Facility Operations

Introduction

Facility Operations is a discipline of management devoted to provide care, maintenance, development of skills to facility the daily operations public, hospitality, educational and leisure venues. The activities of facility operations include from very basic activity like cleaning to a high skilled and technical jobs like maintenance of air conditioning system. It is the duty of facility operations team to coordinate with the organisation management to oversee the cost effective, safe, secure and environment friendly maintenance of the organisational assets and long term care and preservation of those assets value. The goal of facility operation management is to provide “end user” satisfaction, and also considered as the success criteria for the evaluation of facility operation team.

In this assignment the requirement is to assess the responsibilities of facilities manger in an organisation like hospital, hotel, educational institution or super market etc, what are the legal, health and safety obligations in performing the duties as facilities manger, identification of the strengths in current facilities operations and what are the weak areas to be addressed in the current business and in the new establishment which the management is planning to start.

The organisation I have chosen to complete the assignment task is “Serena Hotels, Islamabad Pakistan”.

Serena Hotel

The Islamabad Serena Hotel is at a very prominent location at the door step of Margalla hills on fourteen acres of areas with beautiful gardens and near the Rawal Lake in the young and dynamic city of Pakistan “the Islamabad”, one of the natural beautiful cities of the world. The architectural and interior structure of the hotel is a good combination of the heritage of Pakistani culture equipped with the latest technology. The hotel is having nine cuisine restaurant and roof top swimming pool, providing all the luxury facilities and health clubs.

The Serena Hotel Islamabad contain 387 rooms including suite with function halls to accommodate about five thousand people, and all other facilities that of a five star hotel.

What is Facilities Operations

Facilities operations and maintenance encompasses all that broad spectrum of services required to assure the built environment will perform thefunctionsfor which a facility was designed and constructed. Operations and maintenance typically includes the day-to-day activities necessary for the building and its systems and equipment to perform their intended function.

In broad perspective the facility operation is merged with maintenance known as Operations and Maintenance (O & M) because facilities can’t be provided efficiently without it is properly maintained, therefore these two terms are discussed as one term (Facilities Operation and Maintenance).

Facilities Operations at Serena

As a five star hotel the Serena Hotel provide all the services to their customers to keep them satisfied and accomplish the organisational goals and objectives. To have good services they have a very structured Facilities Operations and Maintenance system, which involve all the dimensions of facility operations. Some of the major operations of this department in Serena Hotel Islamabad are following.

Building Maintenance

As described above that Serena is having a very good looking prominent building at a very attract full and expensive location at the city, so the hotel management is very much focused about the maintenance of the building, as this is the main resource of the business.

Catering

As Serena is having nine restaurants within the complex, each restaurant offer different meals, like South Asian, African and Arabian foods, so this area of the business is also included in the work duties of the facility operational staff.

Cleaning

Is the one of the core functionality of the operational staff and support staff at every organization, at Serena Hotel this is a separate department for cleaning the hotel premises, the cleaning staff is 24/7 on duty to provide clean and neat environment at hotel.

Consultancy & continuous improvement

Continuous improvement is a very significant area of facilities operations, so at Serena there is proper system of consulting for the operational staff and very structured program for continuous improvement.

Gardens Maintenance

At Serena there are multiple gardens with beautiful plants and flowers, to maintain the beauty of these gardens there is a well trained team to take care.

Procurement

Is a key activity in facilities operations, to procure all the requirements of the hotel, maintain sufficient stock of all required items and remain in contact with supplier to have on time delivery of the required items.

Projects & relocation

Facility Operations and Maintenance also look at the areas which need immediate focus and also plain the long terms goals of their department. They start new projects and relocation of current projects like outsourcing some operations of the hotel.

Mechanical & Electrical Services

Mechanical and Electrical services are also the responsibility of families operation management staff, to look after the machineries and electrical devices and supply there is a trained staff available at Serena.

Security Services

To provide security to customers and staff members the security services are outsourced by Serena, private company guards remain at duty all the time, while there is a latest setup of CCTV which remains in operation all the time to keep eye on any suspected terrorist activity.

Waste & environmental management

To keep environment clean is a very big issue in today’s world, so to properly dispose the wastes and remain the hotel environment clean there is a team of cleaners who work on disposing the wastages of the hotel, clean the rooms, gardens and corridors, kitchen and other premises of the hotel.

Responsibilities as Facility Manager

As facility management is a very vast field, and a diverse range of specialism and responsibilities in different combinations, depending on organizational structure. Facilities managers are involved in both strategic planning and day-to-day operations, particularly in relation to buildings and premises. Some of the main responsibilities and duties of Facility Manger at Serena Hotel Islamabad are stated below

• Skillful management of administrative activities like procurement, purchase of equipments, housekeeping, safety and health, security, employee induction etc.
• Maintaining monthly reports for the expenses incurred for maintaining office infrastructure and facilities.
• Monitoring of budget and cost controlling
• Provide assistance in project management and cost optimization
• Managing repair, maintenance & replacement of office equipments, appliances, furniture, furnishings, vehicles, building etc.
• Purchase and implementation of security tools and surveillance cameras.
• Event Management, organizing meetings, conferences, making travel arrangements and hotel reservations for guests & foreign delegates.
• Acting as info-hub for providing administration related information and supervising administrative activities like general admin, verification of stationery stock, petty cash, courier, florist, pest control, housekeeping, etc.
• Arranging for relocation of employees from different parts of country which includes arrangement for their home and family related needs such as school admission, transportation and taking care of their household requirements.
• Arranging accommodation for onsite employees by co-ordination with various companies providing accommodations and to continuously improve the quality of services.

Legal, Health and Safety (H & S) Obligations

Anobligationis a requirement to take some course of action, whetherlegalormoral, so at Serena Hotel there is a proper system of carrying out care of legal, health and safety obligations. It is the responsibility of the organization management and Facility Manager to ensure the health and safety of their employee during their work. Facility Mangers responsibility also include to do risk assessment and analysis, purchasing compulsory employers’ liability insurance if they don’t already have it, ensuring equipment is fit for its purpose, testing, certifying and maintaining electrical equipment, ensuring computers can be used comfortably and easily, making sure the availability of first aid boxes are easily accessible locations at work premises, avoiding the use of trailing electricity cables to reduce the risk of fire and electric shocks, ensuring staff are suitably trained to work safely, keeping records of, and if necessary reporting,any serious accidents, illnesses or injuries experienced by hotel workers.

At Islamabad Serena Hotel to provide the basic healthcare treatments there is a dispensary working round the clock with qualified doctor and other paramedic staff, the hotel has its own ambulance service to shift any casualties to hospitals in case of emergency.

Health and Safety at Serena

At work place the health and safety obligation is to keep your employees and yourself safe from all of the emergencies like fire, any terrorist activity and safety during work. At Serena Hotel employees of facility staff and operational staff are advised to

• Follow the instruction given by facility manger regarding health and safety
• Get trained about using personal protective equipments
• Not willfully or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided for workplace health and safety at the workplace.
• The manger ensures that the workplace is safe and employee; customers can visit the hotel without any risk.
• the workplace is safe and without risk of illness or injury from any plant or substance used properly in the course of work
• The environment of the workplace must be such that it does not put the health of the workpeople at risk.
• Perform the risk assessment activities to minimize the risk involved in health and safety at the work environment.
• The facility manger continuously monitors and reviews the health and safety standards at the hotel.
• Constantly the activates of Safety sampling is done which involves inspecting the whole work area but looking only for particular types of hazard – i.e. the sample, and
• Safety audits which Endeavour to obtain a numerical measure of the number of examples of each hazard found.
• A key element in achieving and maintaining high levels of safety is knowledge of the hazards, their effects and the techniques to avoid or ameliorate those effects. So at Serena the facility management team and co workers are constantly updated with latest tools and trainings to enhance their skills and capabilities.

Administrative Systems at Serena

There are two types of administrative computer systems operational at Serena Islamabad. The first one is Management Information System (MIS) and the second one is Security system. Management Information system is a big software system having different modules for each and every department; it includes modules like from room reservation to bill calculations, and dividing staff duties to procurement, recruitment and selection. All the management related activities are done through this software system at Serena.

How can Serena improve the Facilities Operations

As far as Serena is the best in providing facilities operations at their premises as compare to other competitors at hotels market, but I will suggest Serena that they is possibilities of improvement, as Facility Manager at Serena I will suggest the administration to take the following steps in order to improve the standard of facilities operations.

• At Serena Hotel there is a computerized system which I will suggest to improve it to
  Computerized Maintenance System (CMS). Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) enable the facility manager, subordinates and customers to track the status of maintenance work on their assets and the associated costs of that work. CMMS are utilized by facilities maintenance organizations to record, manage and communicate their day-to-day operations. The system can provide reports to use in managing the organization’s resources, preparing facilitieskey performance indicators (KPIs)/metrics to use in evaluating the effectiveness of the current operations and for making organizational and personnel decisions. In today’s maintenance world the CMMS is an essential tool for the modern facilities maintenance organization.
• I will suggest the administration to keeping in mind the current security situations at Pakistan, instead of having own guards, outsource the security, and also apply to the Govt of Pakistan to provide security commandos during the stay of elite in the hotel.
• The HR department is required to consult the facility manager in hiring the facility staff and operation staff.
• The facility manger is required to clearly identify the job descriptions and responsibilities of all manger and staff members in order to streamline the process, and provide the best facilities at the hotel customers and staff.

Conclusion

Facility managementis aninterdisciplinaryfield primarily devoted to the maintenance and care of commercial or institutional buildings, such ashotels,resorts,schools,office complexes,sports arenasorconvention centers. Duties may include the care ofair conditioning,electric power,plumbingandlightingsystems;cleaning;decoration;groundskeepingandsecurity. Some or all of these duties can be assisted by computer programs. These duties can be thought of as non-core or support services, because they are not the primary business (taken in the broadest sense of the word) of the owner organization.

At Serena Hotel Islamabad the Facility Manger and Management of the hotel is very much focused about the facilities operations and maintenance. But some recommendations are provided for the management of the hotel to improve the facilities operations at Serena hotel.

References

1. http://www.facilities-management-companies.co.uk/index.php/types-of-facilities-management/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facility_management
3. http://www.wbdg.org/om/om.php
4. http://www.serenahotels.com/serenaislamabad/default-en.html
5. http://www.citehr.com/99200-admin-facility-management-responsibilities.html
6. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/facilities_manager_job_description.jsp
7. http://www.healthandsafety.co.uk/emplyr.htm
8. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.s=sc&r.l1=1073858799&r.lc=en&r.l3=1074402501&r.l2=1074402480&r.i=1074403745&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074403738&r.t=RESOURCES&lang=_w
9. http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/rights/yourobligation/who/index.htm