Facility management is the job of keeping the buildings an organization works in fit to work in, and at a small organization it is usually somebody's second job. The definitions you will find describe it as the integration of people, place, process and technology, which is true and does not help on a Tuesday. What helps is knowing which questions the job is actually judged on, because they are the same four questions everywhere and they are all arithmetic: how much of the space is used, what the estate costs to run, whether the maintenance backlog is growing, and what the asset base will cost to replace. This page sets out each one, what it decides, and where the free sheet on this site works it.
How much of the space is actually used
The first figure, and the one with the largest number attached to it. Count the desks or workstations provided, count how many are occupied on an average day, and divide. On the utilization sheet here, 180 desks with 108 occupied is 60% utilization and 72 empty desks; the space costs $2,333 per desk provided but $3,889 per desk actually used; $168,000 of a $420,000 running cost is carried by desks nobody sits at; and 5,600 of 14,000 square feet could in principle be released. That last number is what a lease renewal turns on, and it is arithmetic rather than an opinion, which is why it is worth having before the conversation rather than during it.
What the estate costs to run, per square foot and per person
Add rent and rates, utilities, maintenance and services, then divide by area and by headcount. Both denominators matter and they answer different questions: cost per square foot tells you about the property, cost per person tells you about how you use it. On this site's worked example, $260,000 of rent and rates, $68,000 of utilities, $54,000 of maintenance and $38,000 of services is $30 a square foot and $3,500 a person, of which 62% is rent. A cost per square foot that looks fine while the cost per person climbs is the signature of an estate with too much space for the people in it.
Whether the backlog is growing or shrinking
Not how big it is, which everybody knows, but which direction it is moving, which almost nobody has worked out. Take the open work orders, the average hours each takes, the technicians available and their genuinely productive hours, and the new work arriving each week. On the backlog sheet, 340 work orders at 2.5 hours is 850 hours; three technicians at 30 productive hours give 90 hours a week; 112.5 hours arrive; the backlog therefore grows by 22.5 hours every week. That is a staffing arithmetic problem rather than a prioritisation one, and it takes 3.75 technicians simply to stand still.
What the asset base will cost to replace
The figure that is never urgent and is always the expensive one to have ignored. Take the replacement value of the asset base, its average expected life, its average age today and what you actually set aside each year. On the replacement sheet, $2.4m of assets over a 15 year life needs $160,000 a year; setting aside $90,000 covers 56% of it and leaves a $70,000 annual gap; the base is nine years into fifteen, so 60% of its life is consumed and $800,000 of replacement falls due within five years. Facility management is largely the practice of knowing that number before somebody else discovers it.
Space management in facilities management, and where the two stop meaning the same thing
Space management is the first of the four figures and a narrower job than the whole: what space exists, its area and capacity, who it is allocated to, and how much of it gets used over time. Facilities management is that plus the assets and their condition, the maintenance that keeps them running, and the money all of it costs. The distinction earns its keep when you start buying, because products sold for space frequently hold no asset register worth the name, and products sold for the estate record frequently hold occupancy as a single snapshot rather than a series. Decide which of the four figures you cannot answer today, then decide which shape of product to look at.
Questions people ask about facility management
What does facility management actually cover?
The buildings and everything that keeps them usable: the space and how it is allocated, the assets and their condition, the maintenance that keeps them running, and the money all of that costs. At a small organization it usually also covers whatever else has no other owner, which is why the four figures matter: they are the part of the job that can be answered rather than absorbed.
What is the difference between facility management and facilities management?
Nothing consistent. Both spellings are used for the same job, with facilities more common in the UK and facility more common in the US, and both appear in product names on the same page of search results. Neither indicates a different discipline, so do not read anything into which one a vendor uses.
Which of the four figures should I work first?
Utilization, because it usually carries the largest number and it is the one that changes a decision you are about to make anyway. On the worked example it puts $168,000 against empty desks and 5,600 square feet in play at a lease renewal. The backlog figure is the one most likely to change what you do next week, because it tells you whether the problem is prioritisation or headcount.
Do I need software to do facility management properly?
Not for the arithmetic, which is what the free sheets here do. Software matters when the record underneath stops holding up: several people touching it at once, the history of a change needing to survive the person who made it, and the link between an asset and its work orders needing to be real rather than maintained by hand.
How do space and facilities management fit together?
Space is where the job usually carries the largest number, so it is the part worth working first. On the worked example here, 60% utilization on 180 desks puts $168,000 of a $420,000 running cost against desks nobody sits at and 5,600 of 14,000 square feet in play at a lease renewal. The rest of the job runs on the same record and lands with different people: the backlog figure with whoever schedules the technicians, the replacement figure with finance.