Sustainable public sector facilities management is long overdue.
Rampant economic and environmental waste remains the norm regarding lifecycle management of public sector physical infrastructure. The pervasive lack of integration of Planning, Procurement, and Project Delivery teams with robust, standardized processes continues to prevent public sector facilites portfolio owners from efficient execution of repair, renovation, maintenance, or new build projects required to both support their organizational mission and meet and do so meeting the fiduciary responsibility to the public at large.
Solutions to this major issue are readily available, however, will require significant change from the ‘status quo’ and the associated adoption of ”systems thinking”. Neither appear likely to occur without some form of government mandate and significant improvement in formal and professional education with respect to lifecycle physical asset total cost of ownership management.
What is “systems thinking”? It’s simply a to look at an activity/process as a grouping/interaction, and investigate factors and interactions that could contribute associated outcomes. A holistic view of facilities repair, renovation, maintenance, and new construction therefore involve consideration all factors and interactions impact the outcomes in terms of cost, quality, time, sustainability, community, and overall satisfaction of all participants and stakeholders.
Why systems thinking?
Historically, most people have viewed the AECOO sector (architecture, engineering, construction, owners, operator/operations) as highly complex and involving relatively uncontrollable disparate domains of knowledge and disjointed, unshared objectives and goals.
The reality is that, relative to other industries and activities, construction and FM are not complex. Furthermore, it is relatively straightforward to enable formerly disparate entities to collaborate to consistently. achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. All the methods, processes, tools, and technologies are readily available to support efficient, sustainable lifecycle management of the built environment.
“All” that is required, is …
• Compentent owner leadership, commitment, and accountablity.
• The application and continuous improvement of systems thinking based frameworks/process.
• A common, shared technical and cost data environment.
• Adoption of systems thinking and a fundamental change from current planning, procurement, and project delivery practices.
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