Performance Measurement Applications in Facilities Management: An Investigation into the Future Directions

Facilities Management (FM) is very frequently described as, “an integrated approach to operating, maintaining, improving and adapting the buildings and infrastructure of an organisation in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of that organisation”. The practical and strategic relevance of FM to organisations in all sectors of the economy is now increasingly recognised. Accordingly, organisations seek to improve their competitiveness by introducing a core business philosophy and restructuring to release senior management time and improve effectiveness. Managements have begun to realise that for organisations to benefit from their enormous investment in facilities, they have to begin managing them actively and creatively with commitment and a broader vision. Formulation of techniques that are capable of assessing “facilities performance” in terms of quality, cost and effectiveness, is therefore critical for “Organisational” and “FM” advancements. Research has emphasised that there is a clear need to measure FM performance which would integrate both the business and facilities domains. Accordingly, this paper summarises a literature review of current leading-edge performance measurement and management practices within facilities management organisations and conceptual models of performance measurement and management from other industries. Accordingly, the paper identifies the directions to develop performance measurement systems in FM with specific links to measure facilities relationships with those of the core business.