Introduction:

Facility management is the management of assets like building, estates which

encompasses both physical product and services. The services can be divided

into two hard and soft services. Hard services include thing like take care of air

conditioning. Soft services include such as security, custodial, janitorial,

landscaping, catering, mailroom, reception, photocopying pest control and

monitoring the performance of service providers. Facility management is also

known as property management, but mostly applied only to commercial

properties where the management and operation is more complex. Some or all of

these aspects are maintained by computer system.

Definition provided by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA)

is "A profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of

the built environment by integrating people, place, processes and technology."

Another definition provided by IFMA is: "The practice or coordinating the physical

workplace with the people and work of the organization; integrates the principles

of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering

sciences." (Ifma, 2008)

The British Institute of Facilities Management defined the facility management as

Integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the

agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary

activities.(BIFM, 2008)

Methodology:

In this project aspects of facilities management with examples in circumstance of

Indian hospitality industry from different books and websites were referred which

had applicable data of Facilities Management and the Indian Hospitality Industry.

And personal observation of training courses was also referred.

Role of facility management:

The role of facilities management is vast and is measured as quite important

application and management process in today’s fastest growing hospitality, it

make sure that everything is available and working properly for building residents

to do their work. It may range from the small scale to the large scale operation or

even to international scale. it is not only restricted to just asset care and

maintaining, managing the design of the hotels also counted good facilities

provided to the employees that ultimately be giving good service to guest that

will return in term profit. Now organizations provide the under contract facility

management services like for a specific period, including repairing, inventories

etc, main concern behind this is good service without any loss maintaining your

asset for a longer time.

Employees are also essential part of facility management department,

employees only aware the management what problem guest face and what all

required to solve them and maintain service quality. (Ransly et. Al, 2000 p 185)

How facility management works in hotels:

In hotels facility management have many sub department like asset

management, horticulture department, maintenance, information technology etc.

The operational aspects of design in asset management left to the judgment of

architect or plan team. In principle this should present no problems to a capable

team, but practically it is very difficult to understand the gloominess of an

organisation and details of its operational schemes. The design and construction

of a building typically require specialities and inputs. This is even in rather limited

developments, like versions of an existing building to hotel or restaurant.

(Ranslay, J 2000 pg 185) and hotel is a combined as food and room department,

rooms earn most of profit for the hotels and properly facilitate rooms would serve

as a long-term source of profits and attraction to the guest and facility provided to

guest’s rooms comes under House keeping department and also amenities

placement and periodic maintenance are taken care by this department with the

help of appropriate planning of facilities management. And all these service

provided to rooms after every guest leaves and proper all the amenities. Hotel

industry’s major concerns are rooms and keeping them in good condition which

helps to reduce losses and earn profit. Strategies planned for rooms with the

housekeeping personals help to maintain hotels assets as these were before.

Risks involved in room’s maintenance are also intended by the facilities

department of hotel risk like, fire, power cut etc. (management-hub, 2008)

Facilities management is much varied field which is concern with all the facilities

that decorate and over all make up of the hotel. And gives a complete experience

to the guest staying at the hotel and employees working in it. but the main

problem faced by the facilities management department is the assets and the

location because locality plays a important role in the attraction of guest which

target to get certain facilities, asset management is one of the parts of facilities

management where the locality plays a major role which involves maintains and

environmental concerns of the hotel. Maintenance department takes care of the

ware and tears of the hotel property and assets of hotel which is also called as

asset management. But asset management differ from facility management it is

only a sub section of facility management and takes care of assets only like the

building, furniture etc, but it is very important part of facilities management, as far

cost cutting initiative concern because facilities management also head the

department like, waste management, recycling, energy conservation,

maintenance etc. The operational aspects of design are frequently left to the

discretion of architect or design team. In principle this should present no

problems to a competent team, but in practice it is very difficult to understand the

nuances of an organisation and details of its operational strategies. The design

and construction of a building usually require input from may different specialists.

This is so even in quite limited developments, such as the adaptations of an

existing building to house a small hotel or restaurant . (Ranslay, J 2001 pg 185)

How facilities management is helping the hospitality industry:

First important component need as a facility to any hospitality organization is

accessibility, it is not possible for every hotel to situate near to airport or railway

station so there is needed to provide pick up and drop to guest if location is far

from public transportation.

And front office department are also fulfill with the facility like Fidelio and opera

system, which helps managing the hotels rooms by keeping a count of the

occupied, vacant, out of order or VIP’s in house and also automatically managing

the guests account and profile. In food and beverage department also facilitated

like micros to manage the bills automatically and calculate also. which helps the

cashier in the restaurant to manage every guests bills according to their room

numbers, it shows the VIP’s in house and the amount of sales of food and

beverages in all other outlets of the hotel.

Some other facility also include like mini bar in the room, spa facility, transport,

and also facility provided to the employees also indirectly delivered to guest only

by enhancing the performance of employees. But most important aspect in

facility management is assets of the hotels, and here in India many a time this

creates the problem for the management, because hotels in India are transferred

from palace to hotel so implementing the facility programmer is quite hard, and

because of this most of hotels do not provide accommodation to its staff, which is

a threat to employee facilities. And few facilities like elevator system are not

proper in India as compare to abroad, and many hotel not even provide service

elevator, so some time it late the service for guest also.

Conclusion:

Facilities management helps an organization’s business and profits. It take

care of asset of property their maintenance and minimizing the risks and also

reduce the loss upon physical product. The organization should provide facility to

there employee because indirectly they serve to guest only and help increasing

revenue. It helps employees to work efficiently by providing work friendly

environment and reducing wastage and hence increasing its profitability of an

organization. Facilities management has few problem in India but slowly they are

coming up threw implementing proper facility management system in the

organization.

Reference:

BIFM (2008). Facilities Management Introduction. Retrieved October 20th 2008

from http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/about/facilities

ifma(2008). Facility management practice. Retrieved on October 12th 2008 from

http://www.ifma.org/tools/index.cfm

Management-hub(2008). Facility management. Retrieved on October 13th 2008

from www.management-hub.com/facility-management.html

Ransley. J, Ingram . H ,2000, developing hospitality properties and facilities,

replica press pvt ltd.