The Role of Facility Management in Education Sectors

When it comes to the education field, the role of facility management is to maintain the building as best as possible and meet the needs of those who use the building. Any schools or campuses that envision to provide good quality education to their students must provide adequate school facilities, resources and appropriate maintenance services which will, in fact, contribute a more effective learning environment to their users.

As a facility manager, one must deliver the needs of students, staffs and guests by constantly maintaining the buildings and exceeds their high expectations of the services rendered. Students and parents nowadays have a high expectation of the education system, the learning atmosphere and the education premises as well. The followings are suggested comprehensive assessment of the facilities to determine areas of need in schools, universities and the educational institutions;

Types of school facilities and multi-facilities space

The school and university space are a major part of the education facility. The education institution offered a variety of school programs and extra-curricular activities as it influences the design, nature and types of school space to be provided. For instance, students need an area to study, sports training, conduct experiment, gather social events and other activities while lecturers need an area for offices, meeting rooms and teaching classrooms. Today, the education facility creates new modern design spaces for social activities and academic purposes. The educational institutions not only require students to memorize the books but also involve them with hands-on activities and application of knowledge through conducting experiments in laboratories or other spaces.

Besides that, multipurpose facilities are provided not only for student academics but also to cater for members of the surrounding community especially after school hours in which they are able to access and utilize the school facility areas. The education institution wants to bring the communities closer to schools. Tools, supplies and equipment are necessary for education use and serve a various purpose that enables students to learn such as providing computers in computer labs, microscope, tubes, chemical for experiments in laboratories and even sports equipment. The teachers and students used restrooms, cafeteria, workshops, offices, laboratories, classrooms, etc. Providing a complete and complementary furniture system in the school building is equally important because it can encourage creativity and flexibility for students and staff alike. The set of furniture provided should be able to be rearranged and relocated depending upon the requirements of curriculum and syllabus. The correct furniture layout and style can motivate students to learn and stimulate individuals to handle their own learning, boost communication and concentration. Building owners invest in providing good quality furniture, equipment and functional spaces to reinforce the value of learning as well as saving resources in the long term.

Facility management maintenance

Most educational institutions are old buildings that were built with obsolete architectural designs that had never undergone renovations even though the educational system has changed rapidly and dramatically over the years. The institutional buildings and facilities became ruined due to wear and tear such as poor maintenance and weather conditions. Sometimes the educational management does not have the knowledge and knows how on managing the facilities properly and overlooked its maintenance needs. Repairs only occur on an ad-hoc and fire-fighting basis such as when there is a break down in the smooth running of the building systems. The facility management’s goals to deliver a safe and clean environment for a conducive learning and teaching atmosphere. These are the different categories of maintaining the education facilities as briefed below:

Besides that, multipurpose facilities are provided not only for student academics but also to cater for members of the surrounding community especially after school hours in which they are able to access and utilize the school facility areas. The education institution wants to bring the communities closer to schools. Tools, supplies and equipment are necessary for education use and serve a various purpose that enables students to learn such as providing computers in computer labs, microscope, tubes, chemical for experiments in laboratories and even sports equipment. The teachers and students used restrooms, cafeteria, workshops, offices, laboratories, classrooms, etc. Providing a complete and complementary furniture system in the school building is equally important because it can encourage creativity and flexibility for students and staff alike. The set of furniture provided should be able to be rearranged and relocated depending upon the requirements of curriculum and syllabus. The correct furniture layout and style can motivate students to learn and stimulate individuals to handle their own learning, boost communication and concentration. Building owners invest in providing good quality furniture, equipment and functional spaces to reinforce the value of learning as well as saving resources in the long term.

1. The emergency maintenance

Education institutional managers must plan for facility management that caters the facility needs in school or campuses. The institutions should respond to specific emergency situations such as natural disasters (earthquakes, typhoon, floods, etc.), internal disasters (fire outbreak, shooting etc.) and disruption of services (electricity or water breakdown, etc.). Some institutional facilities break down and need immediate repairs to solve the facility problem. The institutions would find it difficult to repair because it can incur high cost since the building facilities are poorly maintained in the first place. What makes matter worse is when the accidents caused injury or death to students, teachers and employees. The learning environment and teaching process would be disrupted and delayed until the damaged are fully repaired. The damages will significantly and adversely impact the reputation of the institutions, their core values, financials and would further risk the campus population. For example, without professional maintenance services in place, hazardous material spills incident can cause an infectious outbreak and without proper exit plans, mass casualty would be a possibility. Regular building safety inspections on emergency services, electrical, gas and water services are the necessary steps to ensure the safety and health aspects of the educational campus population.

2. The pre-planned routine maintenance

This is scheduled comprehensive maintenance which shall be undertaken periodically such as daily, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually and annually. The school management should comply with the schedule on a regular and regimented basis to prevent equipment and facility breakdown. These are the following examples of pre-planned routine maintenance:

• The cleaners should perform day to day cleaning duties throughout the school facilities.
• The grounds care or gardeners are responsible for managing the cleaning, leaves the collection, drain cleaning, landscaping up-keeping of the lawns and hedges of the institutions.
• Maintenance employees undertake regular maintenance inspections, fix-up broken furniture, equipment or damaged doors and even repainting the buildings etc.
• Professional security staff are recruited to patrol the campus from time-to-time on vandalism of the institutions’ assets, protect students from various hazards or gang fights and random security checks to avoid prohibited items and unauthorized people from entering the premises.

3. The predictive maintenance

Besides the maintenance that follows immediately after each occurrence of emergencies and the pre-planned regular maintenance, there is also the predictive maintenance. This category of trouble-shooting maintenance system relies on the study of forecasting techniques and pre-emptive behaviour analysis of the building maintenance system. Data from the maintenance services are collated and undergone statistical analysis in order to provide comprehensive forecasting and pre-empting events that could occur under a certain set of permutations and combinations.

Outsourcing services to professional third parties

The facility management services models changed over the years. Back in the early day, campuses and schools would directly hire employees as catering, cleaners, gardeners and even qualified personnel that provides specialist services to equipment maintenance, plumbing and air-conditioner maintenance on a continual basis. Nowadays the facility management shifted from in-house services rendered by in-house experts to outsourcing professional facilities services on a just-in-time basis. Educational institution demands a multi-services approach which is now considered to be cost savings and trending. Multi-services referred to as a single person managing all the services providers that range from boiler repairs, classroom equipment etc. to classroom paintings.

Atalian Global Services provides professional facility management services with the multi-business scope and multi-service ranging from cleaning, security services, technical maintenance, landscaping or ground maintenance, front-of-house, and energy management. Atalian has a team of experts and knowledgeable personnel with many years of experience, thus we are dedicated to deliver the best quality service solution for our client. Do contact us for a free consultation today for more information about our services. Atalian offers the best facility management service that is tailored to your specific needs and provides a suited package for you.