Search results

To bring added value to the corporate real estate function, corporations are dedicating resources to aligning the real estate mission with the major business units of the corporation. Relationship management is a tool used within the real estate department and applied to major client business units to bring the focus on the need for better understanding of the ‘business of the business’. Only when corporate real estate groups fully understand and advocate for the lines of business, can alignment occur. The process and tools used to align with Sprint’s business are examined in the paper.

This study aims to evaluate home-hospital implications for facility management (FM) and, in particular, ED crowding. Home-hospital programs, in which select patients receive hospital-level care at home, can extend hospital facility capacity. Emergency department (ED) crowding, a sensitive hospital capacity indicator, is associated with unsafe operations and reduced quality of care.

The impact of a home-hospital program on crowding was analyzed with a discrete-event simulation model using one month of historical data from a case hospital. Time ED patients waited for inpatient beds was the primary endpoint. Five scenarios with different levels of patient suitability for home-hospital were each run 30 times. Differences were evaluated using paired t-tests.

Implementing home-hospital reduced ED crowding by up to 3 per cent. Additionally, the simulation yielded insights regarding advantages and limitations of various home-hospital arrangements, suggested which hospital types may be the best candidates for home-hospital and highlighted the role of bed-cleaning turnaround times and environmental services staffing schedules in operations.

This research examined home-hospital and crowding at one hospital. Developing a model that accounts for all hospital types requires significant data and many hospital partnerships but could allow for more informed decisions regarding implementation of such programs.

This research has implications for ensuring access to ED care, an important source of acute care generally and particularly for the underserved.

This research systematically evaluates home-hospital’s impact on ED crowding. Simulation modeling resulted in analytical results and allowed for evaluation of what-if scenarios providing recommendations for hospital FMs on their role in decreasing ED boarding.

A look at the progress of facility management and some expectations for future needs is proposed by a senior facility management practitioner turned professor/researcher. Research from other fields informs methodologies for how more mature fields disseminate knowledge into practice, and integration of concepts to simplify and unify facility management competencies for more recognition worldwide.

Literature review of mature industries provides insight into how dissemination of research findings is utilized and taken up by practice. Review of facility management competencies by the large professional associations is also presented to recommend a path forward for integration in a simplified manner with global potential for impacts.

The maturity of facility management over the past 35 plus years indicates time for more connection between research findings and their adoption into practice. Methodologies from industries as diverse as healthcare and engineering provide insights to how facility management research dissemination may provide more standardized use in practice. Additional synergy from examination of worldwide competencies indicates that focus is a key issue for more advancement and connectivity of research into practice in the facility management realm.

Understanding what is needed by industry and delivering research findings that are implementable is accomplished in many industries. Facility management can benefit from understanding how this could be done and adopting similar strategies. Focusing on core competencies rather than detailing minute variations of practice would help the industry overall by providing better understanding of the value facility professionals provide to the senior leadership of organizations. The need for best practice sharing worldwide is highlighted, as well.

A long-term viewpoint from early development of facility management to current integration and standardization is provided in this paper. Having practiced and then taught and researched facility practices, the author provides recommendations for continuing advancement and professionalization of facility management.

A fundamental contribution that a corporate real estate (CRE) manager can make to the industry and to the world is the sincere attempt to implement green operations within their buildings portfolio. Reducing an organization's environmental impact is a strategic issue that not only reaches across each constituent part of its own operations and activities, but extends to include those of its suppliers and those who use its goods and services. Facility and real estate managers can demonstrate their value by participating in formulating and implementing policies for reducing the organization's environmental impact, redefining their role as one that underpins mainstream organizational and business needs, and bringing value to their organization while positively impacting the global environment. This paper seeks to address these issues.

A review of current literature on the topic of sustainability and the background of the sustainability movement in the US was undertaken to develop key findings.

Organizations that adopt environmental responsibility and then take action are capable of building more secure and prosperous positions within the global economy. Five significant factors were found to endorse the business case for sustainable building design and operation. These include resource efficiency, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, harmonization with the environment, and integrated and systemic approaches, including environmental management systems.

Since, real estate is a fixed capital investment, any improvement to the asset should be considered, especially one as significant as sustainability efforts that also contribute to improved organizational impact.

Considering the reality of financial pressures, this paper attempts to provide background and information for managers to develop their own sustainability objectives to improve the value of CRE assets.

This paper describes a new proactive approach for facility managers to assess and manage complaints of “sick buildings”.

The assessment of the “sick building” syndrome problem is multifaceted and should include both objective data such as those collected and analyzed by industrial hygienists, and subjective data such as occupant perception measurements, usually gathered by surveys. The data for this research, both objective and subjective, were provided on a wide variety of office buildings and were analyzed using an artificial neural‐network based model.

Current literature on the subject suggests that the cause of poor indoor environments involves many variables interacting in an unlimited number of combinations. Using a blended definition of a narrowly defined “sick building”, a framework for a decision‐making support system for facility managers is provided.

The data collection was limited to Southeastern US commercial office buildings, but the model has global applicability.

Recommendations are presented to help facility managers better understand the complex nature of the indoor environment based on this research.

This research and data analysis can be tailored to and is applicable to any building type.

The aim of this paper is to present a systematic approach to provide decision makers in the Taipei City Government and private developers with an opportunity to review their decisions on urban renewal project selections, and to provide a model which could be adapted for other locations.

Porter's diamond model of competitive advantage is applied to establish evaluating criteria on urban competitiveness quality, and a fuzzy set theory combining the PROMETHEE method is used to determine the priority of projects. In assigning scores for urban sustainability, the expected return for each project is calculated for the economic dimension and a subjective scale has been used for the social and environmental dimensions. Genetic algorithms (GA) are introduced to search optimal solutions considering cost‐score tradeoffs for decisions on investment ratio determination and renewal type selection. The proposed approach is tested by evaluating 13 urban renewal projects in Taipei City.

The three‐stage model proposed by this study has established a comprehensive and systematic approach that considers key factors in urban renewal, assesses renewal projects from the standpoint of urban competitiveness and sustainability, and provides decision makers with helpful guidelines for investment.

There is difficulty in re‐examining social and environmental issues of the city government's earlier decisions became decision makers did not fully consider these two issues at the beginning of the planning stage, which is a limitation of this research.

The results documented in the paper provide many other cities facing similar renewal decision problems with insightful strategies and useful implications.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a conceptual framework to identify significant benefit and cost attributes of a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for asset tracking in healthcare facilities. Sources of value function for RFID in healthcare are categorized according to major improvement. Several cost functions are proposed to measure aspects of automated tracking implementation.

The four phases of problem definition, literature identification, assessment and analysis were used to begin the research. A cost–benefit analysis (CBA) was completed to identify the factors within healthcare with major benefits, and finally, a recommended group of items were identified to track with the CBA.

RFID to manage mobile devices increases the utilization rate, decreases annual spending, allows withdrawal of funds for underutilized assets and establishes confidence that equipment is readily available when needed. These benefits provide improved staff productivity, quicker patient turnover, higher quality of care and more cost savings. Real-time location system technologies allow hospitals to be prepared for emergencies requiring the immediate use of medical devices without delay and allow staff to determine the status, condition and location of essential equipment, leading to a decrease in patient wait time. Additional improvements were also found.

The transition from pay-for-service to pay-for-performance is taking place in an industry hampered by rising costs and limited available resources. Healthcare expenditures are estimated to grow dramatically, and various factors contribute to rising expenses, including an aging population and increased chronic conditions resulting in higher demand for care, poor quality and operational inefficiencies. Therefore, understanding benefits of new technology use like RFID is critical for improvement and efficiency in healthcare.

To present the advantages and possible deterrents of self‐managed work teams, and offer recommendations on ways to integrate these teams into project management.

A range of works, which provide a description and practical advice about self‐managed work teams, are reviewed in an effort to provide a thorough picture of self‐managed work teams. The information is sorted into sections: history of self‐managed work teams; self‐managed work teams: a definition; characteristics of self‐managed work teams; the role of emotional intelligence in self‐managed work teams; developing and empowering the team; barriers to successful self‐managed work teams; factors to consider before forming a self‐managed work team; and the longevity of self‐managed work teams.

Integrates theories and findings from other works to offer a holistic view of self‐managed work teams in today's workplace.

Resources from USA, as well as European writings, were analyzed to bring global perspectives. Applications are not specific to FM or construction, but business in general.

A useful source for project managers or other managers considering implementing self‐managed work teams to increase productivity and employee morale.

Takes an integrated approach in exploring all areas of self‐managed work teams, including emotional intelligence. Provides useful information on integrating self‐managed work teams in project management.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on obstacles faced by older workers in the workplace and provide three main ergonomic solutions designed to mitigate and prevent age‐related injuries.

Research methodology includes a comprehensive literature review to identify issues, best practices, and improvements for ergonomic conditions in the workplace, especially those impacting aging workers.

Solutions presented include strategies for reducing extreme joint movement, reducing extreme pressure, and reducing repetitive tasks. Examples of engineering improvements, administrative improvements, and safety equipment additions are also presented.

This paper provides ergonomic solutions and examines the importance of providing effective workplace ergonomics for the older worker. The examples demonstrated can be directly applied by facility planners and managers who wish to create safe and productive working environments.

With an increasing percentage of older workers compromising that workforce, it is critical that companies and workplace managers make effective workplace ergonomics a top priority. The paper focuses on the role of the facility manager in implementing ergonomic solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic and systematic understanding of a fundamental issue within open plan office designs: the sustainability of two extremely contrasting requirements, concentration and collaboration, in the same workspace and work environment at a given time. A literature review is presented, along with initial suggestions for potential improvements in knowledge work organizations.

A thorough range of fields, including those outside the built environment, are investigated for their contribution to findings on distractions, especially auditory distractions and their impacts.

This research underpins the need for cost analysis of the impact that distractions have on knowledge workers. Provisions for appropriate and adaptable workspaces are needed to meet the dual needs of collaboration and concentration on complex tasks in order to maximize worker contribution and value.

Additional field research on improved workspace is needed to confirm the hypothesis of savings from reduced or adaptation from auditory distractions.

As knowledge work grows, the evaluation of workplace architecture and design must include analysis of the needs of knowledge workers. The sole consideration of cost savings in real estate and facilities ignores the tremendous cost of human capital. This reduces overall value and profitability of the organizations choosing to ignore the workspace needs of their workers.

The paper provides a new and original review of multi‐disciplinary research on the impact of distractions, especially auditory distractions, providing the groundwork for analysis of total costs of auditory distractions in the workplace.