Search results

Most larger companies and corporations who own or lease multiple locations face challenges in designing, tracking and managing property. The following case study examines the work of the Facilities Design and Planning Group at Dow Jones & Co. The study follows the group’s efforts to improve the strategic efficacy of its operations by expanding its implementation of its computer‐aided facility management (CAFM) system and by developing some novel CAFM tools. These technologies are intended to reduce management costs by creating a central and comprehensive resource of facilities information. Both facilities professionals and those seeking facilities‐related information can then use this resource. These tools support day to day facilities operations, from master planning to project design and budgeting, from construction to lease management. Such technology increases accuracy through data validation, but remains flexible in reporting and inquiry. This paper documents both the evolution of these tools, and the decisions that guided their development. It aims to describe in detail the particular business circumstances that influenced Dow Jones’ efforts as well as expose the setbacks in using and expanding various aspects of the technology.

Computer‐based models for the automatic generation of facility layouts have been shown to provide significant benefits to the industrial community for the planning and development of facilities. In a manufacturing environment, layouts are often needed for the manufacture, storage and shipment of specific product types within specific time periods. This is especially true in metal fabrication plants, as the dynamic nature of product storage and manufacture dictates the need for effective layout generation to achieve cost reductions. The system described in this paper integrates raw material storage, inventory management, scheduling and rack system design with facility layout development for the most satisfactory dynamic response. The research addressed in this paper has resulted in the development of a computer‐based model that focuses on the concept of integrating the domains of plant layout, material handling and warehousing in terms of raising overall effectiveness.

Drawing on recent research related to hospital facilities, this paper aims to discuss the role of evidence‐based design in facility planning and design as a key element in helping the field of facility planning and management continue to strengthen professional practice.

The discussion draws on relevant literature and recent research.

Evidence‐based design is having a major impact on planning and design of hospital facilities, and can play a similar role for other facility types.

Calls for evidence‐based design for healthcare facilities abound. This paper discusses important issues surrounding the implementation of an evidence‐based design approach that need to be considered for this approach to be successful in all types of facilities.

The major purpose of the EuroInfo Conference is to discuss information resource management. Members of the European Commission and Polish business and industry managers have expressed the need for improved information management in Poland. Improved information resource management is essential to aid quick and efficient reform and recovery of the Polish economy. Future economic growth and sustainable economic development for Poland is dependent on the efficient use and management of vast amounts of information.

The professional discourse on academic library planning and design is examined. A critical realist philosophical stance and a constructionist perspective constitute the theoretical framework that, paired with Fairclough's methodology for critical discourse analysis, is used to examine the constitution of interpretative repertoires and of a discourse constructing the academic library as a learning place. The information commons, learning commons, and library designed for learning repertoires are described and the effects of discursive activity are analyzed. Three types of effects are presented: (1) the production by the LIS community of discourse on academic libraries of a sizable body of literature on the information commons and on the learning commons, (2) the construction of new types of libraries on the commons model proposed by Beagle, and (3) the metaphorization of the library as business. The study concludes that the existing discourse takes a facilities management perspective dominated by concerns with technology, equipment, and space requirements that does not address the physical, psychological, and environmental qualities of library space design. Consequently, it is suggested that architectural programming techniques should be used in library planning and design that consider the architectural features and environmental design factors contributing to the making of a place where learning is facilitated.

This paper's purpose is to identify successful methods used to integrate stakeholders into the early phases of strategic community facility projects.

A two‐stage research method was used at project inception and design phases of a community facility. Project inception used action research pre‐design strategic needs analysis workshops with internal local authority stakeholders to capture the council's internal stakeholders' agreed strategic aspirations, resulting in a performance‐based brief. Subsequently, observation‐based research investigated project processes conducted by others. Owing to the nature of the brief, additional engagement was required with stakeholders internal and external to the council.

The processes integrating council and municipal stakeholders are described. These included identification of stakeholders and their roles in project processes. Stakeholders were shown to be the target for individual strategies within the facility's multiple strategies. Management practices employed by facility managers to integrate stakeholders were documented at strategic planning, project inception, governance and pre‐construction phases.

The research was conducted into a single facility but this is representative of other community facilities. This facility was significant for its multiple organisational and municipal strategies, and the high levels of stakeholder satisfaction. Stakeholders' early integration into project processes is likely to address a problematic expectation‐evaluation gap identified in the literature.

This paper identifies successful practices for facility managers to employ at early project phases.

Stakeholder integration is particularly important in community FM where there are multiple stakeholders and issues of internality and externality effects from facilities are debated.

With ageing hospital facilities spanning the USA, the healthcare construction business continues to grow. Today, questions about replacing existing facilities are becoming more common in hospital boardrooms. Given the above situation, TriBrook Healthcare Consultants were recently retained to determine the market, operational and financial impact which facility redevelopment has had on other hospitals and health systems. Out of that effort came this paper. This paper assesses: the factors which are fuelling replacement facility growth; the impact that redevelopment has on market, operational and financial performance; an integrated development process to help organisations determine the feasibility of designing a new facility; and lessons learned working with clients who have pursued a replacement facility strategy. The objective of this effort is to provide hospital executives and board leaders with information that will be useful in reaching a final decision regarding execution of a replacement strategy.

The design of the emergency department (ED) requires high precision in the process of distributing spaces. An increase in population and continuous development during the past years caused the addition of new services, changes in patients’ numbers, movement flow and treatment procedures which makes the existing layout plan of the ED no longer appropriate for its current needs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to generate a process of finding better alternatives for ED’s spatial planning.

The genetic algorithm method as a part of the systematic layout planning strategy was adopted for decision-making in redesigning the ED layout and finding the most appropriate alternative. This methodology was applied to a teaching hospital in Jordan to create layout alternatives with better functional dimensions.

The design that is based on the study of the movement of users and the relationship of spaces increases the layout performance.

The structural method of this study can be adopted for different hospital designs, but the results are limited only to the study case itself because of the different factors and data for each building.

This study demonstrates the process of making the most appropriate decision to redesign the ED in the hospital; therefore, the method can be adopted in restructuring the scheme of different hospitals and evaluated, especially before implementation.

This study discusses that the necessary criteria and the solution approach taken to resolve the main spatial infection problems with a burn center design should be evaluated holistically to achieve spatial infection control in a burn center. The burn center design plays an important role in protecting severely burned patients from infection because the microbial flora of the hospital can affect the infection risk. In hospitals, sterilization and disinfection are the basic components of infection prevention; however, the prevention and control of infection for burn patients also requires the design of burn centers that adhere to a specific set of criteria that considers spatial infection control in addition to appropriate burn treatment methods and treatments. In this study, a burn facility converted from a burn unit into a burn center is introduced and the necessary design inputs for the transformation are discussed because there is no holistic study in the literature that delas with all the spaces that should be in a burn center and relations between spaces. This study aims to define the functional relations between each of the units and the spaces that change according to different sterilization demands in the burn center for ensuring spatial infection control. Furthermore, it aims to propose a method for ensuring continuity in the control of spatial infections.

The burn care and health facilities guidelines are examined within the framework of spatial standards, together with a comprehensive literature review. The design method was based on the spread of microorganisms and the effect of human movement on space and spatial transitions in the burn center, according to all relevant literature reviews. To determine the extent to which the differences in treatment protocols of burn care guidelines were reflected in the space, interviews were conducted with burn facility officials. The plan–do–check–act (PDCA) method is also modeled to ensure the continuity of infection control in the burn center.

The burn center design findings are classified under three main headings, namely, location of the burn center in the hospital, spatial organization and physical features of the burn center and the air flowing system. The importance of the interactions among the criteria for spatial infection control has been revealed. Due to the physical space characteristics and air flow characteristics that change according to human movement and the way microorganisms spread, it has been seen that designing the air flow and architectural aspects together has an effective role in providing spatial infection control. Accordingly, a functional relation scheme for the center has been suggested. It is also proposed as a model to ensure the continuity of infection control in the burn center.

This research presents spatial measures for infection control in burn centers for practitioners in health-care settings such as designers, engineers, doctors and nurses. The PDCA method also leads to continuity of infection control for hospital management.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to focus on developing the criteria for spatial infection control in burn center. Moreover, the aim is to create a function chart that encompasses the relationships between the units within the burn center design so that infection control can be coordinated spatially.

As companies increasingly face the challenge of aligning their real estate and facility assets with their business goals, strategic facilities planning (SFP) has grown as an area of expertise and discipline which provides increasingly sophisticated tools for supporting complex decisions. This paper provides an insight into SFP: what is it, what is the process, what are the major tools, and what can it deliver? It provides a template for facility managers and real estate consultants to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) for strategic real estate initiatives. In addition, it explains how SFP helps facility managers leverage their knowledge and increase their visibility within their organisation.