ABSTRACT The growing importance of facility management (FM) has engendered new opportunities and challenges in the industry. One of the challenges as an FM is the need to consistently achieve high-quality end-product to satisfy the built environment's users (visitors, owners, and occupants). To achieve this, FMs typically hire and outsource most of the construction work and ensuring high satisfaction at the end of every project is critical for success. On the other hand, the contractors also need to ensure that the FMs are satisfied with their quality of work. Customer satisfaction scores during the post-occupancy evaluation stages have emerged as an essential tool to measure the applicators' performance and the satisfaction level of the facility manager. One of the important sectors within the construction industry is construction coatings that are applied to the finished surface, such as roofs, floors, and walls, that improve surface properties such as appearance, waterproofing, and resistance from scratch or wear and tear. The literature review shows little research on the impact of critical job parameters like the region, season, and temperature on the customer satisfaction score within the construction coating sector. To identify additional factors that can improve the customer satisfaction score, the researchers studied various parameters like the job region, the season of installation, the temperature at which the applicators installed the products, and its effect on customer ratings collected from end-users/FM's. The study showed that out of the three factors of region, season, and installation temperature, the region and the season significantly affected the overall customer satisfaction rating. This study also provides additional parameters to improve customer satisfaction scores for facility managers seeking to enhance project success and for applicators who want to improve customer satisfaction ratings for construction coating projects.

ABSTRACT Purpose The purpose of this research was to better understand current state of mid- and senior-level healthcare facility managers to explore potential roadblocks to FM succession related to demographics, backgrounds, and perceptions in supporting future research prioritization for healthcare facility executive leadership development. Methodology A survey was designed to collect information on facility managers’ gender, race, age, job level, employer industry, retirement timeframe, educational attainment, and perceptions of their employers’ recruiting and succession planning. The survey was sent electronically in February 2021 to more than 12,400 FM professionals with a 29% response rate. Only information from U.S. respondents working in healthcare facility operations was used in this study. Findings The healthcare industry is struggling to attract and retain senior-level facility managers. The difficulty in finding qualified facility managers to fill senior-level positions does not appear to be related to a lack of interested candidates or pay. Factors impeding recurring facility workforce development and succession to senior healthcare FM roles may be related to low succession planning adoption by healthcare organizations, an aged facility workforce, and limited undergraduate education achievement from traditional candidates. Originality Healthcare organizations may prioritize these factors in addressing ongoing FM workforce attrition and development challenges to ensure a sustainable pipeline of qualified facility managers prepared to successfully navigate the unique expectations of leading the healthcare built environment.

ABSTRACT Commercial buildings are asset intensive facilities and therefore have unique challenges in the asset lifecycle management. When procedures and guidelines on decommissioning are not enforced, these buildings can be left unattended for years. As a result, the lack of maintenance may expedite asset deterioration, thus leaving less material salvageable for future use. This study aims to better understand current trends in the decommissioning of commercial buildings by surveying industry professionals across three possible dimensions 1) planned decommissioning, 2) condition assessments on commercial buildings, and 3) current awareness of procedures and guidelines. Through correlation analysis, the study explores how professionals’ roles in the industry relate to these three dimensions, offering valuable insights into the dynamic interplay shaping decommissioning practices. This study analyzes data collected through a Qualtrics survey designed to target construction and facilities management professionals. The 720 respondents were associated with the International Facilities Management Association and the American Institute of Architects. Results of the study show that planning for decommissioning mostly occurs once a building has been vacated or due to reactionary planning in an attempt to save a facility for reuse or remodeling. There is a consensus among the survey respondents that condition assessments on unoccupied/vacated buildings should be conducted annually. Results also indicate that although there are instances where vacated facilities maintained a minimal supply of utilities, there are many instances where facilities have had lights switched off, doors locked, and the building completely shut down. This study provides results that identify key variables as to what may influence how a building is decommissioned and promote standardized decommissioning procedures and guidelines for commercial buildings.

ABSTRACT Renovating existing buildings to render them more energy efficient is critical. However, current energy-efficiency efforts in the building sector remain insufficient. Despite the growing literature related to energy efficiency in buildings, context-driven reasons for stakeholders to undertake energy-efficiency retrofits remain less understood. The researchers conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize and consolidate the results of studies worldwide from 2009 to 2020, examining factors and associated contexts that influence building stakeholders’ decisions to implement energy-efficiency retrofits. The review involved searching databases and topic-specific journals using multiple keywords and synonyms for energy-efficiency retrofits and decision-making. The initial search yielded 25,093 articles, and 134 were further assessed for inclusion and exclusion. Forty-two of those articles met the criteria for inclusion and were examined to evaluate the factors and context associated with the decisions related to energy-efficiency retrofits. Recent relevant research was analyzed, considering methodologies, regions, economic development, building types, participant characteristics, and study size. Based on the extensive review of the literature, this study identified 30 factors that can be categorized under seven decision criteria involved in determining retrofits: economic feasibility, team process, technical practicality, institutional characteristic, governmental policy, occupant impact, and environmental impact. The main factors that influenced energy retrofit decisions included life cycle cost, coordination and collaboration, system compatibility, internal value, government commitment, satisfaction and well-being, and eco-friendly installation. Variations regarding factors influencing stakeholders’ perceptions among different regions and building types were also examined. The study found that risk management, technology readiness, and standards and regulations were more significant in countries with developing economies. Conversely, system compatibility, reputation, and political influence were more important in developed economies. The findings from this study provide insights into future research that may guide the development of more context-appropriate strategies that drive stakeholders to implement energy-efficiency retrofits in their buildings.

ABSTRACT Building equipment failure can have drastic effects on a company's operations and budget. This paper presents two types of maintenance approaches that if done effectively, can prevent or significantly reduce the failure of building equipment assets. The first is traditional time-based preventive maintenance (PM), which conducts prefailure inspections and tasks in a cyclic time-based approach. The second, is predictive maintenance (PdM), which conducts maintenance functions based on the condition of the equipment found through continuous or cyclic measurements and analysis during machine operation. The purpose of investigating these maintenance approaches is to determine whether we can improve on the U.S. Navy's (Navy) existing facility maintenance program, helping to reduce overall costs while improving sustainability, equipment resiliency, and efficiency. By presenting each maintenance program and leveraging today's technologies we show that these advancements in technology can directly improve the Navy's operational mission and warfighter readiness. Research was conducted through the following methods: interviews, books, third party reports, journal articles, industry websites and articles that focus on equipment maintenance. The Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the University of Washington provided case studies, existing facility/utility maintenance data, and budget information used in this research. The results show that PdM approaches using advanced analytics are more effective in diagnosing equipment, prescribing equipment problems, and predicting equipment failure. It will also show that when a PdM model is used, building tenants have less operational impacts as equipment operates longer with less downtime between maintenance events. By changing to a PdM program, facility managers and owners can improve asset efficiency and resilience, directly improving environmental sustainability and lowering overall longterm costs. It highlights the significant capital costs of a fully online PdM program and the benefits of using a hybrid model of PM and PdM. This research concludes with an overview of how building maintenance is currently being conducted on Navy bases by Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), and how they are transitioning to a more sustainable maintenance program leveraging existing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), building control systems (BCS), and utility control systems (UCS) with Smart Grid (SG), OSI Pi, and advanced analytics. In addition, major gaps in this transition are identified, and solutions are proposed to optimize these building system investments.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of using ratios between common hospital utilization, or financial metrics, and facility operating expenses as a model for budget forecasting and benchmarking. The researchers reviewed each U.S. state's department of health website for the availability of hospital utilization reports, and financial statements, and assessed the strength of association between these metrics and hospital facility operating expenses. Although many states report some hospital utilization and financial metrics to the public, Washington was the only state to report these utilization metrics and financial statements along with detailed cost information for facility operations. Correlations were used to evaluate the strength of the relationship between various utilization and financial metrics with facility operating expenses at Washington hospitals; this research shows there is moderate to strong associations between facility operating expenses and several utilization metrics including available beds, admissions, and gross square feet (GSF). Additionally, this research shows there is a strong association between hospital facility operating expenses and plant, property, and equipment (PPE), a common balance sheet value. The researchers illustrate, via the development of a ratio model, how health care facility and finance professionals can benchmark or rationalize facility operating expenses to support overall hospital profit margin impact. Moreover, this ratio model can be used to predict or forecast future operating expenses for planned capital construction projects to better understand total facility lifecycle costs.

ABSTRACT Purpose - The purpose of this research is to better understand the current state of the United States' FM profession by evaluating workforce demographic trends in identifying contemporary recruitment and hiring challenges facing the FM industry. Methodology - A survey was developed based upon available literature including past research and industry surveys. Demographic information was sought to understand respondents gender, race, ethnicity, age, retirement timeframes, and educational attainment. Input from a panel of FM subject matter experts was also secured prior to completion of the survey. The survey was sent electronically in February 2021 to more than 12,400 members of IFMA; a total of 3,557 survey responses were received by April 2021 for a 29 percent response rate. Only information from the 2,069 US respondents was used in this research. Findings - The US FM industry is getting younger, in part due to the growing number of FM college graduates. Nevertheless, a majority of facility managers will be retiring within the next decade and adoption of FM succession planning is sluggish. While recruitment of entry-level FM talent has become easier, recruiting senior level FM talent is a major challenge. Furthermore, there has been relatively no growth in the portion of females and minorities making up the FM workforce population over the past decade. Understanding challenges related to recruitment and succession of senior level FM profession, and a more inclusive workforce, is imperative for the FM industry to better attract and sustain a competent and diverse workforce. Originality/value - The results of this research are valuable in understanding current recruitment, retention, and hiring challenges within FM to help the industry address historical workforce attrition concerns.

Abstract This systematic review investigates current research in the studies of data collection and analytics on performance efficiency in facilities management departments at higher education institutions. This review will demonstrate that while research is limited it is clear that data collection and analysis will have a very important role and impact of the future on facilities management organizations. Thus, higher education institutions should move quickly to adopt data analytics in their everyday decision-making process. Methods A systematic review was conducted with research papers being selected between the years of 2010 and 2021 for relevancy. Results The results in this systematic review indicate that big data and data analytics are the future and would be beneficial for use in facilities management. While higher education research in facilities management in general is limited, it is evident that higher education is behind in the use of data collection and data analysis. Conclusions The findings concluded in this systematic review allow higher education institutions to make a well supported, evidence-based decision on why they should proceed with the use of data collection and analysis in facilities management. Limitations There was limited research on data analytics and its use in high education facilities management. The articles in the literature were authored by many of the same researchers. Implications There is a need in higher education facilities management to incorporate data collection and analysis in the decision-making process.

ABSTRACT Purpose : To investigate on the implementation of maintenance models and techniques used when executing facilities maintenance works by facility managers or external service providers' of higher learning institutions in Gaborone. The investigation was based or focused on outsourced maintenance works within identified institutions. Methodology : The objectives of this study were; to find out why maintenance models are not used in higher learning institutions in Gaborone, to assess the challenges faced by maintenance personnel in carrying out maintenance models and techniques and lastly to recommend strategies that can be adopted by maintenance personnel to enhance use of maintenance models in higher learning institutions in Gaborone. In order to achieve these objectives both primary and secondary sources of data were used. Primary data was collected through the use of questionnaires from 30 facility managers, contract managers and maintenance personnel of higher learning institutions in Gaborone with a response rate of 50%. Secondary data on the other hand was collected from journal articles, published books, conference papers, periodicals and dissertations. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse and present the data. Findings : The findings revealed that the majority of maintenance personnel in higher learning institutions are aware of facilities maintenance models and techniques. The incremental budget model and Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) are the models widely used in higher learning institutions in Gaborone. The Navy long range maintenance planning methodology (NLRMP) is sometimes used in learning institutions as far as maintenance is concerned. The use of maintenance models enables increased useful life or building lifespan. The main challenges which are frequently encountered in efforts of implementing facilities maintenance models are the gap between theory and practice and lack of expert engineers and specialists. Corrective and preventive maintenance is often or frequently used in tertiary institutions. The main factor causing high cost in maintenance in learning institutions is human behaviour. Unethical behaviours expressed towards institutions equipment and building users contribute towards increased maintenance costs. Research limitations/implications : The implication for this study is that if maintenance models and techniques are not effectively implemented by maintenance personnel, building occupants will not be satisfied with living in the building and building's lifecycle will ultimately reduce thus affecting the productivity of employees. In addition, implementation of maintenance models in higher learning institutions will result in minimal expenditure on maintenance activities. Recommendations : Training maintenance personnel should be done in order to ensure that professionals are up-to-date with new technical methods of carrying out maintenance activities effectively. Property owners should be actively involved in construction of high rise buildings so that important information can be documented to eliminate the issue of facilities managers managing properties which they do not have full details about. Value of the Study : This study has provided a context in which facilities maintenance models and techniques can be effectively implemented by facility managers during maintenance works in higher learning institutions in Gaborone.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to assess the drivers of outsourcing decisions of multi-tenanted shopping mall owners for facilities management in Ghana. The study was conducted using nine owners of multi-tenanted shopping malls in Ghana with a history and experience in outsourcing retail properties to third party facility management firms (n = 9) and facilities managers who are experts in providing outsourced services (n = 5). Using the Delphi technique, five surveys were conducted (Delphi polls) using questionnaires that were sent out to the participants via an online survey tool (Survey Heart). The surveys sought to build a consensus from the respondents on the factors that drive their decision to outsource FM in their properties and they were conducted over a period of 9 months. The results showed that the outsourcing decisions of multi-tenanted shopping mall owners in Ghana is driven by the strategic advantages, cost-saving benefits and the service quality-related benefits that outsourcing gives them. Among these broad factors, the ability to focus on core competencies for competitive advantage, and avoid the fixed cost associated with paying the salaries and other entitlements of in-house staff were the main reasons for their decisions to outsource. The results also showed that the owners are of the view that third-party services providers deliver quality FM services than in-house teams. The study shows the factors that drive the decision of multi-tenanted shopping malls in Ghana to outsource FM services in their buildings. The findings of the study will be useful to prospective investors into retail properties in Ghana as well as facilities management service providers and further research into facilities management.