FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
The FMA has increasingly been working with both
industry and government to broaden the focus of
sustainability so as to capture the benefits of addressing
both environmental and social impacts.
Moving forward, the FMA believes that it has a vital role
to play with Safe Work Australia to increase the awareness
of the FM’s role and responsibility in managing safe and
healthy buildings.
This has also involved encouraging engagement with
developers and architects at the design stage to
ensure that FMs can deliver real benefits in the long
term trough environmental design and design which
enhances safety and wellbeing.
Some of the actions that have been identified include:
Nicholas Burt is Chief
Executive Officer of the Facility
Management Association of
Australia, the peak industry
body for facilities management.
• Industry participation in the review and development
of standards and regulations;
For more information visit
www.fma.com.au or email
[email protected]
An important part of the equation is education and
ongoing professional development to ensure that
FMs are kept up to date with the latest standards and
regulations in risk management.
• Providing joint training and education opportunities;
and,
• Develop guidance material such as the FMA’s Good
Practice Guides.
In 2013 the FMA ran a series of workshops on the
newly completed 2012 fire standards AS1851. Although
the standard had been issued earlier in the year, there
was little understanding around what it meant, who
was responsible for what, and how it should be applied.
Consequently the response to the FMA workshops was
overwhelming and clearly highlighted a wider issue
facing the industry.
Despite our progress, there are still some gaps which
require the collaboration of government and industry
to address. To date, Government and industry research
on Australia’s built environment has predominately
focused on design and construction, resulting
in a culture where decision making in facilities
management is based more on assumptions rather
than evidence based research.
The FMA has also been a great advocate in providing
training to assist in the promotion and compliance
of standards and regulations. Working closely with
Standards Australia and the International Standards
Organisation, the Association has actively contributed to
the development of standards that improve the quality of
services in facilities management, particularly in the areas
of Health, Safety and Well-being.
As facilities management has an important role to play
in the performance of Australia’s existing building stock,
and majority of the current built environment particularly
our office stock is more than 10 years old, further research
in the field of facilities management would go a long way
in improving the productivity, safety and sustainability of
our built environment.
Some of these include:
• Maintenance of Fire Protection Equipment;
• Ventilation and Air conditioning; and,
• Industrial Height Safety Equipment.
To improve the current gap in industry research relating
to facilities management, the FMA are seeking further
support from the current government to fund research
in important areas such as health, safety, wellbeing
and productivity.
Govlink I Issue 1 2014
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