The 5 main types of facility management

The 5 main types that can help manage building maintenance operations. Find out what they are and how to manage them.

As defined by the ISO 41011:2017 standard, “Facility Management is an organisational function that integrates people, places and processes within the built environment with the aim of improving people’s quality of life and the productivity of the core business”.

The Facility Management (FM) sector is growing rapidly: in order for people to be as productive as possible, they should work in welcoming, efficient and above all safe environments.

If you deal with facility management, you need to know that a complete and efficient building maintenance management cannot focus on a single aspect, but needs to involve numerous services. That’s why I recommend that you try to introduce a facility management software in your workplace simplifying your facility management requirements.

But what are the different types of Facility Management that you should be able to manage? In this article, we’ll be analysing the top 5 types!

What are the main Facility Management categories?

Facility Management is typically divided into two main categories:

• Hard Facility Management: includes all those services specifically related to buildings and systems that guarantee their comfort and correct operation (HVAC system, lifts, fire protection system, etc.);
• Soft Facility Management: group all those services that overlap with property management (cleaning, waste disposal, security, etc.).

Hard and Soft Facilities Management

5 types of Facility Management

Facility Management activities can be subdivided into various types. Here are the 5 most common:

1. Asset management and life cycle planning: it is the management of the assets of a structure in all its phases, from procurement to disposal. This type of facility management allows to guarantee a correct planning of the life cycle of the work;
2. Building Management: specifically concerns the management of general expenses and related costs, with the aim of expanding or consolidating its structures;
3. Space Management: focuses on the management of rooms and environments, focusing on the distribution, control and monitoring of all the internal resources. The purpose is to simplify the use of spaces, plan periodic cleaning and maintenance activities, and to ensure the correct use of all environments;
4. Sustainable management of the environment: concerns the supervision of recycling programmes and the protection of energy and material resources in order to reduce environmental loads and improve energy needs;
5. Preparedness for emergency situations: to guarantee the health and safety of all the employees, it is necessary to draw up numerous emergency plans aimed at addressing and the prevention from risks, unforeseen events and hazardous situations.

FM Activities

How to perform facility management tasks with great efficiency

As we have seen, the tasks and actions that a facility manager has to perform are numerous and encompass different areas. In addition, these figures may have to manage the maintenance of different types of buildings, each characterized by specific needs:

• hospitals;
• shopping centres;
• offices;
• universities;
• industrial structures;
• restaurants/hotels.

If you are involved in maintenance activities, you must necessarily rely on software capable of dealing with all activities related to asset maintenance. In particular, I recommend trying a secure, innovative and configurable enterprise facility management software based on the specific needs for each sector of interest.

This tool allows you to have full control over every aspect of your work in a single platform: maintenance planning, activity tracking, problem management.