“Eenie meenie miney mo, which commercial model could save me some dough?”

 The choice of which contract model to adopt is just as important as the actual choice of contractor themselves.

The key issue here is that there is no one model which is right for all. There are a host of different variable factors which can influence the decision and the model selected needs to reflect this.

In tendering for services and selecting the appropriate commercial model, it is firstly importantly to understand what the model is aiming to achieve. In my experience there are four key drivers which are:

• Organisations and Finance Directors in particular want accurate budgetary forecasting in their FM spend and no ‘hidden’/unexpected major expenditures appearing.
• If possible, a full or part transfer of both the risk of such unexpected costs and in accountability for reducing cost to a contractor is a key driver.
• A cost model which reduces administration and the frequency of queries and/or disputes is also desirable.
• A collaborative partnership between customer and contractor needs to be able to evidence continuous improvement and value for money and the commercial model can be a useful tool to do this.

In my FM sector; namely ‘Hard’ Facilities Management (apologies to those of you who hate the term), there are several different commercial models which are prevalent in the market. The most common are:

1. What I call the Standard Model: whereby a contractor quotes a price for annual planned maintenance and hourly rates for reactive repairs.
2. Semi Comprehensive Models are where there are the beginnings of risk transference and contractors are asked to quote an annual price for the maintenance of equipment, including repairs, up to a set financial value. Such thresholds can be say £250 or £500 per repair. Any repairs above this amount can be chargeable; those below must be absorbed within this tendered ‘pot of money.’
3. Fully Comprehensive – in these models customers ask contractors to absorb the full cost of the repairs, sometimes without a financial ceiling. Invariably most will have clauses setting out exceptions, such as end of life or obsolete equipment. This is full risk transference.
4. Finally, some models incorporate an AOV (average order value) for reactive repairs. This AOV is usually calculated based on historical data and is charged on each repair, regardless of cost. The advantage of this model is the reduction in the need to scrutinise/authorise each invoice received.

As mentioned previously, which commercial model is best for an organisation to select can depend upon:

• How accurate is their asset data?
• Does it detail the life-cycle profile of the equipment?
• How well has the equipment been maintained to date?
• Can accurate and detailed historical reactive data be published to the tendering companies?
• Is the contractor prepared to work in an open book manner?
• Is the customer prepared to offer a long term contract?
• Is there scope to incorporate some element of shared risk and reward with the contractor into the contract to incentivise performance/results obtained?

The extent of the answer to these questions can then drive an organisation to decide which commercial model is best for them.

My own point of view is that it is really useful for organisations to start these discussions with  potential contractor(s) prior to the tender scoping and market invitation, to gauge their opinions. They can then make  informed decisions as to which commercial model is best for them, depending on the maturity and accuracy of some of the data mentioned above and their specific business needs.

It can also depend on the cultures of both the customer and contractor and if there a genuine appetite to work collaboratively during the contract term, mutual trust to work completely open book and to drive change and improvement.

I will leave the final word to the great John Ruskin on the quality of decision making, that it

“is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives”

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

May 2013

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E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk

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Facilities Management contracting strategy: too much chasing after the ball?

Is ‘strategy’ one of those often used, yet less commonly achieved, terms in facilities management contracting?

The source of inspiration for my latest facilities management blog comes from an unlikely source. Taking my daughter trampolining this morning and watching a kids’ football training session. The connection with FM? As always, please bear with me.

For those of us who can still (just!) remember playing sport at school, I am sure this will resonate.  Prior to the match the coach spends a long time talking tactics, positioning, how to exploit their team’s strengths and ultimately how to perform to the best of their ability to get the end result. Then the whistle blows, the match starts and then the tactics go completely out of the window and the kids start charging around the football/netball/basketball field simply trying to get hold of the ball.

To continue the sporting theme, I remember Ricky Hatton talking following his disastrous defeat to Manny Pacquiau back in 2009. He mentioned that he had prepared well for the fight, his team had discussed tactics at length to win but admitted that as soon as the fight started, he completely lost sight of them, let himself be drawn into good old fashioned  slugging match and there was only going to be one winner.

Do some facilities management contracts follow a similar vein to the above scenarios? Thankfully not a ‘slugging match’ but do we spend a lot of time and resources during the service specification, scoping and tender phases thinking and documenting the planned strategic direction the contract will take? From Day One everything starts with good intentions and with this in mind.

Then as the contract progresses in the early stages the procurement, mobilisation and business development people move on to other projects and the focus shifts to the day to day operation of the contract and in some instances, fire fighting and resolving problems. Unfortunately one of the bi-products of this is that the strategic direction and momentum, which was evident at the start, reduces to nothing over time and is only really resurrected at the time of contract expiry and renewal/re-tender. Sometimes some great things have been achieved during the contract term, but could more have been achieved with a greater amount of strategic thinking and planning?

“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” Alvin Toffler

“I have long been an advocate that from the outset of any facilities management contract, there should be a Strategic Improvement Plan, which sits separate from but complements the Contract Management Plan (KPIs, SLAS), Quality Plan and Health and Safety Plan.

This Strategic Plan needs to set the framework of how the contract will be reviewed and by whom during the contract duration and also set clear and tangible goals and objectives to be achieved and to define success. As a group, I don’t think it should necessarily  be ‘top heavy’ in make-up and instead involve Facilities Managers, procurement, contractors and end user representatives who are attune to the original strategic aspirations of the contract and are able to review and shape the direction of it during the contract term.

 The group needs to separate itself from the day to day issues and also not just be a talking shop, but a forum for driving change and improvement. No doubt the tender documents talked of innovation, continuous improvement, added value, etc; this should be the vehicle for achieving and demonstrating these.    

I would welcome your views on how ‘strategic’ you believe your facilities management contracts have been and if so, what have been the secrets of your success? (Please feel free to leave a comment)

In the meantime, as I close, the kids remain chasing after that elusive football.  Perhaps one or two are remembering what the coach said about tactics?

 March 2013

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

View my social media profile: http://bit.ly/Xjbltj

E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk 

Twitter: @Whitbags

 The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

Does Facilities Management run the risk of missing the BIM party?

It seems that  in recent weeks articles and discussions on Building Information Modelling (BIM) has received a similar level of coverage in FM circles as horsemeat is having in the national news arena.

For example, FM World (@FM_World) have run stories on their website on Retrospective BIM Surveying (28^th January), the importance of BIM to Government (13^th February) and the latest BIM and CAFM integration pilot by BAM (18^th February).

More news coverage will inevitably follow in the coming days with the release of the latest information on the PAS1192:2 standard.  What is this you ask? Well according to the BIM Task Group web site  it is described as, “setting set out the framework for collaborative working on BIM enabled projects and providing specific guidance for the information management requirements associated with projects delivered using BIM .” So now you know.

That is the preamble. The question I am posing is, ‘Does the Facilities Management industry generally

a)     Understand the purpose, content and benefits of BIM?

b)     Have a desire to become more engaged in its adoption and development?’

Two quotes, which I believe, in part, currently answer the questions:

Stuart Lockwood, Capital Projects Manager at the University of Manchester stated at a seminar last week, when discussing a £31m new build project for the National Graphene Institute, “the University have not adopted BIM on their new builds as we are not yet convinced how it will be used post-construction.”

“What is BIM?”, is a quote attributed to a Senior Executive of a major UK FM Company, recently talking on a train to Alison Watson (@classofyourown); a vociferous BIM advocate.

My own personal BIM journey started last year when one of our clients asked me to participate in a discussion on a new Sixth Form building, which would be piloting BIM. There I met Mark Stodgell (@stodgeblog), I.T. Director at Pozzoni Architects. Mark has a strong conviction that the Facilities Management Industry has been slow to understand and become involved in the BIM evolution and this view, he believed, was reinforced when he accompanied me to the Facilities Show in 2012. He was surprised at its absence from all of the seminar agendas.

Mark Bew, Chairman of the Government Industry BIM Working Group did speak with clarity and passion on the crucial link between BIM and FM at the Think FM event in June last year. However, contrast that to an observation that Martin Read (@Martin_Read), Editor of FM World, made to me last week that he noticed that there was apparently little discussion on BIM amongst the delegates at the recent Workplace Futures Conference in London.

As some of you will know, the Government has set up a “Soft Landings” task force, in part to “ensure early engagement during the design process with end users/clients/FM” and “appropriate handover process from construction to end user/FM.”

Regional BIM Hubs have been set up to drive the pace of the Soft Landings Strategy and I was flattered to be asked to be the FM/BIFM representative on the North West Group, by Mark Stodgell. The group met for the first time earlier this month and Mark explained the role of the Hubs, namely “it will be the glue that brings different practitioners together and fill in the cracks of BIM understanding.”  I liked that analogy.

From a contractor point of view, our asset management “utopia” will be easily accessible and up to date asset registers, maintenance schedules and operating manuals for the Mechanical and Electrical equipment for properties. However some within the FM industry still wonder if BIM can deliver this through the “COBie” platform.

Questions still persist on:

• BIM may work well for public sector new builds, but what about on speculative private sector developments where the end user/FM contractors are not in place at the design and construction stage?
• Is there a possibility of information overload, which takes FMs away from their core purpose of servicing people, not 3-D modelling?
• Who will be responsible for ensuring the asset information is consistently updated and at what cost?
• Will organisations and companies have the budgets and a desire to retrospectively survey their buildings and adopt BIM?
• Does short term contracts and price led procurement lend itself to a BIM led asset management strategy for the building life cycle?
• Will the current double/triple depression in the construction sector mean that the pace of adoption of BIM may well be slow?

So beware. There will be an increasing mention of “BIM”, “PAS1192:2”, “Soft Landings”, “Golden Thread” and “COBie”, amongst many others terms in the coming months. Will the FM industry fully engage in such discussions or be on the outside looking in?

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

View my social media profile: http://bit.ly/Xjbltj

E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk

Twitter: @Whitbags

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

“If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?” – The art of Contract Mobilisation

Picture this: It is your first day in your new job. You arrive 30 minutes late as you underestimated the travel time in rush hour and you tell a bemused and confused receptionist you have forgotten the name of the person you are due to meet. You finally get to your new desk, but have forgotten to bring along the information you had been requested to and you find out your working days will actually end at 18:00, despite you being sure they told you it was a 17:00 finish.

Sorry to labour the point, but clearly that person has got off to the worst possible start in their new role, basically due to a lack of planning, listening and preparation. Have any of you had experience where contracts in Facilities Management have started off in a similar vein and taken a very long time to get on track or even not at all? Perhaps the contractor, like the employee in the example, is asked to leave after a short time, as it started badly and never really recovered.

My view is that mobilisation planning is a very crucial, yet sometimes underappreciated aspect of Facilities Management. I know, because of I have had conversations with plenty of people who have won contracts, only to be told, “Right then, when can you start? Will a week be OK as we have served notice on the incumbent? No? OK, I can let you have a fortnight, but no more than that.”

When timescales are being squeezed in a tender procurement exercise, say because the evaluation has taken longer than expected, it is sometimes the time frames for contract mobilisation which can take the hit. Big mistake.

I believe passionately that it is crucial for any new contractor to begin from Day One on the front foot; well prepared, understanding the client brief and operationally trained and attune with the new clients needs. Rushed or simply badly planned contract mobilisations can result in complaints and service delivery gaps from the start and a Facility Manager and contractors fire fighting from the outset. It soon becomes damage limitation.

I know it sounds simple and when compared to say Innovation or Building Information Modelling, it is not the most glamorous or exciting area of Facilities Management, but I think there needs to be a greater appreciation of the skills and timeframes needed to mobilise an FM contract. They can be complex  and sufficient time and resource spent during a mobilisation will soon bear fruit. The alternative, well in the words of Lewis Carroll,

“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.
“I really don’t care where” replied Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

 

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

(E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk Twitter: @Whitbags)

 

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

Don’t worry, it’s not another one of those “How to be a good networker blogs”

How does one chance meeting at a BIFM Merseyside networking event lead to three University guest lecture spots, being interviewed for a BS11000 Collaborative Working Research project, assisting several University students with their dissertations, arranging a work placement for one graduate which led to a full time job position and then being invited to travel over 9,000 miles to speak at a Conference in Malaysia?

This week I was invited back to Liverpool John Moores University and delivered a lecture on innovation, cost reduction strategies and Careers in FM. The highpoint? Receiving an email the next day saying, “Thanks for the lecture yesterday, I have been considering FM as a career and your lecture cleared up a lot of topics which I was a little confused by.” Result.

And the future? That meeting in May 2011 is likely to lead to more student lectures later this year to UK and University of Malaya students, further collaboration with the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia and assistance with a PHD dissertation. All this on top of my day job of winning new business for Integral UK.

The two people involved in this scenario are Nazali Mohd Noor, Senior Lecturer in Property and Facilities Management at Liverpool John Moores University and myself.

That meeting was only 18 months ago, the BIFM Merseyside event was at Liverpool John Moores University and the topic was social media. Since that event I have gained over 800 followers on Twitter (@Whitbags), had over 1200 views of my blog from over 40 countries and earlier this month was told by Martin Read, Editor of FM World that my blog had “rocketed up the (UKFM) Bloggers’ Top 10.” An article on my Malaysian trip will also be in the next edition of FM World (14 February).

The purpose of mentioning all this is not to self congratulate; there are other examples I could use to show the benefits of such events. However, the message I am trying to get across is this; namely to demonstrate two key benefits of attending a (BIFM) Networking event. It will provide you with

•  A relaxed and friendly forum to meet like minded people, like Nazali, who can potentially open so many doors for you.

• The opportunity to learn and discuss current ‘hot’ FM topics, which can inspire you to develop your skills and knowledge further.

Today I was reviewing the calendar of FM Conferences and major events this year (there is a really great choice by the way). Combined with attending some of these, I am busy helping plan some exciting BIFM Lancashire Group events this year and there is lots of planning and selling of tickets to be done for the BIFM North Hollywood Summer Ball on 23 June in Manchester on 27^th June. If you are going to any of these events and see me, please do come and say hello?

In conclusion, I guess what I am saying is that there is a lot going on out there; why not jump on board and see where it will take you?

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

(E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk Twitter: @Whitbags)

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

Plantroom or stock room? Is your building’s plantroom the equivalent of a garden shed?

Is the general tidiness and upkeep of your building’s plantroom a useful barometer on how well the building is being maintained? Is it a tidy and well organised working environment or instead used as a stockroom and an unloved, forgotten corner of your building? Is it the equivalent of your garden shed?

A regular part of my work as a business development professional in Facilities Management is visiting buildings to review how they are being operated and to view the assets which contribute to this. An inevitable part of this is an inspection of the mechanical and electrical equipment and thus a tour of the plantroom.

As a person whose desire for tidiness and order borders on OCD, I am frequently greeted with the sight of old coffee cups and newspapers, discarded screws, broken light fittings and air conditioning units and just as inevitably, broken chairs, shelving, display cabinets, posters etc. It cries out for a skip and a complete clear out.

What sometimes incenses me is that plantrooms are essential working environments for engineers and Facilities Managers, so should not be allowed to become dumping grounds with the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality prevailing.  You wouldn’t expect to go to a colleague’s desk to find a three month old Costa Coffee cup and newspaper on their desk and an overflowing bin and rubbish scattered around their floor, would you?

Perhaps it is simplistic but I believe that a tidy, ordered, and yes, loved plantroom reflects on how well a building is being maintained. It shows that there is attention to detail, an ordered and organised approach and fundamentally pride in the environment they are working in.

In recent weeks, I have seen both ends of the spectrum.  Today I was fortunate to visit the new headquarters of The Co-operative Group at One Angel Square in Manchester. It is an awe inspiring building, a wonderful working environment and a fantastic use of natural light and ventilation. At the other end of the scale, I visited several buildings recently where the “front of house” appeared important, but the plant rooms were a disgrace with most of the Mechanical and Electrical services subcontracted by the main contractor to companies who may have only visited the properties every couple of months and clearly didn’t really care about the environments they were working in.

Some clients have the appearance of plantrooms part of contractors KPIs and the subject of regular unannounced audits. Good housekeeping should be a mandatory contracting performance standard in my view.

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

(E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk Twitter: @Whitbags)

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

2012 – Personal Reflections on a year in FM

As 2012 draws to a wet and windy close, it is as good a time as any to review the last twelve months and from a personal perspective, share some positives and alas negatives, from my experiences this year.

Like any other year it has been full of highs and lows, celebrations, disappointments, frustrations but generally has been a personally very fulfilling time, despite the challenging economic climate all around us. Personal mantras continue to be to remain positive and resilient.

So, my Top 3 Positives in 2012 have been:

1.     Malaysia

For anyone who knows me, there will be no surprise that my visit to Malaysia in November 2012 was the highpoint of 2012. Following on from a lecture to visiting University of Malaya students in the summer, I was invited jointly by Liverpool John Moores University and the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia to be the keynote speaker on “Innovation in FM” at the Regional Construction Week Conference, Pahang 2012. The whole experience, from the warm and friendly hosts, sampling the delicious Malaysian cuisine to the exchange of views on FM globally, was something which will stay with me for many years and would love to repeat.

2.     Social Media

A very keen advocate of knowledge and information sharing, the expansion in the use of Twitter, Linked In and of course this blog, has been of keen interest to me this year.  It has helped me connect with people within the industry, raise my profile and particularly enjoyable was attending events such as Think FM and The Facilities Show and meeting face-to-face people I had first got to know through social media. I was also honoured to be listed in Martin Pickard’s (@thefmguru) Top 50 FM Tweeters (bit.ly/W3eRo1) for my efforts.

3.     British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM)

This year has seen me taking a more active role in BIFM in the North. The BIFM Lancashire Group (@BIFM_Lancs) was re-launched at the start of the year and with the help of Karen Farnan and Martin Bolton, we organised and hosted several successful events in 2012 at a variety of venues from the Imperial War Museum North to the National Blood and Transplant Centre. Attendances continued to grow and I also attended excellent River Social Events in Chester and York, the BIFM Scotland Conference, Think FM and a great day at Denton Hall at the BIFM North AGM.  I was also elected to the BIFM North Committee and hope to continue to contribute in 2013.

Inevitably there has been some negatives this year and the main three personal ones for me have been:

1.     The Recession

When the UK Government’s best spin on the current “austere” economic climate is that it will be with us until at least 2018; you know we have a very long, long way to go. The consequence of this in terms of the UKFM has for me has been that some organisations have been cutting their FM/Estates Departments and as a consequence a lot of people and their knowledge and technical skills have gone with them and been lost to the organisation. This has meant that so many companies have a less of an understanding of how their property portfolio is being managed, what added value FM can bring and instead view it as a drain/cost.

2.     Price led procurement

Readers of this blog will know this is a bug bear of mine and is a natural consequence of the ongoing recession. Of those organisations that do decide to procure (invariably because they legally have to or are unhappy with the current suppliers), a depressingly large number this year have made selection decisions based on price alone. My counter argument to this is that it is a false economy, as contractors who under price to win the work, may decide to cut corners and seek other means to maximise returns. I can’t see this price biased procurement climate changing and indeed potentially getting more widespread in 2013/4.

3.     Presenting Badly

I have attended several conferences and seminars this year, as they present excellent networking opportunities and bacon butties! Again as I shared earlier this year in this blog, I continue to get frustrated that if companies decide to put people forward to represent them at such events, why don’t they also firstly, select people who have a natural ability to present to groups of people and secondly, invest some money in getting professionals to train and fine tune their presentation skills? There have been so many times this year where there has been death by PowerPoint and a very poorly structured and delivered presentation. It doesn’t have to be like this!

In conclusion, these are just some observations from this year from a very personal perspective. There have been some really great things happening in UKFM in 2012 from the election of Ismena and Liz to Chair and Vice Chair positions in BIFM, the continued outreach of WiFM, greater access to FM professional qualifications, a growing media profile of the industry and a greater understanding of the need to attract ( & retain) young professionals into the industry. 2013 looks as though there will be plenty more great things on the way and we are already planning for the BIFM North Summer Ball in June and several BIFM Lancashire events, for example.

Finally a very big thank you to all of you, from an amazing 40 countries, who have read my blog this year and I wish you a very successful and fulfilling 2013.

(Pictured at the start of the article from top left clockwise: Attending RCW12 Malaysia, In the audience at Think FM, BIFM Lancashire event at IWM North, with the visiting University of Malaya Student after my lecture).

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

(E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk Twitter: @Whitbags)

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

Has Facilities Management become too commoditised?

I read with interest this month’s Facilities Management Journal magazine. One article, named the “Gatekeepers” is written by David Noble, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. In it David explains his desire for FM Departments, Procurement teams and suppliers to have a “let’s do it together” attitude. But is this call for partnership and collaboration actually happening now or merely an aspiration?

In my work as a business development professional, I regularly see both ends of the scale. For example, on one local authority tender opportunity this year, 10% of the score was for the tenderer to show how they would deliver “community benefits.”  During the site visit I asked one of the building managers about this, to which he scoffingly replied, “Oh, that’s just procurement bulls**t. I haven’t a clue what they are going on about” If nothing else it did show me the obvious disconnect between the Procurement Team and the FM Team, who would be managing the contract, post tender.

On another public sector tender opportunity this year, following the PQQ stage, tenderers were simply invited to provide their prices, based on the assets provided. There was no request for anything else as all the necessary checks on capability and accreditations, etc. had taken place during the PQQ evaluation. Thus the company with the cheapest price won a £1million + contract. The danger in this approach  is that the contractor may take shortcuts in their service delivery and put a lot of undue price pressure on their sub-contractor supply chain, in order to maximise the already tight margins.

On a similar vein, e-auctions are the clearest example of where FM really has become too commoditised. I dislike them with a passion and it does disappoint me that some organisations use this method to procure. There is precious little opportunity to show what added value an organisation can bring to the FM contract. A recession fuelled desire for companies and organisations to cut costs and get the best price possible, has been a key driver for them to go down the e-auction route, in a lot of cases.

Those in favour of 100% price procurement/e-auctions would no doubt justify their strategy on the basis of FM providers are much of a muchness and there is very little to distinguish between them. I fundamentally disagree with this viewpoint. This type of procurement does allow them to get the best price but is it at the cost of partnership and innovation during the contract term? I have also known of organisations having to go back out to the market again several months later as the winning contractor had served termination notice, as they had decided the commercial terms were no longer sustainable.

The flip side of all this, is that I have also seen several excellent examples where it is clear there has been  a joined up approach between the FMs and Procurement teams in initially identifying the business needs from a FM service, scoping the services required, agreeing how the tenders should be evaluated and then both teams participating in post tender interviews, selection decisions and finally contract mobilisation. The utopia seems to be where there is early engagement,  a clear team ethic prevails throughout and there are no conflicting priorities.

In his article, David Noble talks of the need for information exchange, improved communication and rejecting the silo mentality. My worry is that those Finance Directors and Procurement Teams who view Facilities Management as just another commodity could stifle the ability to achieve this.

Does a “cheap as chips” approach to procurement mean that the opportunity to deliver innovation, added value and sustainability during the contract term is going, going, gone…….

December 2012

This article is written by Mark Whittaker, Business Development Manager for Integral UK Limited, Hard Facilities Management Specialists.

(E mail: mark.a.whittaker@integral.co.uk Twitter: @Whitbags)

The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of the author and not of his employer.

Final reflections on a wonderful visit to Malaysia

 

I had to smile. Upon leaving Kuantan Airport at 19:00 on Monday, I glanced at the in-flight screen and noted that even at 11,000 feet, the outside temperature was still higher than the corresponding ground temperature in the U.K.

It took twenty four hours from leaving the sunshine and warmth of the Zenith Hotel, Kuantan to arriving at a rain drenched front door of my house. The goodbyes in Malaysia were as warm as those which greeted my return and emphasised to me what a special visit it had been.

My host, Suhaimi, made a point of coming to the reception of the hotel to bid farewell and during the course of the final afternoon I had said my goodbyes to his fantastic team, who were busy disassembling the RCW’12 exhibition stands. I was particularly grateful to Sara, part of the CIDB Team, who had done such a great job in arranging all my travel arrangements and my time in Kuantan and who also showed a keen interest in my family and of England in general. She epitomised the whole CIDB Team; articulate, intelligent, friendly and a passion for what they were doing.

So two days later, I thought it would be useful to blog my reflections on such a memorable visit. Had it been worth a roundtrip of over 18,000 miles? Did I learn much from the experience? Would I return to Malaysia again? The answer to all of these would be a resounding “Yes”.

The quotes of the visit? “Malaysia is truly Asia and has everything you need” This came from the Government Housing Minister who opened the ceremony. My apologies, but I still don’t know his name and upon google-ing “Housing Minister, Panang” was directed to my own blog! Either way, he spoke with clear passion about what his country has to offer and what the obstacles to progress were; “conservatism” was cited, as was “gatekeepers” (local Government), who he said were “the biggest stumbling block to innovation in Malaysia.”

The purpose of the visit was to deliver a speech on what were the biggest innovations in Facilities Management in recent years and what obstacles Malaysian FM needed to overcome to exploit the opportunities these innovation could potentially bring. In addition I wanted to understand where Malaysia was in their FM journey, by soaking up as much information as I could during the visit.

A key theme throughout the visit was that the pace of change in both the Construction and Facilities Management industries, and the fact it had to be driven by the Government to counterbalance the current inertia and penny (ringgit) pinching. The role of the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) will be pivotal in achieving this and events like the RCW’12 Conference help to not only raise the profile of Facilities Management, but also provide greater knowledge share on specific issues such as innovation, health and safety adherence and proactive building maintenance strategies, for example.

In recent years, the RCW event has been rotated between different regions in Malaysia, having been held in the past in Johor Bahru, Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur, for example. Wherever RCW’13 is held, I wish the CIDB team the best of luck and sincerely hope that our paths will cross again in the future. After all, I was told I had to return to sample the beautiful Malaysian beaches and the majesty of Kuala Lumpur. Not sure if I will ever get used to the taste of the durian though!

Photographs of the visit can be viewed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74730954@N04/

Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Conference, Pahang, Malaysia – Day Four

A Fond Farewell

 

So, alas, my mini Malaysian adventure must come to its end. My emotions are mixed; excitement at seeing my wife and kids tomorrow, gratitude for the hospitality and kindness shown to me throughout by my hosts and wonder at how very fortunate I have been to be here in the first place.

My biggest thanks of all has to go to my kind friend, Nazali Mohd Noor, Senior Lecturer in Facilities Management at Liverpool John Moores University. Naz is a native of Malaysia and was the one who suggested to Sunhaimi Bin Mansor that I would be a good choice for a guest speaker slot, given my passion for innovation and improvement in Facilities Management. Naz’s encouragement throughout has been a source of much strength.

Eric Qualman in his book, ‘Socialnomics’, compared having a blog to having a dog. Both need regular and carefully looking after. I feel my blog must feel like it’s been taken for a good walk every day; it has been  fun sharing my experiences, sometimes at the expense of sleep, but the hit rate both here in Malaysia and in the UK has been fantastic.

A copy of my Conference presentation can be viewed:  

I write this final Malaysian blog in the reception are a of the Sultan Ahmad Shah International Convention Centre on the final day of the CIDB Malaysia  Regional Construction Week 2012 Conference. The writing of this is being interrupted by the friendly greetings of some of the CIDB team and I don’t mind one bit. Most are interested to know if I liked tasting the Malaysian fruit ‘Durian’ last night. I explain it is an acquired taste and one that had kept with me upon waking this morning.

So what are my closing thoughts on the current state of Facilities Management in Malaysia? I hope this is fair and accurate but would conclude,

• There are some very articulate, knowledgeable and passionate Facilities Management professionals here, who are keen to drive change and improvement, particularly in the construction sector but are meeting a lot of inertia.
• The Government are aware of the importance of Facilities Management to the Malaysian infrastructure and are taking an active and high profile role to force change. The work of CIDB Malaysia is testament to this.
• Contractors are only just coming round to the concept of their role within the bigger Facilities Management sector and the opportunity to provide a more integrated service solution.
• Property maintenance is still heavily focussed on the reactive rather than the planned. The infrastructure of  newer buildings can be more resilient,  so the focus is to fix rather to cure.
• The importance of Facilities Management is not currently recognised enough in the private sector company boardrooms, where it is still seen as a cost and not enough value adding.
• The current focus within the sector is on a Return on Investment Approach, in terms of FM protecting and maximising asset value with life cycle planning.
• Similar to one of the rationales underpinning BIM, Facilities Managers are being encouraged to feed into the building design and build process, to ensure that users’ needs are being meet and cost wastage is minimised.
• The Green agenda, with the CIDB’s ‘Go Green’ Campaign, is an increasingly hot topic and there is encouragement to enter Energy Performance Contracts, retro-fitting of existing assets for energy saving and ‘Green Building Design.’

I was told before I came out that Malaysian FM is about fifteen years behind the UK and  can understand the viewpoint, to an extent. However, we are not comparing like-for-like and it does run the risk of  sounding slightly patronising to some here. Believe me, UKFM has its own major issues; the recession fuelled commoditisation of FM with price dominated procurement, the need to attract and professionalise new talent into the industry and the need for fresh ideas and true collaboration are just some areas which are self evident to me.

This has been my first and sincerely hope won’t be my last visit to Malaysia. The whistle-stop nature of the visit, due to the need to return to my day job, means I have missed out on the beaches and Kuala Lumpur in particular, which is a shame. However this visit has been an absolute blast and I have loved every minute of it.

Selamat Jalan, Malaysia, or in the words of the local shopping mall: