Facilities @ Management

3.10 Facility ManagementWhence It Cometh, Whither It Goeth?

John Adams

In the Beginning…

The concept of Facility Management evolved in the 1970s and early 1980s as the result of a confluence of several forces. At a time of unparalleled growth in what Peter Drucker termed “knowledge workers,” the office emerged as a workplace of vital concern to the health and growth of businesses around the world. But unlike manufacturing environments and agricultural environments, the world of office workers and office work was largely an overlooked domain as well as an unmanaged resource.

One of the key insights informing this new perspective was the recognition that change is the only constant in a dynamic world. The first to recognize these changes and their implications was Robert Propst, President of Herman Miller Research Corporation. His seminal book, The Office: A Facility Based on Change, was first published in 1968, and led to the development of flexible, adaptable office furniture systems such as Action Office, that enabled corporations to manage their work environments in an active and dynamic way, rather than as static and fixed places. The office furniture industry was forever changed as many companies followed suit and developed similar systems furniture products.

But Propst, working with David Armstrong, a university educator at Michigan State University, quickly realized that innovative products themselves were not sufficient to realize the potential of these new ideas. Propst ...