Facilities @ Management

1.3 The Birth of FM and IFMA

Mary Day Gauer

The term “Facility Management” as we use it today was initially coined in the 1960s by Electronic Data Systems founder Ross Perot in reference to the network management of IT systems, but was soon expanded to include elements of commercial space management.

By the time Herman Miller hosted its “Facility Influence on Productivity Conference” in November 1978 the term “facility management” was already widely in use. It was stated at this conference that the Herman Miller Research Corporation (HMRC) wanted to understand how the “human performer, the individual, his life in large organizations and how these organizations entrust a healthy, appropriate atmosphere on society” (Facility Influence on Productivity Conference Report)

The genesis of discussions about facility management is found in the history of Robert Probst, who started the Probst Co. in 1953, a Denver-based firm specializing in speculative product development. He called on Herman Miller in 1958 to discuss one of these ideas, a unique fishbone connection system for furniture components. He was asked by Hugh DePree, then president, to sign on as a consultant (later to become president of HMRC) and began conducting unprecedented studies of people in work settings. DePree asked him to also “find problems outside of the furniture industry and conceive solutions for them” (www.hermanmiller.com/designers/Probst), which led to many inventions, most of which had nothing to do with ...