and the daytoday
maintenance of the facility can be pushed to
the bottom of the list. But the impact of not maintaining can be
inconvenient at best (equipment breaking down) to catastrophic
(users within the facility becoming exposed to injury, or worse,
through dangerous assets or equipment).
Why is compliance such a minefield? Merely understanding the
varying, and complex, regulations and legislation for buildings and
equipment, is a feat in itself. Rarely is a facilities manager an expert
in all areas of compliance legislation – why would they be, it’s just
one part of their multifaceted
facilities management role. But
because of this it’s hard to know, with 100 per cent confidence, that
a facility is fully compliant.
So what can be done? Aside from employing a dedicated
regulations expert – which would be an ongoing salary cost which
in reality is only needed once or twice a year – there are digital
tools available that help facilities managers understand where their
building and equipment is currently at and which areas need work.
One tool is the use of Premises and Compliance Evaluation, but
there are many others out there.
These tools make compliance digestible and understandable for
the average person. They break down the various UK guidelines
and regulations into diƒ erent assessments, with a scoring model
attached to each one. Once the assessments are complete, the
facilities manager receives percentage scores for each one
which
shows them the areas that require the most urgent attention – along
with practical steps that can be actioned to remedy the issues.
Investing in a tool like this is invaluable; it’s easy to execute, means
your facility is running as eƒ iciently as it can be and gives facilities
managers the peace of mind that their building is compliant (and if
it’s not, it identifies the areas where these issues can be remedied).
There are also solutions that provide ongoing maintenance to
buildings and their assets, meaning they never get to the point
where regulations and legislation aren’t met. The use of Planned
Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programmes is a good example,
and can mean unexpected equipment breakages are potentially a
thing of the past. There are huge financial benefits to implementing
a PPM programme too; the time and cost to repair equipment that
fails out of the blue is three to five time more expensive than the
cost of making a planned repair of the same equipment prior to any
potential failure.
With PPM programmes, facilities record all their assets (so airconditioning
22 SEPTEMBER 2021
units, boiler plant, chillers, generators and fire systems
etc.) on an asset register, which includes details such as when they
were last serviced, their current condition and the residual life
expectancy. A Forward Maintenance Register (FMR) can then be
created, which essentially captures the remaining service life of each
of the assets. The development of the FMR could initially span five
years and detail the maintenance required over this period. Or it
could be developed further into a full lifecycle programme covering
a 10, 15, 20year
period.
THE FM SERVICES PROVIDER’S VIEW
ANDREW HULBERT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARETO FM
The management of statutory compliance remains one of the core
drivers for the outsourcing of facilities management services. Still,
today, we see in Pareto there are huge gaps in clients’ compliance
and, most concerningly, o¥ en this includes when a contractor is
‘providing’ a service. The last 18 months have created a genuinely
interesting scenario, whereby, most of the world has gone home
to work. However, the
vast majority of facilities
management teams are
remaining in the oƒ ice.
There has been a greater
reliance on the facilities
management departments
to just take ownership of
compliance. This raises
an interesting scenario; as
now, FM teams, whether
inhouse
or outsourced, are
being entrusted to deliver
compliance, without anyone
watching. This new found
level of trust is both a blessing and a curse.
As a service provider we have seen both extremes of the potential
outcomes here. On the positive, we’ve seen team members step
up and take absolute ownership in terms of all thing’s facilities
management
and especially compliance. We’ve seen FM teams
abandoned on site, to some degree, and, yet, they have picked up
the ownership and just run with it.
We, at Pareto, internally, have seen people take their shot and
showcase just how valuable they are to the facilities management
function. This has helped determined individuals to fast track their
career and we’ve seen some rapid and deserved promotions in this
time.
On the downside, we have seen a rise in panicked potential new
customers contacting us to say “we haven’t done any compliance for
18 months and people are due back next week, HELP!”.
There is a frantic approach to completing water risk assessments,
fire compliance, emergency lights, general H&S audits, building
shutdowns, air quality assessments and everything else it takes to
be compliant. Couple this with organisations still using physical
paperwork and, all of a sudden: no one can find the folder and
Johnny the engineer is still on furlough so no one knows what to do.
Ultimately, this creates great opportunity, and it also highlights the
challenging side of our sector.
As we start to come out of the pandemic, there is such a brilliant
opportunity for the facilities management sector. Over the last 18
months, we’ve had the rule of the workspace. We’ve been able to
use the best meeting rooms, gain a greater understanding of exactly
how the plant works, repaint
everything we wanted to, complete
FCU maintenance during hours, and just enjoyed the freedom of
empty oƒ ices. Now, we have to take this learning and enthusiasm
for the space and impress our colleagues on their return. We need
to showcase the work we have done and create the opportunity to
show our people the oƒ ice is ‘safe’.
There will be an increased focus on air quality, fresh air volumes,
control of ventilation and how air handling is managed throughout
the spaces. We need to be proactive and, with this information,
we need to demonstrate that, once again, the best facilities
management teams have got ‘it’ covered and can continue
to provide the utmost support in order to enable our client
organisations to thrive.
Do you have a question that you’d like
answered by the FMJ Clinic?
Email: sara.bean@kpmmedia.co.uk
FM CLINIC
Andrew Hulbert
ADVICE & OPINION
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