Defining early facilities management involvement using the concepts of performance management

Abstract

Successful implementation of whole lifecycle management (WLCM) for facilities depends upon the seamless flow of information between the development and operational stages of facilities, which in turn depends upon the ability of the project manager to integrate various requirements of project stakeholders (Edum-Fotwe, et al., 2003); (Meng, 2013); (PMI, 2008). Traditionally, design is separated from the facilities management (FM) stage, and concepts such as early FM involvement are advocated as instruments that can be used to achieve integration between these stages (Meng, 2013). Early FM involvement is the integration of FM practitioners in the design stage and thus, allowing for valuable FM information to be included at an early stage of development. However, most of the available academic literature on early FM involvement either focus on the significance of early FM involvement without specifying the actual framework, similarly where frameworks are defined, only focus in one particular function of FM such as maintainability, without regard for operability, serviceability and other aspects of WLCM (Liu & Issa, 2013); (Meng, 2013). Therefore, the basis for this research was founded on the realisation of the silo approach between project management (PM) and FM stages, and lack of comprehensive frameworks for early FM involvement, resulting in facilities that are costly to maintain and operate. This research sought to provide a comprehensive performance management framework (PMF) for early FM involvement, here after called the PMF, within the South African context.