Brisbane 2001 symposium of Working Commission W070 on facilities management and asset maintenance

Citation

Shiem-Shin Then and, D. (2002), "Brisbane 2001 symposium of Working Commission W070 on facilities management and asset maintenance", Facilities, Vol. 20 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2002.06920caa.001

Brisbane 2001 symposium of Working Commission W070 on facilities management and asset maintenance

Special Emerald (MCB) edition

Brisbane 2001 symposium of Working Commission W070 on facilities management and asset maintenance

This special edition of Facilities is based on a shortlist of seven papers from the 79 papers presented during the CIBW070 Brisbane symposium, held on 15-17 November 2000. The theme of the symposium – "Providing facilities solutions to business challenges – moving towards integrated resources management" – provided a platform for deliberations under the following topics:

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  strategic developments in facilities management and asset maintenance;

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  IT applications in facilities management and maintenance;

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  education and training in facilities management and asset maintenance;

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  space planning and management, POE and facility audits;

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  asset performance – measurements and evaluation;

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  technology of asset maintenance;

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  asset condition assessment and survey methods;

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  developments in support services procurement;

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  public sector housing management and maintenance;

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  building conversion and refurbishment; and

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  asset maintenance practices.

The content of the CIBW70 Brisbane 2000 symposium clearly reflects the diverse and potentially broad scope of facilities management and asset maintenance. This should be viewed as its strength in a corporate context. Working Commission W70 views the creation of physical assets as the start of a lifecycle asset management process that must respond to the changing needs of business in an increasingly dynamic global environment. Such a process must increasingly rely on an integrated resources management approach, driven by businesses' needs. Working Commission W70 has been, and will continue to be, a unique forum on the changes in education, research and practice that are transforming the traditional approaches to the provision of physical workplace and functional workspace, and its ongoing management and maintenance. The continuing challenge of CIBW70 is to remain relevant against a sea change brought about by convergence in computing and communication technologies and social transformation in lifestyles and work in the future.

In this age of continued budget restrictions, reduction in manpower, outsourcing and reengineering, private and public sector practitioners must rely on information, advice and counsel that is out there in the field but which sometimes is difficult to identify and obtain. CIB gatherings are one of the vehicles that can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from research and academic organisations and CIBW70 on facilities management and maintenance is proud of its efforts in this matter and of its network of support from around the world.

The MCB Facilities best paper award is a biannual award linked to the biannual symposium of the CIB Working Commission W70 on facilities management and asset maintenance. This special issue will feature the winning paper and six other papers.

The papers accepted for publication in the proceedings were refereed and a panel of referees from the scientific committee selected seven papers. The authors of the short-listed papers were advised to upgrade their original papers following comments from a panel of referees from academics and industry. Through the generous sponsorship of Emerald (MCB Publishers (UK)), one of the short-listed papers from the CIBW70 Brisbane 2000 symposium will claim the MCB Best Paper Award of £500.

CIBW70 and Emerald MCB (UK) are proud to announce the first CIBW70-MCB best paper award to Nicola Brackertz and Russell Kenley of the University of Melbourne.

Brackertz and Kenley's paper makes the critical connection between the role of physical facilities and the delivery of public services in a local government setting. They emphasise the critical importance of aligning the real estate function with the organisation's overall strategic aims and objectives through the application of service balanced scorecard. Borrowing the basic concepts from Kaplan and Norton (1992), the service balanced scorecard (SBS) takes into account four different perspectives of facility performance, namely the community, services, building and financial perspectives, to produce a performance profile for each facility for the organisation. Using a case study in a local government setting, the paper demonstrates how a stakeholder approach is used to set performance objectives that are aligned to the authority's key result areas, and then assesses facility performance balancing financial and non-financial indicators. The SBS provides an objective framework for considering facilities requirements in line with the authority's overall objectives and performance metrics that are reflective of the facilities' desired function. The involvement of the stakeholders in the development of the tool and the designed independence in scoring the indicators all acts to reassure that strategic planning is based on sound service delivery strategy. Brackertz and Kenley's research has skilfully adapted the principles of the balance scorecard to provide a useful new tool in a local government environment that has to balance decisions about the best way to deliver services through facilities against an environment of shrinking resources.

An increasing number of national governments are either implementing or planning foresight studies. This pilot research by Catell poses a serious question – whether high level national foresight studies have any influence in shaping future strategic directions and objectives by commerce and industry. The paper provides a comprehensive review of the background to the purpose of national foresight studies in relation to key trends in technological development and e-commence and tests the extent to which organisations in the retail and office space market have responded, or are responding, to this driver. This paper reports on a pilot study of three major owners of and/or tenants in retail and office space in South Africa. The study sought to establish:

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  whether or not long-range strategic planning occurs;

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  whether future space requirements are included in strategic planning; and

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  whether the effects of technological development and e-commerce on space are evaluated in long-range strategic planning.

The main conclusions are that short-term strategic planning is well established, but that systematic long-range planning around the effects of technology and e-commerce on space is limited, in extent and scope. The findings suggest that the property industry would benefit from research into the development of a strategic space planning method or tool capable of modelling the impact of e-commerce and other long-range change drivers.

In recent years in the UK, innovative alternative procurement methods have evolved in the public sector arena as a result of private sector funding. The paper by Fitzgerald and Melvin describes one such initiative involving the delivery of a new secondary (senior) school development programme for Glasgow City Council under a private finance initiative (PFI) scheme. The PFI approach involves the purchase of a service from a private consortium which will build, own, maintain and operate the facilities for a set period (usually 25-35 years). The paper describes a range of influences upon the form and content of the £400m Glasgow project including how mainstream FM principles have been employed to deliver a system which meets client, user and supplier requirements. The case study sets out a record of one particular set of circumstances in which an FM approach is being adopted to deliver an integrated service to the client in an area previously dominated by the in-house service provider. Although the success or otherwise of PFI schemes can only be assessed in the fullness of time, there seems little doubt that with the necessary precautions in place, a partnership approach can achieve a high quality service. What is evident is that sub-contractors and FM contractors alike will have ample reason to ensure that best practice in the management and specification of service performance will be firmly embedded in a mutually advantageous long-term relationship.

The impact of information technology on work and workplace design is at the heart of organisational changes in the commercial office sector around the world. Gilleard and Tam provide a comparative review of motivations and influences behind workplace redesign in North America and Hong Kong. The paper includes a detailed case study and post-occupancy review on the application of alternative workplace strategies (AWS) in an Asian context. A common theme emerging from the literature and research is the need to consider the management of transition as a result of the changes in work culture arising from closed plan to open plan, intranet accessibility, greater emphasis on teamwork, etc. The case study conducted highlighted the importance of viewing each AWS project as unique and individual to each department within an organisation. The results of the post-occupancy study of a refurbishment project in Hong Kong reinforced similar issues from literature which supports the need to consider careful handling of communication before, during and after the project. Technology may be the enabler, but it is the employees who determine whether the change has been successful or not.

For custodians of large public sector assets, measuring the impact of alternative levels of funding for maintenance and renewal is often problematic. Johnston, McFallan and Tilley report on a research project funded by the Queensland Department of Housing to develop a composite property standard index (PSI), which incorporates data from the current condition of a property, gained from survey data, the age of the property and deficiencies in meeting current standards. The PSI model was developed to assist housing managers with a tool for deciding priorities and seeing the potential impact of their decisions via computer simulation and simple user interface. The model was implemented using a modular approach that enabled changes to be made easily during the research and analysis phase. The collaborative nature of the project allowed design of the user interface to be consistent with other property information applications concurrently under development for Queensland Department of Housing and resulted in a prototype for a practical and usable decision support tool. The implementation phase of the research has resulted in more uses than originally anticipated, providing a user-friendly utility that supports both strategic and operational levels.

Kane, Heaney, Ewart and McAlister address the topical issue of accessibility in the design and maintenance of housing estates and consider the reasons why this issue has emerged and the main obstacles of accessibility encountered by housing estate residents. Current literature appears to focus on the accessibility of the dwelling and its immediate environs while the wider external environment and the residents' perception of accessibility problems have been largely ignored. Based on research carried out on a mature estate in South Belfast, Northern Ireland, this study investigated the obstacles to accessibility in order to produce an appraisal model for external accessibility. Residents are surveyed on a number of issues including location, roads and pavements, transportation, level change, wayfinding, safety and security, and public areas. The results reveal that obstacles relating to wayfinding and traffic management created the greatest problems for residents. The accessibility appraisal model enables housing providers and managers to identify specific areas of inaccessibility and the feasibility of improving them as well as allowing comparisons between estates.

The evaluation of the building plays a vital role in determining the most appropriate choice of accommodation scenario for an organisation. Vijverberg contends that maintenance demand (maintaining quality) and investments (or reinvestments) in buildings should be viewed at two levels: the desired level of functional fulfilment of individual buildings and the organisational needs at the portfolio (building stock) level. At the portfolio level, corporate policy will determine accommodation policy and needs; at the building level, data are required on six aspects:

1. 1.

   consumer accommodation evaluation;

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   remaining operation period;

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   financial perspective;

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   technical condition;

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   building adaptability; and

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   expansibility of the building.

In his paper Vijverberg describes the application of an accommodation functionality assessment model which is applied to three office buildings which are owner occupierd from the banking sector in The Netherlands. The model distinguishes between six possible scenarios:

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   consolidation;

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   expansion;

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   conversion;

4. 4.

   redeployment;

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   sale; and

6. 6.

   demolition.

The intention of the assessment model is to provide a more objective basis for decisions relating to budget allocation in considering building maintenance demands.

The above selection of papers clearly represents the breadth of scope of the arena that working commission W070 covers. In closing, as coordinator of CIBW070, I would like to thank the tremendous support given by the authors and participants of the Brisbane 2000 symposuim and look forward to your continuing support at the next CIBW70 Glasgow 2002 symposium.

For information on submission of papers for the CIBW70 Glasgow 2002 symposium please refer to the following Web site: www.caber.org.uk/cibw70

For purchase of hardcopy of proceedings of the Brisbane 2000 symposium, please contact the coordinator of CIBW070 at e-mail: bessthen@polyu.edu.hk

Danny Shiem-Shin Then andSelwyn TuckerGuest Editors