Facilities Management Industry Transformation

Background

The Real Estate Industry Transformation Map (REITM), comprising Property Transactions and Facilities Management (FM) sectors, was launched on 8 February 2018 by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development.

BCA set up the tripartite FM Implementation Committee (FMIC) in April 2018 to bring together major stakeholders, comprising building owners, FM service providers and the trade associations and chambers (TACs). The FMIC will co-develop initiatives to enhance service delivery of the Facilities Management Companies (FMCs) and uplift the industry as a whole.

About Facilities Management Implementation Committee (FMIC)

ABOUT FMIC

The tripartite Facilities Management Implementation Committee (FMIC) was formed in April 2018. It comprises representatives from building developers & owners of both public and private sectors, FM service providers, trade associations & chambers (TACs) and also union to develop detailed action plans to implement the strategies identified in the REITM. The FMIC's goal is to advance the FM industry from a labour intensive industry to a productive one leveraging on data analytics, predictive maintenance and smart solutions.

KEY CHALLENGES FACED BY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) INDUSTRY

The FMIC has been engaging the FMCs to gain insight on the challenges they face, summarised in Table 1 below.

FM Industry	Key Challenges
Industry-level	Lack of authoritative standards to guide FM service delivery No industry champion to guide the sector's development Building owners rely on headcount-based procurement practices and offer short contracts that do not reward innovation and quality FM service
Firm-level	Firms in FM sector do not enjoy professional recognition Despite being responsible for the long-tail operation and maintenance (O&M) of a building, FM firms often have no influence in initial planning and design Fee-diving strategies adopted by some industry players may compromise service quality
Manpower-level	The industry is facing an aging workforce The sector is labour-intensive and has low productivity This leads to unattractive pay for the workforce, resulting in FM being portrayed as an unattractive career option

Table 1: Current Key Challenges Faced by the FM Industry

CREATING A HEALTHY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) ECO-SYSTEM

In order to overcome the key challenges, the FMIC deliberated that setting FM standards would form an important first step in its strategy to develop a healthy FM ecosystem. Adoption of Design for Maintainability (DfM) standards can be encouraged for existing buildings undergoing retrofits and for new buildings by having designs that take into account maintainability considerations, and Smart FM technology deployment to enhance the buildings' operation and maintenance.

The government can create lead demand by serving as an early adopter through its procurement framework, which can set out the relevant FM standards for existing and new public buildings. This demand would have a knock-on effect on the FM sector to encourage the FM sector to raise its competency. This can be done by building up capability at both firm and personnel level in order to provide good quality FM services, supported by a productive workforce that leverages on technology.

Figure 1: Illustration of FM Eco-system

S/N	Key Proposed Recommendations
1	Design for Maintainability (DfM) (i.e. include FM considerations in upstream design) Enhance Design for Maintainability (DfM) Guide with Smart FM content, and streamline it according to different building types to facilitate ease of adoption by industry practioners Develop a DfM appraisal scheme to assess building designs' degree of maintainability based on labour efficiency and cost-effectiveness of downstream maintenance regimes
2	Smart Facilities Management (FM) (i.e. enhance maintenance capabilities through Smart FM to improve productivity and maintenance quality and reduce FM man-hours) Develop a Smart FM Framework which conceptualises the various tiers of Smart FM sophistication that FM companies can aspire to achieve, and the different levels of Smart FM deployment for buildings Develop a Smart FM Technology Roadmap to guide the adoption of technologies in FM applications Pilot precinct-level Smart FM solutions in upcoming projects such as Punggol Digital District (PDD) and Jurong Lake District (JLD)
3	Manpower and Industry Development (i.e. ensure the FM workforce is adequately trained and firms are credible in service delivery through accreditation) Develop a skills framework for the FM workforce that will provide better guidance on career progression and training opportunities Develop a Trade Associations & Chambers (TAC) led accreditation framework for FM firms to recognise the better performing firms

Table 2: Key Proposed Recommendations by the FMIC