Facility management must constantly be up-to-date, current and innovative in order to be able to provide in organizations balance of their core activities with ongoing social, demographic, climatic and technological changes. The world pace is becoming faster and companies that do not reflect upon these trends are putting at stake not only their own effectiveness but their very existence. The present trends can be seen on several levels. The following closely connected triangles of trends in focus of facility managers can be seen increasingly relevant:
1. People – workplace environment – well-being,
2. climatic changes – environment – sustainability,
3. technologies – PropTech – innovations.
1. People – workplace environment – well-being
“Facility managers will not maintain assets but individuals.” This is how David Martinez, PhD, portrayed the trend in his EFMC 2019 presentation. These words may sound a bit pompous, but they stay with us long after the conference is over. Organizations should first and foremost care about individuals, meaning about the customers, employees, managers, about all relevant people who may come in contact with them.
To achieve optimum performance, it will be necessary to take a more complex and sensitive look at how to harmonize different opinions, mindsets, work approaches and demands for the work environment of the different generations meeting at one place. In the new workplace environment, it will soon be possible to encounter up to five generations at once. We must spark creativity to keep up.
What kind of influence does the environment bear on individuals? Substantial.
First, people must have all five senses satisfied enough in order to perform well in the long run. For this reason, it is essential to have a suitable immediate physical environment.
Secondly, people look at wider environment and other possibilities of the space around, be it within a building or wider complex.
The boom of various concepts of space as a service is a result of these trends. This also is where certification WELL awarded by International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is becoming more pertinent. The intention is to transform buildings and communities with such tools that will help people feel healthy and allow them to prosper. Within WELL certification, seven areas are rated: 1. air, 2. water, 3. nutrition, 4. light, 5. fitness, 6. comfort, 7. mind.
2. Climatic changes – environment – sustainability
The international conference WWMF in Amsterdam this year resonated with the message that Planet Earth has no plan B. We have not inherited this planet, we are, in fact, borrowing it from our children. Human-activity-invoked climatic changes, depleting of natural resources, increased use of energies in buildings and related growing rate of air pollution are just a few of upcoming challenges that facility management must face.
Facility management must be greener, more sustainable and more efficient than ever before. The current linear model of economy – “take-use – discard”, which continues to produce more than 50% of unprocessed waste for incineration and landfills, meaning that only a part of the waste is being recycled, is not sustainable.
Facility management must be greener, more sustainable and more efficient than ever before. The current linear model of economy – “take-use – discard”, which continues to produce more than 50% of unprocessed waste for incineration and landfills, meaning that only a part of the waste is being recycled, is not sustainable. The only sustainable option is a change to the circular and carbon-neutral economy, a model „take-use-remake/refurbish-use-…etc.“
A voluntary sign of sustainability on buildings are so-called green building certificates, of which the most popular are British BREEAM and American LEED. A green certificate is not only a sign of energetic effectiveness, but the building is also rated in other categories on its impact on the environment, health and society. BREEAM, for instance, evaluates ten categories: 1. energies, 2. health and well-being, 3. innovations, 4. utilization of soil, 5. utilization of materials, 6. management, 7. emissions, 8. transport, 9. waste,10. water.
To ensure sustainable prosperity on a global scale, it is essential to use resources in a smarter, more sustainable way.
3. Technologies – PropTech – innovations
Where people will be unable to keep up with previous trends anymore, new technologies and innovations will be able to have their field day. We just need to spark our creativity to bring them.
“Smart offices will be the answer to people’s health concerns at work as well as to increased demand for flexibility.”
Smart offices will be the answer to people’s health concerns at work as well as to increased demand for flexibility. Smart buildings, at the same time, will be an answer to automated optimization of building operation, a decrease of energy consumption along with emissions. Smart cities will become an answer to the wider-aspect of global challenges.
The international academic community of facility management reflects the trend of the ascent of technologies as well. The prize for the best expert article at this year’s EFMC 2019 in Dublin went to an article discussing the relationship between emerging technologies and their influence on facility services.
“PropTech is one of the main facilitators and denotes all digital technologies that bear influence on digital transformation in the traditional operation of buildings or the functioning of the whole traditional real estate industry.”
PropTech is one of the main facilitators and denotes all digital technologies that bear influence on digital transformation in the traditional operation of buildings or the functioning of the whole traditional real estate industry. PropTech includes technologies utilized not only in buildings, such as smart buildings/cities using Internet of Things (IoT) for communication between devices but also those supporting their smart construction (e.g. Building Information Modeling – BIM), planning, sale, lease, operation, even appraisals, contracts as well as payments (e.g. blockchain platforms are being used for secure internet transactions, Ethereum being the best known).
Following automatized and smart buildings, cognitive buildings will be next. In other words, learning buildings. Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to evaluate data much faster than humans are and also, it learns from mistakes. Advanced algorithms of learning (Machine Learning – ML/Deep Learning – DL) used by artificial intelligence are patentable and their number has been exponentially rising in the past few years. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published a report this year in which it says that some 340 000 patents regarding artificial intelligence have been registered since 1950. Half of those have only been registered after 2012. And around a third of the half are inventions connected with advanced learning algorithms.
There is so much Big Data today, gathered from all online devices that it has become ineffective to store it in a physical space. This is where virtual storages (clouds) become handy. Thanks to artificial intelligence, Big Data can be evaluated much more effectively and it is expected that people will be able to make decisions based on it more and more often.
“By 2050, robots could replace up to 50% of manual operations in facility management, especially those that carry a higher safety risk.”
Another technological trend has been robotization. By 2050, robots could replace up to 50% of manual operations in facility management, especially those that carry a higher safety risk. Even today it is possible to encounter robots at exhibits, in some shops, bank branches or at reception desks. With the growing possibilities of internet connection (especially in case of younger generations) the term hyper-connectivity is used. Thanks to this phenomenon, offices can become not only smart but virtual as well.
Thanks to the implementation of ultra-fast mobile networks of the fifth generation, these virtual offices will also have the option of being mobile. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are becoming more frequently used in practical life because they offer a potential of significantly economizing on resources, they simplify decision procedures and are instrumental in experiences similar to true reality.
