve their competencies and skills in sustainability and CSR issues.

4. Conclusion

A longitudinal survey was conducted over the past four year to investigate trends in
sustainability policy within FM industry. The survey results have revealed trends in how
facilities managers and organisations are engaging with the sustainability agenda within the
built environments over the last four years. Sustainability is emerging as a core business
strategy and FM professionals are at the forefront of implementing and managing it in the
workplace. However, it is necessary that facilities managers enhance their understanding of
sustainability and sustainable development as challenges and opportunities arise. FM
professionals need to develop their understanding of the key issues of sustainability. One
way of achieving this is by commissioning and conducting research on the trends in
sustainability and sustainable development. There is evidence of a gap in the coverage of
environmental and social components of sustainability agenda which are most appropriate
for the built environment. Thus recommendations for more studies will include investigating
how Facilities managers are engaging with the commitment, understanding, development,
implementation and management, responding, controlling, monitoring and reviewing
environmental, social and economic sustainability issues and responsibilities. Findings of
such surveys will enable professional institutions like the BIFM to tailor and provide relevant
information, training, education, guidance and leadership to enhance the competencies of
Facilities managers in the areas of sustainability and efficient energy use.

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Acknowledgement

The author would like to acknowledge the support of the EPSRC and the project’s Technical
Group and the BIFM Sustainability SIG members, who kindly gave their time to encourage,
guide and support the research project.

References

Alexander, K., Ed. (1996). Facilities Management: theory and practice. London, E & FN
Spon.

Brandon, P. S. and V. Bentivegna (1997). Evaluation of the built environment for

sustainability. London, E & FN Spon.

Cooper, I. (1996). Environment management. Facilities Management: theory and practice. k.

Alexander. London, E & FN Spon: 110-120.

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (2005). The UK Government
sustainable development strategy. Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
London, TSO (The Stationery Office)

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). (2010). "CRC Energy Efficiency
Scheme." Retrieved 18 November 2010, 2010, from
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/lc_uk/crc/crc.aspx.

Elmualim, A. A., Shockley, D., Valle, C. R., Ludlow, G., & Shah, S. (2010). Barriers and
commitment of Facilities Management profession to the sustainability agenda. Building and
Environment, 45(1): 58-64.

Elmualim, A., A. Czwakiel, Valle, C. R., Ludlow, G., & Shah, S (2009). "The Practice of
Sustainable Facilities Management: Design Sentiments and the Knowledge Chasm."
Architectural Engineering and Design Management 5(1): 91–102.

Loch, B. (2000). "Avoiding the usual suspects." Facilities 18(10-12).

Nousiainen, M. and S. Junnila (2008). "End-user requirements for green facility

management." Journal of Facilities Management 6(4): 266-278.

Pitt, M. and J. Hinks (2001). "Barriers to the operation of the facilities management: property
management interface." Facilities 19(7/8): 304 - 308.

Puddy, F. R., I. Price, Smith, L (2001). "FM policies and standards as a knowledge
management system." Facilities 19(13/14): 504-514.

Shah, S. (2007). Sustainable practice for the facilities manager. Oxford, Blackwell
Publishing.

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Stern, S. R. (2006). Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. London, Cabinet
Office, HM Treasury UK.

Tay, L. and J. T. L. Ooi (2001). "Facilities management: a “Jack of all trades”?" Facilities
19(10): 357 - 363.

van Ree, J. M. (2007). "From business strategy to FM strategy." Facilities Management

14(1): 10-12.

Walker, D., M. Pitt, et al. (2007). "Environmental management systems: information

management and corporate responsibility." Journal of Facilities Management 5(1): 49-61.

Warren, C. M. J. (2010). "The facilities manager preparing for climate change related
disaster." Facilities 28(11-12).

123
 The Characteristics of Public Real Estate Asset
Management and Maintenance Practice in New
Zealand Council Community Buildings

Zulkfli Sapeciay 1, Suzanne Wilkinson 2, Seosamh Costello 3

Abstract

Asset Management is an important element of the Council’s policies and assists delivery of
its service objectives. Asset management is a vital role to facilitate organizational
performance, both in the public and private sector. Most of the asset management literature
suggests that there is a relationship between asset management practice and organizational
performance. New Zealand, Australia and the UK are perceived to have the most advanced
asset management processes, driven by strong government direction. The New Zealand
Government, via its 72 local councils, have used Asset Management Plans (AMP) as a tool
for managing, operating and maintaining its property.

This research studies AMPs for community centres in New Zealand local councils, and
shows that there is no standard approach in asset management practice. Non-standard
approaches are likely to result in poorer asset management and limited improvement in
public asset management practice, due to differences in management systems, quality,
levels of service and KPIs. Furthermore, the mechanism of how maintenance management
adds value and enhances council property performance via AMPs, and the link between
maintenance practice for community centres and organizational performance as an
outcome, is unclear. Thus, there is a need to understand how asset management, in
general, and maintenance performance measurement, in particular, for community centres,
can be successfully applied to improve the performance of council community assets. This
paper presents an overview of the current characteristics of the property asset maintenance
practice that is being implemented by New Zealand local councils related to community
buildings in New Zealand.

Keywords: Property asset management, Maintenance management, Local

government, Community buildings.

1
Doctoral Student; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland,
New Zealand, email: zsap711@aucklanduni.ac.nz.
2
Assoc. Professor; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland,
New Zealand, email: s.wilkinson@auckland.ac.nz.
3
Senior Lecturer; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland,
New Zealand, email: s.costello@auckland.ac.nz.

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1. Introduction

Property asset management has emerged as a distinct discipline as part of a broader

worldwide trend, especially in the private sector. The public sector has mirrored the reforms
through adoption of private sector practices. These practices have not developed uniformly
across the world, but Australia, New Zealand and the UK are perceived to be the most
advanced, driven by strong government direction (Phelps, 2011). The government owns or
uses a substantial amount of property and provides real estate for public amenities, for
example public halls, libraries, administration buildings and community housing.
Governments emphasize the importance of considering real estate as a strategic portfolio
whose composition, extension and employment plays a key role for local government
performance (Vermiglio, 2011).

In the international literature, the New Zealand public sector is often considered a world
leader in central government driven public asset management reform (Kaganova and
Nayyar-Stone, 2000). In the context of any organization or business unit, the focus of asset
management is to reconcile the demand for, and the supply of, a physical asset base and
associated support services essential for the delivery of its core products or services. In this
case, the principle role of asset management is to support the core business of the local
councils, that is community services. Shardy et al. (2011) identified that the main
characteristic of asset management practice is the focus on maintenance management. This
study investigates the maintenance management of public assets, identifies problems
associated with current practices, and focusses on identifying how the local council and
management committee understand and maintain these assets. The findings will help local
authorities to determine the advantages and disadvantages of its current practice, and could
be used to evaluate the capabilities of asset and maintenance management processes.

2. Asset management in the government sector

McDonagh and Hayward (2000) defined real estate asset management as the management
(planning, organizing, leading and controlling) of real estate assets and related personnel of
those organizations whose primary area of business is other than real estate. Kaganova et
al. (2006) added that real estate management should be referred to as the process of
decision making and implementation related to the acquisition, use of and disposal of real
estate. RICS (2012), in their public sector property asset management guideline refer to the
definition given by The Institute of Asset Management UK as ‘the management of physical
assets, their selection, maintenance, inspection and renewal which play a key role in
determining the operational performance and profitability of industries that operate assets as
part of their core business’.

The principle of asset management has developed over the last decade, and a number of
approaches, standards and models are used. Asset management improvements have been
driven by influences including maintenance legacies, rising services standards, socio-
economic changes and scare public funds (Kaganova et al., 2006). Good asset
management involves optimising within any absolute constrains, including the mix of cost,
risk and performance over the whole asset life (IAM New Zealand, 2012). IAM further

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explained that the lessons learnt over the last 20 years from different sectors, for example;
electrical, water utilities, transport systems, mining and manufacturing industries is realizing
great opportunities in asset management. In local government, good asset management
makes an essential contribution to the governance and management of a public entity’s
business and is an integral part of an organisations wider service and financial planning
process (Audit New Zealand, 2010). The main purpose of asset management for public
entities is to provide a desired level of service through the management of assets in the most
cost-effective manner.

In New Zealand, councils are required to produce an Asset Management Plan (AMP) as a
tool for managing public assets for short, medium or long term periods. The benefit and need
of asset management planning continues to be promoted by central government, and its
profile has been raised in local authorities. This has been reinforced through the guidelines
and standards produced by central government and local government. Through the AMPs,
the central government are looking for more local authorities to improve the quality of their
asset management planning (Audit New Zealand, 2012).

In the asset management literature, it is assumed that there is a relationship between asset
management, facilities management, maintenance practices and performance. Amaratunga
and Baldry (2000) stressed there is a causal link between facilities management practices
and performance. Vermiglio (2011) in discussing the definition of corporate real estate
management by Krumm et al. (2000) stated that the management of an organization’s real
estate portfolio is achieved through aligning the portfolio and its related real estate services
(facility management, property management and maintenance management) to the needs of
the core business (processes), in order to obtain maximum added value for business
(processes) and to contribute optimally to the overall performance of the organization.
Vermiglio (2011) added that one important factor in performance measurement in order to
enhance the planning and managerial control system of real estate property portfolio is
maintenance activities.

Most services are provided through facilities (Brackertz and Kenley, 2002), including in the
public sector. IAM New Zealand (2012) explained the backbone to a good management
system for assets is the clear connectivity between the organisation’s strategic plan and the
on-the-ground daily activities of individual departments in planning, engineering,
procurement, operations (facilities), maintenance and performance management. Shardy et
al. (2011) in discussing their research findings stated the main characteristics found in the
current practice of government real asset management needed more focus on maintenance
management.

White (2011) in discussing the link between asset management and performance
measurement in UK public sector estate asset management, cited the report outline
prepared by Howarth (2006):

“Measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of property and facilities management is a

critical component of better real estate asset management and provide the opportunity for
increased productivity and delivery of saving”.

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Based on the above review of the international literature, it is clear there are vital links
between property asset management, facilities management, maintenance practice and
performance measurement both in building and engineering maintenance.

3. Local Councils and Community Facilities

Local councils play an important role by providing physical spaces for activities that help to
build strong communities. They provide resources and community facilities as a way of
meeting their organizational outcomes to the community. Community facilities are a good
example of the way in which councils and communities work together to provide for the
needs of the local citizen. These facilities need to be managed to ensure most of the
services provided are available and achieving organizational goals. Poor maintenance and
ineffective maintenance programming of community buildings will lead to loss of building
performance, organisational performance and reputation, decrease of level of services,
increasing operational cost and maintenance. Therefore, maintenance management in local
government is an important factor to maximise the performance of physical and community
infrastructure.

4. Methodology, Data Collection and Case Studies

A constantly changing society has meant changing need for some district facilities. Greater
mobility, changes in population and changing leisure need has had a significant impact on
some communities (Whangarei District Council, 2007). These changes need to be identified,
measured and translated into an asset management plan. Audit New Zealand (2010) has
been successful in identifying a number of asset management problems which may be
caused by poor maintenance approaches. The current practice of local authorities typically
addresses only some specific aspects of asset management and maintenance strategies
due to different asset requirements, complexity of the asset and the absence of a
standardized whole life asset maintenance management process. In this study, AMPs from
four diverse local councils in New Zealand were reviewed to define the characteristics of
public real estate asset management and maintenance practice, particularly for community
buildings. Through the literature review undertaken, there are five main characteristics that
were found to show the differences in the practice of public asset maintenance management
implemented by local councils for community buildings namely, asset management plan
documentation and policy, maintenance organization, maintenance approach, procurement
arrangements, and continuous improvement. This paper will focus only on two of these
characteristics; maintenance organization and maintenance approaches. Their operation
and maintenance (O&M) issues will be discussed to show significant differences in their
asset maintenance management practice.

4.1 Local Authority A

In this case study, a ‘Community Hall Strategy Plan’ sets out the planning, operation and
maintenance plan for 36 community halls under the jurisdiction of Local Authority A. The
strategy of this management plan is to provide clear information of facilities provided, clarify
council roles and responsibilities, explain the funding framework and develop a

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comprehensive database. Local volunteers largely drive the planning and construction of
community halls with assistance from district fundraising and donations. These volunteers
are a vital part of the district’s social fabric, and management and maintenance of the
community halls still relies heavily on volunteers. In New Zealand, the national trend within
local authorities is towards community halls both owned and managed by local communities,
with the councils primary contributions being to the maintenance of the facilities. It means all
community facilities are supported by Councils, with no distinction based on ownership, but
the maintenance approach is different among local councils. In this case study, all
community halls are managed by the volunteer hall committees, generally legally constituted
as Incorporated Societies or Trusts. The council contribution to maintenance is limited to
external maintenance, ground maintenance, landscaping, external works and maintenance
and operating costs, for only a few Council-owned buildings or Council-owned land. Council
also assists the committees in terms of maintenance costs by making a provision for a
Community Hall Maintenance Fund and Community Grants Fund, to which the hall
management committee can apply for financial assistance.

In asset maintenance, the council assists the hall committee by providing advice, expertise
and resources to assist community halls with their property maintenance requirements. A
comprehensive periodical facility inspection is carried out on all community buildings by the
Council, together with hall committee representatives, and this establishes an agreed
baseline of information on maintenance needs and determines the maintenance
requirements. A medium to long term maintenance work plan complete with a budget of
maintenance works is then developed based on the inspection report. Consequently, a
Building Assessment Record is prepared and used in order to develop a prioritization
framework which will help the technical team assess requests for community hall
maintenance in terms of support for usage, on-going viability and maintenance needs for
safety and health requirements. At this time, the hall committees are able to apply for extra
funding for any other specific projects or one-off renovation works. Normally, council’s
annual budget will be processed after a schedule of community hall maintenance projects
have been submitted to them. The council continues to assist the committee in insurance
matters, auditing of community hall committee accounts, fire safety provision and
requirements, developing Community Response Plans and giving advice on administration
especially on legal requirements. Some issues have been identified in this case study which
result in difficulties in decision making in operation and maintenance due to confusion
between the committee and council interest, usage, roles, responsibilities and authorities.
The main issue is the difficulty attracting and retaining volunteers as the management
committee members.

4.2 Local Authority B

Local Authority B has developed a Community and Recreation Facilities Asset Management
Plan (2009-2019) as a guideline for managing their community assets on a long term basis.
It includes 11 community halls, 2 public pools, 3 libraries, 57 public conveniences, 57
pensioner houses and 1 museum which total $45 million. The council uses asset
management software, providing an integrated database system which helps the councils in
financial and specialist local government application system solutions. The asset

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management database is the asset register for all of the council’s assets and stores
information on the assets. It includes the value, condition, life and renewal date of an asset
complete with details of the asset recorded such as its materials, construction and typical life
determined from previous knowledge. An effective asset management tool is essential for
effective decision making in asset and maintenance management. This case study shows
the District Council has used an information asset management system since 2002, and it
provides a greater understanding of the asset network and its conditions, which help the
council in setting out asset policy and decision making processes.

The council is responsible for maintaining all community facilities under The Community and
Recreation Division. The main policy and management of the asset are set-out by the
council and used by policy and asset managers in strategic planning, asset management,
policy planning, operation and maintenance. The Council has developed a Lifecycle
Management Plan which includes a 10 years financial forecast, to illustrate a comprehensive
framework consistent with asset management practices and analyses the construction,
operation, maintenance and renewal of facilities. The purpose of this management plan is to
help the property manager in planning, managing and operating the assets at the agreed
level of service, and optimising lifecycle costs.

Asset maintenance management practice in this case study focusses on routine planned
maintenance. Periodical asset inspection and condition assessment is carried out as part of
a 3 year cycle building maintenance program to identify the structural condition and any
defects to building components. Through these inspections, all components are ensured to
meet safety standards and specification, and these data are recorded for information
gathering which will aid in planning facility maintenance, upgrades, replacement and
renewals. Data produced from these inspections are using in lifecycle based expenditure
analysis, and are compared to the long term strategic plan where work plans are identified
and produced. All operation and maintenance works are planned and conducted in
accordance with industry best practice and maintenance contractors are appointed based on
their experience with council procedures. Maintenance of community facilities are generally
determined by public safety, national or local significance, location, specialist use and level
of usage. The decisions in regards of maintenance works are made based on knowledge,
experience and public input, such as public complaints and requests, and available funds.

The Council categorised maintenance management into 3 types; scheduled inspections,

scheduled maintenance and unscheduled maintenance. Scheduled inspections are the
routine inspections to monitor asset condition and identify the physical and structural
soundness of an asset. Any identified maintenance needs are recorded and reported either
under urgent or routine status. This type of inspection is conducted by visual and hands on
approach, but all data is recorded in a computerised information database using asset
management system software. Scheduled maintenance is the periodical or cyclic
maintenance to ensure the assets continue functioning at the standard and level of service
identified. This allows the assets to reach their maximum life expectancy. Under scheduled
maintenance, routine maintenance is conducted by the community team which consists of
the day to day operation and maintenance. Unscheduled maintenance, therefore is
undertaken to repair an asset, to correct faults identified by routine inspections and

129
notification from the users. This is generally reactionary works that has not been foreseen
such as repairing vandalised assets.

4.3 Local Authority C

Local Authority C has produced a comprehensive Building and Property Asset Management
Plan (BAMP) to provide an overview of what the property team will be doing to contribute to
the community outcomes and priorities identified in the 10-year Long Term Council
Community Plan (LTCCP). As a major feeder plan for LTCCP, this document helps the
council in improving their business and service processes and practices to become more
efficient and effective. It contains information regarding changes and achievements in the
asset portfolio, current and future demand as key drivers of growth and usage trends, level
of services, risk management, lifecycle of the assets, financial forecast and their assets
improvement plan. An interesting part of this plan is on the value management framework
whereby strategic and operational asset management is being measured, monitored and
reported, as part of performance management in assessing the effectiveness and efficiency
in achieving the outcomes. Thus, effective asset management will reduce the long-term cost
of ownership and servicing to the council.

Operation and maintenance (O&M) of community buildings has been managed by the
council under a property asset team which is divided into two main departments; Property
Management and Maintenance Management. The maintenance management department is
responsible in all operation and maintenance of public real estate assets in line with statutory
compliance, capital and contract management while the property team manages a diverse
range of leases, licences and tenancies. This case study uses a lifecycle management
approach to operation and maintenance management. It contains four lifecycle activities
necessary in managing the facilities: 1) Operations; day-to-day work to keep assets
operating, 2) Disposal; sale, demolition or relocation of assets, 3) Augmentation; creating a
new asset or upgrade beyond asset capacity, and 4) Renewals; does not increase but
restores original capacity.

Asset maintenance management covers planned maintenance and unplanned maintenance,

and operation of the maintenance works are undertaken on the Council’s behalf by approved
contractors. Routine maintenance or day-to-day work is carried out to keep all community
buildings and facilities operating, running smoothly and complying with statutory
requirements and agreed levels of service. The property team responsible for managing the
community buildings categorized maintenance into planned or proactive operation and
maintenance and unplanned or reactive maintenance. Planned operation and maintenance
is pre-arranged inspection and maintenance works undertaken to maintain the assets and
prevent asset failure. This includes inspection works, monitoring and follow up maintenance
and certificates for building mechanical and electrical components. Maintenance contractors
are appointed to carry out a series of regular maintenance activities. In some instances,
follow-up action and maintenance will also be undertaken to keep the current level of service
and keep up statutory compliance. The council uses single supplier contracts for all
operation and maintenance in order to ensure the effectiveness and performance of the
assets.

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Unplanned maintenance is an action to correct faults and failure as required, for example in
repairing storm damage, leaking roof and windows, and rectifying vandalism damage.
Incoming work requests are recorded in the team’s Task Manager System, prior to the work
being assessed, and then assigned to a pre-approved maintenance contractor. In terms of
its service level agreements, the team is responsible for responding and resolving the
problem to the customer’s satisfaction within an agreed time period. Similar to planned
maintenance, the council has plans to create single supplier contracts for such tasks as
afterhours call outs and responsive maintenance.

4.4 Local Authority D

In this case study, the council has provided the most comprehensive asset management
plan in managing public real estate property, from those assessed, especially for community
buildings. The council has developed a Community Facilities Asset Management Plan for
yearly usage in managing their 48 community facilities, which is in line with a 10-year Long-
term Council Community Plan, previously established for the management needs and work
programmes for community facilities owned by the council.

This plan explains the service provided by the council, how they manage growth, demand
and asset lifecycle, sustainability approach, financial report and risk in asset management
practices. Rapid population growth is the major factor causing increasing demand for
community facilities. In order to ensure all community assets are in good condition, asset
condition information is used to prepare work programmes to replace existing assets. Most
assets are replaced before they reach failure to ensure they continue to provide a cost
effective service. Different to other case studies, the council has used building condition
survey assessments in order to analyse failure and determine which community building are
in most need of renewal. The council also adopted a sustainable management approach to
asset management practice and asset performance measures are utilised to determine the
levels of service. Levels of service focus on what customers’ value about community
facilities and the service provided. Performance measures are linked to the council vision
through identification of the management strategy and policy. Monitoring the performance of
community centres is a council responsibility with key performance measures outlined in the
management agreement.

Most community centre buildings have been managed by the council, with others managed
by a management committee under a partnership agreement. This case study shows
planned and unplanned maintenance is undertaken based on data collection from building
condition surveys. Maintenance needs are identified through condition surveys using the
National Asset Management Steering (NAMS) group property approach, undertaken on a 3-
year cycle by contracted building surveyors. Such needs can also be identified by the
contract cleaners which are required to notify the council of any maintenance issues they
find. Monthly inspections are also carried out by council staff. Responsive maintenance is for
urgent repairs that are required to keep an asset functioning. The facility maintenance
contract is outsourced and deals with response maintenance and smaller maintenance
repairs that are carried out for health and safety reasons, or to protect the asset. Technical
contracts include items such as building warrants of fitness, lift maintenance, heating

131
ventilation and air conditioning maintenance. They are typically routine service contracts that
include small value responsive maintenance repairs.

5. Discussion

In the field of maintenance management, the term maintenance approach refers to the
maintenance techniques and strategies such as preventive maintenance (PM), condition-
based maintenance, total productive maintenance (TPM), computerized maintenance
management system (CMMS), reliability centred maintenance (RBM), predictive
maintenance (PdM), maintenance outsourcing, effective centred maintenance, strategic
maintenance management, and risk-based maintenance (Garg and Deshmukh, 2006).
Through this study, it is found that all case studies are practicing a general approach to
maintenance management, with their own strengths and weaknesses. The discussion of the
practices and a comparison based on the characteristics mentioned in section 4.1 to 4.4 is
presented in Table 1. The asset maintenance practice of each case study varies according
to the management policy and organisation, and building management strategy the council
adopts. The study shows there is no standardisation in asset maintenance management, in
term of asset management plan documentation, maintenance organisation and maintenance
approaches.

• The case studies show that each council uses different structures and forms of asset
management plans in managing their community assets. For example, the AMP for
Local Authority A explains the role of local authorities and community facilities,
addresses the current conditions and issues of community assets, and their
recommendations for managing community halls. Local Authority D used a more
comprehensive AMP which clearly explains their community services, shows how
they manage the community’s growth and demand, describes their asset
management risks, policy and asset lifecycle in asset management practices,
includes a financial summary of community assets and proposes their plan for
improvement, monitoring and review procedures in public asset management. This
shows there is no standardization in the documentation of AMP by Local Authorities
in New Zealand.

• Community buildings under Local Authority A are managed by volunteers (hall

committee) and assistance from the council seems limited, but the case of Local
Authority B, C & D, community buildings are managed by the councils. This situation
affects the organization structure and level of services in asset and maintenance
management. The discussion on operation and maintenance issues shows that asset
management carried out by local authorities is more efficient and practical compared
to community assets managed by volunteers.

• Local Authority A, B and C used periodic asset and facilities inspection for a
justification of the need of maintenance management, but Local Authority D used
standard building prioritisation methods from building condition survey data for
decision making processes related to assets and maintenance management.

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All local authorities used asset condition prioritisation methods in decision making
processes, but the techniques are different and there is no standard approach. Local
Authority A used a committee prioritisation method, Local Authority B used an integrated
database system, knowledge tools, experience, public input and available funds, and Local
Authority C & D based prioritisation on asset condition and condition survey analysis.

Table 1: Case studies summary

Characteristics Local Authority A Local Authority B Local Authority C Local Authority D

1. Maintenance Volunteers: Hall The Council: The The Council: The Council
Organisations Committee Community & Property
Recreation Management and
Division Maintenance
Management
2. Maintenance approach:
a) Condition audit Periodical facilities Periodical asset Monitoring Condition survey
inspection inspection & inspection
b) Maintenance Routine & planned Routine & planned Planned & Long-term
technique maintenance maintenance unplanned maintenance,
(Scheduled maintenance routine
inspection, maintenance &
scheduled & response
unscheduled maintenance
maintenance)
c) Data collection Inspection & Condition Remote sensing, Building condition
method building assessment physical survey & monthly
assessment inspections inspection
assessment
model & rating
systems
d) Decision making Committee based Based on Based on asset Based on
prioritising method integrated condition condition survey
database system, analysis
knowledge tools,
experience, public
input & available
fund

6. Conclusion

This paper presented the result of a study on asset management plans (AMPs) of four local
councils in New Zealand. The main objective of this study was to identify the characteristics
of public real estate maintenance management practice on community centre buildings
implemented by these government agencies. The findings of this study show that in relation
to published literature, there is no standard approach in asset management and
maintenance practice for community buildings. New Zealand Audit emphasizes in their
report in 2010 that, there has been no improvement in public asset management practice by
most of the councils for the period 2007 to 2009, and that the current practice of deferred
maintenance will store up problems for the future. The AMPs show there is no standard

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approach to measuring performance of their assets due to maintenance activities, within the
management of their public real estate portfolio.

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 Usability: managing facilities for social outcomes

Keith Alexander1, Siri Blakstad2, Geir Hansen3, Per Anker Jensen4,

Goran Lindahl5, Suvi Nenonen6,

Abstract

The paper argues for the development of usability concepts, methodologies and tools, in
considering the effects of the built environment from a user, organisational and community
perspective, in order to have a positive influence on social outcomes.

Since it was formed over ten years ago, the CIB W111 on Usability has been exploring
concepts, methods and tools, developed in the evaluation of all kinds of consumer products,
applied to the built environment. In the most recent phase of this work, conducted over the
past three years, an international network of partners has collaborated to focus on the
usability of learning environments achieving their objectives through a series of case studies
and associated workshops. The work has sought to identify and evaluate the ways in which
users (and other stakeholders) in projects are involved in decision making about building
use and the methods and tools they used to understand, as well as to design and manage
the relationship between activities and places.

The paper describes and reviews the development of the field of research on usability. It
concludes that the action and use of facilities is strongly related to experiences of the users
and thus their possibility and will to perform. People create their own places in the facilities
created by professionals and there has to be an approach that opens up for questions like
what use and why do an organisation want a specific solution. If professionals and laymen
could meet, understand and define the emerging properties of a workplace, they could
better manage and design the facilities for improved social outcomes.

Interpretation and analysis of the built environment (and support services) based on how it is
socially constructed will enable integration of organisational use and the facilities provided to
arrive at an understanding of usability. The concept of usability brings the organisational
space to the fore and by doing so supports the actions needed. The paper concludes that
usability will not be fully understood without understanding the social constructs of the users
– the organisational ecology of narratives or constructs.

Keywords: Usability, organisational ecology, facilities management, social outcomes

1. Introduction
Facilities are defined as tangible assets that support an organisation (CEN, 2006). As such,
facilities are managed in an organisational context and the physical assets are embedded in
a service to support achievement of the organisation’s primary objectives i.e. they are

1
Professor, Director; Centre for Facilities Management; Manchester, UK; keithalexander47@gmail.com.
2
Adjunct Professor; Centre for Real Estate and FM; NTNU; Trondheim, Norway; siri.blakstad@ntnu.no.
3
Assoc Professor; Centre for Real Estate and FM, NTNU; Trondheim, Norway; geir.hansen@ntnu.no.
4
Professor, Director; Centre for Facilities Management; DTU; Copenhagen, Denmark; pank@dtu.dk.
5
Assoc Professor; Construction Management; Chalmers Univ; Gothenburg, Sweden; goran.lindahl@chalmers.se.
6
Research Manager; Built Environment Services; Aalto University; Helsinki, Finland; suvi.nenonen@aalto.fi.

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business support services. However, whether in the private, public or third sector, facilities
should benefit stakeholders in the organisation, in communities and in society.

In the public sector and in social enterprises, social and environmental objectives are
explicitly identified and managed. Increasingly, in the private sector, companies now
recognise broader corporate responsibilities, not as an optional marketing strategy (as in
CSR), but as an essential element of business success, In response, new concepts such as
creating shared value (CSV) are being developed, with the need for new ways of evaluating
the benefits derived by key stakeholders (Porter, 2011).

The paper reviews the development of the field of research on usability from the last decade.
The recent work has focused on how users and other stakeholders are involved in decision
making about buildings-in-use and in projects and the available methods that support this.

The paper argues for the development of usability concepts, methodologies and tools, in
considering the effects of the built environment from a user, organisational and community
perspective, in order to have a positive influence on social outcomes.

2. Usability of facilities
Usability is an intriguing challenge for architects, designers and facilities management (FM)
as it concerns how a space, an artefact, is used and the effects of that use. It is an equally
challenging concept for managers and organisational strategists as it includes the physical
setting in which an organisation performs its activities. This makes usability of facilities a
topic at the centre of the relationship between what we do, how we do and where we do it.

Since it was formed almost 10 years ago, the International Council for Building Research
and Documentation (CIB) working group on usability (W111) has been exploring concepts,
methods and tools, developed in the evaluation of all kinds of consumer products, applied to
the built environment (Alexander, 2005, 2008a, 2010a). In the most recent phase of this
work, conducted over the past three years, an international network of partners has
collaborated to focus on the usability of learning environments achieving their objectives
through a series of case studies and associated workshops. They sought to identify and
evaluate the ways in which users (and other stakeholders) in projects were involved in
decision-making about building use and the methods and tools they used to understand, as
well as to design and manage, the relationship between activities and space.

A starting point was the definition of usability in ISO9241–11 (related to the “Ergonomic
requirements for office work with visual display terminals”) as “the extent to which a product
can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction in a specified context of use” (ISO, 1998). Usability in the built environment is
context dependent, a product of user experience related to the social relations amongst
users and to the interaction between users and facilities (Fenker, 2008). Usability has been
found to be strongly related not only to relationships between people and physical settings,
but also to clear strategies for the organisation of work and the use of facilities. The
approach of looking at buildings as a means to fulfil strategic objectives and not only as a
way to house people and activities is supported by the work of Becker and Steele (1995),
Horgen et al. (1999) and Grantham (2000).

The research has enabled broad conclusions to be drawn about the nature of usability as a
concept and its application in the built environment and has challenged the basis of
conventional approaches to briefing and post-occupancy evaluation. In summary, the group
sees usability as “a cultural phenomenon that can only be improved through a better

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understanding user experience, considered as situated action in a specific context”
(Alexander, 2008b). Here we elaborate the concept of usability, discuss practical
implications for FM and for the development of management processes and raise specific
issues for usability research in the built environment. We argue usability as a core concept
for managing organisational ecology.

3. Changing the perspective

Studies of the usability in the built environment originate from the field of FM and other
disciplines e.g. cognitive psychology, where the focus and interest have shifted from a
technical perspective on building quality to the actual use of buildings. This shift represents a
significant change from looking at buildings as end products and measuring their technical
qualities and functional performance to looking at buildings as a means for the occupying
organisations, or core businesses in the prevailing language of FM, to achieve their overall
goals and objectives. Another consequence of this shift has been for buildings to be
regarded as artefacts that interact with organisational processes and information
technologies rather than defined objects (Gjersvik & Blakstad, 2004a, 2004b; Fenker, 2008;
Nenonen & Nissinen, 2005).

Much recent effort in construction research in Europe and the UK has been focused on
creating a client-oriented, knowledge- and value-based industry. Interest in considering the
client and user perspective has increased. A growing number of international research
networks have recently been established, including various working groups of CIB. CIB
concerns construction and built environments, and many working groups take a sectorial
perspective, i.e., they are concerned with the actors in the building process rather than the
users of the output, the building. A sector-based perspective is clearly needed in order to
develop and stimulate innovation in a field such as construction. However, the logics of use
must also be recognized as a governing factor for the planning of facilities rather than a
focus on professional knowledge to determine what is most appropriate or what is best
practice. The most recent CIB workgroup (W118) was created as a clients and users forum.
This is a step towards trying to understand this relationship, albeit in a project context.

However, CIB W111 is the only group that focuses specifically on a user perspective. The
application of the concept of usability in the built environment presents a number of key
challenges to conventional construction and property perspectives. Nine characteristics of a
usability approach have been identified and contrasted with, for example, conventional built
environment approaches (Jensen, Alexander & Fronczek-Munter, 2011):

1. User focus—usability puts a focus on the user and the organisation rather than the
building.

2. Demand driven—usability recognizes the dynamic requirements of organisations (and

communities), derived from the strategic objectives.

3. User experience—usability is primarily concerned with the perceptions of users rather

than the intentions of designers and service providers.

4. Contingency quality—usability is contingent on user values rather than an inherent

function of the built environment.

5. Context of use—usability considers facilities in the context of use rather than as a project
(context of action).

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6. Process oriented—usability is considered as a process rather than as product or service
provision.

7. Service production—like all services, facilities are co-created by service users.

8. Relationship management—usability implies changing relationships with users.

9. Learning process—usability exchange of knowledge amongst users, managers and

service providers.

These characteristics are rooted in a pragmatist philosophy, ultimately derived from Peirce
(1905), starting from what works well is what is worth achieving. This is also based in the
work of Dewey (1977) and his development of activity-based pedagogy where theory,
practice, reflection and action are connected. This approach is based on the development of
knowledge derived from use, which is what understanding usability also is about. It is the
effect of what is done that is at the core of usability, not the specification of what functions
shall be performed. Elsewhere, Granath and Alexander (2006) reflected on some of these
theoretical aspects of usability research.

4. User experience—the core of usability

If use is what happens, how do we grasp it, understand it and deal with it? There must be
ways of describing and thereby understanding the effects of use; otherwise, it cannot be
communicated and reflected upon. Fenker (2008) describes usability as a process that can
only be understood as a social construction where the building acts as a sort of stage.
According to him, “the artefacts are bearers of a set of possibilities and constraints as well as,
most importantly, activity and social practices.” Alexander (2010) argues for greater emphasis
on user experience and suggests reconsidering the original triumvirate of efficiency,
effectiveness and satisfaction to substitute experience for satisfaction. Recent work on
service design and space management draws upon work about experience design (Shedroff,
2011). So far, there is a lack of ability to combine subjective, often qualitatively described user
experience with objectively defined standards and requirements of built environment. The
user experience is based on individual perceptions and they cannot be objectively measured.
However there exist various ways to capture the knowledge of user-experience and create
descriptions of the non-measurable, intangible conditions. (Nenonen et al., 2012)

This development is also denoted in service management, where customers’ experiences

rather than specification of service gain more importance. Ultimately the customer is
considered a co-creator of the service experience. The use of facilities has the same
characteristic; we as humans interact with it. Alexander (2012) extends this thinking to
consider the co-creation of value in FM, whilst Jensen et al (2011) relates it to the concepts
of user driven innovation and co-design and to the idea of lead users (von Hippel, 2005),

One approach to explain the concept of usability in a way that makes it easier to understand
and use for practice is presented in the USEtool handbook (Hansen et al 2011). Usability
can be understood by focusing on:

• For what? What objectives should be achieved? And what activities actually take place?

• For whom? It is important to define which user groups are in focus, as there are several
potential user groups to take into account.

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• Where? Users’ experiences should be related to space or place. In usability evaluations
there is a need to relate users’ experiences to specific physical surroundings. The
definition of usability clearly underlines that usability is dependent on context and
specified users’ perception and experiences

• Why? Discovering factors that enhance/inhibit effectiveness is not sufficient. The next
step is to understand why. This is essential when the knowledge acquired is to be
applied in order to generalize and provide knowledge for the benefit of later projects, or
to improve existing solutions.

Usability evaluations are based on different user’s experiences and assessments on how
well the buildings perform regarding different parameters. A building’s performance can
never be seen or understood in isolation from an organisational and technical perspective,
as those aspects interact and influence each other. Discussing use implies a view on who is
the user, and one has to be critical of conventional concepts of users. Olsson, Blakstad and
Hansen (2010) suggest a tendency to oversimplify the way that users are addressed and
challenge the predominant assumption that there is only one group of users. They identify
categories of users and their roles at different stages of the building life cycle. They highlight
different user roles and perspectives at different project phases. The perspective that is
applied determines which user groups are included in a planning process or discontinuities
in user involvement. In a usability perspective, different tools for usability analyses may be
needed when studying usability from different user perspectives. This opens up a debate on
value beyond value management and it brings culture and governance into the discourse.
Who is a user and why are they a user? Whose needs and interests should be at the core of
usability analysis and guide possible design?

Themes that have been central to usability research were reflected in the chosen theme of
the CIB work group W70 on FM conference in São Paulo— FM and the Experience
Economy—following Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) seminal work in service marketing. Da
Graca (2010) argued that this should now be the focus of FM responsibilities and stressed
the need to open the way to demand management focusing on the user experience.
Professionals working with facilities need to understand user behaviour, user needs and
user experiences and need to manage and systematize the user experience. There is a
need to learn how to understand and design experiences as good FM briefing leads to
effective design. There are necessary tools but they need to be put to work. He suggests
that research in this area is essential and that FM practice should focus on the user
experience, looking at the demand side, managing experiences and putting the resources to
work.

This challenge is illustrated in a study following the implementation and use of tools for
usability evaluation in FM and Corporate Real Estate organisations. Blakstad and Hansen
(2012) found that this had limited effects on practice in most of the organisations they
studied. There where however exceptions. The cases with the most successful
implementation, which had actually led to new practice and new “contexts of use”, had used
the most resources on implementation, and continued the research relationship with the
researchers to develop own staff with competence to carry out the evaluations. The study
suggested that focus on usability in practise can only be drivers for development in cases
where key players have awareness and competence, and where the need for change is
seen as urgent enough to justify the amount of resources needed to both analyze the
situation and implement the change.

Contingent user values are not easy to explore using conventional techniques such as post-
occupancy analysis, and there have been calls for multi-method approaches (Blakstad,

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Hansen & Knudsen 2008) and a greater range of methods for understanding user
experience (Alexander, 2008a). This is highly important as there must be methods that
manage to bridge from the facilities professionals, architects and engineers to the everyday
user without imposing professional knowledge in such a way that the user’s perceptions are
depreciated.

5. The usability brief—a key instrument in facilities management

Much recent effort in the research has focused on developing tools to operationalize the
usability concepts, particularly for briefing and evaluation. To date, those who work in the
building industry have not been sufficiently interested in evaluating the use of buildings they
have helped to create. Does the building function as intended? Are there problems related to
function or room use? How efficiently is the building utilized? How satisfied are the users?
By not evaluating the use of buildings through asking such questions, vital opportunities for
improvement and for coming up with new solutions have probably been missed.

Traditional briefing Inclusive briefing Usability briefing

Concerns new Concerns all client/user needs in Concerns user needs in

building/construction developing facilities existing facilities

A definite phase at an initial A continuous process with A continuous process at

stage of construction changing focus in different different phases during
phases of building life cycle occupancy

An expert based information A guided learning and dialogue A co-learning process

collection process

Users mainly involved as data Users actively involved as part Users as co-producers
sources of a corporate change process

The result is a brief, i.e. a The result is acceptance of Brief as an evolving ‘bulletin
requirement specification solutions based on a brief board’

Table 1: Traditional, inclusive and usability briefing

A usability perspective has consequences for methods used in design and planning today.
Briefing has been highlighted in several studies as a bearer of clients’ and users’ needs and
requirements and a key instrument in getting what one wants. The recent work by CIB W111
on usability has similarly highlighted the importance of briefing as a means to achieve
usability. Jensen et al (2011) have compared the characteristics of the concept of usability
briefing with traditional briefing and so-called inclusive briefing In Table 1.

However, these findings raise a further series of issues and a possible agenda for future
research and have interesting implications for the way we think about briefing, particularly
when usability is seen as a contingent quality rather than as the inherent functionality of the
physical environment.

Hudson (forthcoming) argues that much of the existing work on briefing is based on
premises that it can be reduced to a rational process, that it is part of a finite project, that the
final outcomes of this project are buildings or other physical facilities and that user
requirements have an external objective existence that can be captured in the briefing

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process. He goes on to suggest that the usability work suggests the limitations of these
premises and argues that a new approach to briefing may be necessary.

This approach might be characterized by an emphasis of briefing as creative exploration of

possibilities rather than requirements capture, a focus on the social construction of
requirements and their evolution over time and a focus on human satisfaction rather than
physical facilities. The professionals’ capability to integrate and translate becomes important
here and implies a responsibility to manage user needs and feed them forward to the
subsequent project without losing the understanding of the social processes from which the
facilities have emerged.

6. Usability appraisal—how to understand and interpret the use of

facilities
Usability evaluations are based on different user’s experiences and assessments on how
well the buildings perform regarding different parameters. By considering a building as a
tool, we should be interested not only in how the building itself functions, but also how the
building impacts value creation in the user organisation. The user organisation should ask
itself: what do we want to achieve? What do we want the building to contribute? How can our
premises create added value for the organisation? We have seen that many user
organisations have little awareness of those aspects. Instead a building is merely seen as
floor space or workplace, without much consideration: a return for the rental. For instance, a
business that wants to stimulate co-operation and learning should be interested in how the
workplace supports these goals; a kindergarten that wants to encourage involvement by the
children should consider how the facilities promote their mastery of their environment. Over
the past 5 years, a EuroFM research group has explored the concept of added value of FM,
with a strong connection to the CIB W111 Usability group (Jensen et al. 2012).

For building owners and users, an increased focus on usability represents both a challenge
and an opportunity. The challenge lies in the fact that the user organisation may want quick
changes and a high degree of customization to achieve maximum effectiveness. If not
handled wisely, this may result in unnecessary tailoring for tenants, which can drive costs up
and be difficult to change later. In this type of situation it is essential that solutions are
flexible so that they can readily be changed as needs change. At the same time, an
increased focus on effectiveness represents an opportunity for building owners and FMs, as
having expertise and premises that can contribute to increased customer satisfaction may be
an advantage.

A building’s performance can never be seen or understood in isolation from an

organisational and technical perspective, as those aspects interact and influence each other.
Hence, usability is complex and has been described as a “wicked problem” (Blakstad et al.,
2008). Such problems are characterised by no definitive formulation of solutions, and they
are open to multiple interpretations (Rittel & Webber, 1973). The solution is simply the one
that in a certain context is most satisfactory. According to Blakstad, addressing “wicked
problems” requires multi-method strategies using a triangulation of methods and evaluations
with multiple perspectives.

This aligns with findings from studies showing that evaluations work best when they are
based on several methods and aspects, depending on objective, purpose, focus,
competence and resources (Frechtling, 2002). All this implies that usability evaluations are
complex, that there is a need for simplification and that the evaluator possesses both
theoretical and practical knowledge and skills (Baird, Gray, Isaacs, Kernoghan & McIndoe,
1996). Blakstad et al. (2008) describe how different methods and tools were explored and

142
tested according to their relevance and validity for evaluation of usability in several
Norwegian cases. An important discussion is whether the results or findings from those
evaluations can be considered as valid and reliable, and whether context dependent
knowledge from usability evaluations can be feed forwarded to new projects or be
generalized and added to a more generally applicable body of knowledge (Hansen et al,
2010). One may always discuss the external validity of qualitative methods. According to
Halvorsen (2008) the main question is not if results may be generalized but if knowledge can
be transferred to other settings. As pointed out earlier, few of the available methodologies
aim directly at evaluation of usability related to organisational objectives. However, they
found that many traditional research and evaluation methods had potential to be developed
for the purpose of usability evaluation.

Hansen, Blakstad and Olsson (2012) review usability evaluations and the feedback on users’
experiences of their environment. The value of such evaluations for feed forward into new
projects or improving existing facilities lies mainly in the ability to understand users’
experiences and to translate them into adequate products and solutions. Consequently, the
results of research related to evaluation should be quickly and easily accessible to clients,
designers, decision-makers and others involved in the building process. At its best user
feedback provides a learning process for different stakeholders. Kärnä et al. (2009) stress
the importance of a systematic approach and of continually improving the flow feedback.

7. Usability of learning environments—a thematic focus

Over the 10 years of W111 research the working group has compared case studies from
different sectors, first of all focusing attention of the usability of workplaces and then
broadening to include industrial, educational and healthcare environments.

From 2009 to 2011 the work of CIB W111 on usability has mainly focused on the usability of
learning environments (Alexander, 2010a; Arge, 2010; Jensen and Oesten, 2010). The lead
was taken by the UK, in collaborative work with the Centre for Effective Learning
Environments (CELE) at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), in a project to develop tools for evaluating the quality of educational environments
(EQES). Research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2010) concluded that school context must
be taken into account when assessing the impact of a school building program and that, new
buildings alone, are insufficient to change pupils’ attitudes and behaviour. They suggest that
the real challenge is to link the transformational agenda to changes in pedagogy and
leadership in schools.

This view is supported by the Norwegian work on usability. One of the case studies showed
a university college with a very high score on building performance and coloration between
program and completed building, but still showed a lack of usability due to change in
pedagogic, increased student number, lack of changing culture among the department. In
another case we found a high degree of pride and high academic score among the pupils, in
spite for a building performing really badly (Hansen et al., 2006).

Reporting on evaluation research conducted in the UK, Alexander (2010a) argued that
school facilities should be considered in the context of the communities they serve and as a
prime means of transforming education. Effective learning environments successfully
combine appropriate social and digital environments with the physical environment (Beard,
2012). Creating quality learning environments, which are more broadly accessible in the
community, can also play a catalytic role in regeneration. To improve usability, the parallel
processes of pedagogy and facilities planning must be reconnected, users must be
empowered and communities must be offered the opportunity of managing their assets. And

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professionals must utilize a usability perspective concerning for whom and why. The majority
of conventional evaluation methodologies, particularly Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE)
and Practitioner-focused Facility Evaluation (PFE) methods and tools, fail to address
strategic objectives, consider buildings out of context and tend to focus on the characteristics
and performance of the physical environment, rather than on the effects on users and on
benefits realization. The evaluation of schools must take account of three key dimensions
according to their role in the development of sustainable communities, in educational
transformation and in the quality of the learning environment.

Assessing the usability of learning environments against these criteria, using appropriate
research-based methods and tools, will require the development of new skills. It also
suggests the need to develop different relationships amongst key actors in co-production
processes. This is a challenging agenda for the FM of learning environments.

The objective of FM is to provide the setting and services that support the effectiveness of
organisations that contribute to the development and creativity of the occupants and provide
community benefit. The key is establishing the strategies and processes that connect
effective utilisation of the physical, environmental and human resources to create positive
outcomes for all stakeholders, through the whole life of the facilities. Stakeholders include
owners, occupiers and operators of the facility, all service users and providers, the local
community and representative agencies.

Seen in this way, FM is the brokerage of processes amongst all stakeholder interests and
between stakeholder constructs. Myerson (2012) and Vischer (2012) argue that, in the
experience economy, learning and co-creation are key processes. Elsewhere, Beard (2012)
and Thomas (2012) describe learning itself as a complex process conducted via
conversation, in a broad sense, including symbolic change and reflection or silent
conversation and kinaesthetics.

8. Management for usability

Jensen (2010) has suggested that a focus on buildings in FM is concerned with how the
corporate needs for facilities can be provided and optimized in both a short- and long-term
perspective. Therefore, every phase of the life cycle of buildings is important. He proposed
that continuous briefing and continuous commissioning are two interrelated concepts that,
together with the concept of learning buildings, can be used to integrate the management of
buildings and usability. Just as learning organisations need a specific form of management,
where traditional hierarchical structures are removed and a shared vision is defined and
accepted, so learning buildings need a similar specific form of management.

The management tasks to obtain usability include formulation of visions, strategies and
requirements for the long-term development of buildings in the planning phase; involvement
of users in defining needs and requirements and deciding on design solutions in continuous
briefing; and on-going monitoring of performance and usability to capture new needs and
requirements for changes during the use phase of buildings. In short, FM is about
connecting use and space. FMs should be the obvious profession to take on this important
management role in close collaboration with the top managers and users in the organisation.

9. Framework for use—a structure for discourse

Recent reflections on Nordic contributions to the usability research have led to the
introduction of a framework – USEframe - to conceptualize contextual dimensions of
usability. The framework is based on a perceived need to bring usability studies into one

144
structure and to relate what had been done in the different studies. This led to a discussion
about a framework that also would enable the positioning of previous research by the
research team members as well as the positioning of other research related to usability.

A framework developed by the research team is illustrated in Figure 1 and is further

discussed by Lindahl, Hansen, Nenonen and Blakstad (2012). It illustrates steps in a
process of understanding and mapping use to support action in projects or FM processes. It
is a framework that can be used to describe processes as well as to map and relate projects
or studies.

Figure 1 USEframe

A typical FM loop could be from “as is, use” via development of new knowledge, supported
by the USEtool and back to daily use, i.e., to “as is, use” in “context of use.” This is an
iterative process of change and possibly improvement. New knowledge can also be
forwarded in a structured form, in a proprietary information system, to projects and action to
create new workplaces via projects in the “context of action” domain. This then results in
plans for new or changed facilities, the future use, “to be.”

Based on the research carried out in Nordic FM and usability projects we argue that there is
a substantial amount of research and development (R&D) concerning facilities in use that
already today allow for the possibility of sustaining usability of facilities. However, these are
not clearly related and there is a mix between management-oriented research that focuses
on the “context of action” and usability-oriented research that focuses on “context of use”
and subsequent development of knowledge and briefing.

The framework USEframe provides a possibility to map and discuss this material (Hansen et
al., 2012; Lindahl et al., 2012). With the creation of CIB W118 clients and users and the
previous CIB workgroups W65 Organisation and Management of Construction, W070 FM
and Maintenance, W096 Architectural Management and W111 Usability, understanding and
delivering what the users need appears well covered. However, much of the research has
focused on methods and processes.

While this is relevant, we already know that clear information, participation and knowledge
dissemination is beneficial. While continued development of methods and processes is
needed, there is also a lack of R&D of theory concerning users and their activities in the
facilities the construction and FM sectors deliver. As much as researchers like to practice
nearness in cases, there is now a need to step back and reflect in order to develop a theory
to sustain the field of understanding the effects of facilities in use.

145
The delivery world of methods and processes has its own set of social constructs - i.e., it is
one ecology; the user world is another. Usability research needs to think through the mind
and narrative of the user world. Mental and cognitive maps are the source to understand
this. Macdonald (2012) shows that, in a healthcare setting, strategic FM can be seen as a
translation between the two. Higher usability was delivered by FMs who reached out to
relate to the users and translated user requirements into appropriate service delivery.

10. Usability—managing facilities for social outcomes

The paper has argued for the development of usability concepts, methodologies and tools, in
considering the effects of the built environment from a user, organisational and community
perspective, as an essential approach for managing facilities for social outcomes.

On one hand usability has its significance in the relationship between people and building.
On the other hand the usability is connected to various co-operation, communication and co-
creation processes between different people. Nevertheless the usability research so far has
been able to map and frame processes and methods in connection to usability of built
environment. The service design approach provides more insights for capturing the user
experience. Evidence for usability is based on user experience, may be linked to discussions
on evidence based design, which may be seen as a way of designing based on actual use,
i.e. evidence for what really works given a certain context.

This paper suggests that further research in the field of user orientation of the built
environment is strongly needed. The overview of the area shows that there are many
different approaches which vary in theoretical foundations, methodologies and stage of
development, but they are in most cases not incompatible and they use many similar
research methods. Further research should focus more on direct interactions with and
involvement of users and mostly qualitative research methods are needed. It is important to
distinguish between different types of users and apply methodologies involving users both as
individuals and in groups and organisations.

Jensen et al (2011) have adapted the USEframe to make suggestions for future user
oriented research (Fig 2) with a distinction between the three areas: Developing, Finding and
Explaining.

Figure 2 USEframe – cyclical processes

The development of knowledge and tools within USEframe will help structure the further
implementation of usability knowledge and tools in practice. A crucial question is how

146
research can contribute to, on one hand, strategic/practical development in organisations
and, on the other, the design and construction processes. USEframe illustrates this and aims
to support discussion at the interface of research and practice. This will then also address
the validity, reliability and generalizability of usability research.

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