Introduction

Effective management of non-core business (i.e. support services) enables an organization to function at its most efficient level. The focus is facility management, which was once regarded as the poor relation among the construction and real estate disciplines. The significance of facility management is nowadays far more widely recognized. In support of the further development of the discipline, this book offers a comprehensive treatment of what facility management means to owners, operators, tenants, facility managers and professional advisors. The book contains advice on how facilities can be better managed from a number of perspectives, although the approach is not intended to be prescriptive.

The organization

This book is directed at organizations within the private and public sectors acting primarily as owners and/or operators of facilities and tenants, as well as facility managers and professional advisors. The types of organization addressed might range from airport authorities and manufacturers to colleges and financial services firms. The structure, management and facility-related needs of these organizations will vary widely; however, the information contained in this book is intended to have a correspondingly wide application. It is necessary, of course, for each organization to consider the relevance to itself of the issues and points raised.

The customer as end-user

In the broadest sense, the customer is the organization in acting as a purchaser ...

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