Facilities @ Management

1.8 FM Down Under

Duncan Waddell

Evolution of Facility Management Practice

Through undertaking some exploration and research on this new area of business known as FM at an international level in the early 1990s, I became aware of an architectural practice in the UK known as DEGW that was thinking outside the “norm.”

In 1982, Frank Duffy and John Worthington (two of the DEGW founders) established the journal Facilities to promote this, as yet unknown, FM profession in Britain, arguing that “facilities management was to architecture as software was to hardware in the world of the computer – an essential means of ensuring that clients” intentions, expressed in building briefs, should be reviewed, monitored, and updated throughout the entire lifetime of each building.

I thought that this was pretty radical thinking! It was an approach that was more than different contracting methodologies and responsibility structures. It wasn’t just about FM outsourcing which was becoming a popular management pastime.

DEGW set up a consulting arm that delivered business management consulting and space management (design). The practice also consulted on building management, more widely known as facilities management (FM). ORBIT (a study delivered by DEGW) had claimed that as buildings were increasingly complex, proper FM was essential to ensure proper use of resources.

This captured my attention! There was no one that I could find talking about this notion at all here in Australia.

Another major ...