Identification and classification of facilities managers functions: a proposal validated by Latin American experts

Abstract

The functions performed by facility management practitioners and their classification have evolved over the last decades. The practice of Facility Management integrates many professions; however, certain authors have pointed out that heterogeneous views are generated by those responsible for the facilities and this has caused confusion about the understanding of the discipline in recent years. In addition, different attitudes about the discipline have been presented depending on the vision of the British or American schools of FM, which face the objectives and tasks throughout these years in different ways. This causes diffuse areas that prevent the identification of the entire spectrum of functions related to support activities in a facility management system. The objective of this research was to identify and classify the functions performed until the present time by facility managers in the literature to establish the scope of a facility management system. In this work, the authors carried out a review of the literature and an analysis of the different documents that gave rise to a proposal of the different functions performed and their classification into main areas. Later, a validation of the proposal was requested through an expert consultation in facility management in Latin America, which reached 94% approval. The validated proposal is composed of at least 37 functions performed by facility management professionals, and these functions can be classified into six main areas: Asset and Maintenance Management; Real Estate and Property Management; Energy and Sustainability Management; Corporate Project Management; Workplace Management; and Facilities Services Management.