Premises of Facilities Management Innovation
Start Date: Dec 2003
End Date: Dec 2005
Project Status: Complete
The facilities management profession has tried hard to distinguish itself from maintenance management, which has traditionally been associated with replacing ‘like-with-like’ and maintaining the status quo. Facilities management however is rarely perceived as a source of innovation with much of the innovation in buildings being attributed to the design and construction phase.
This research project will analyse the opportunities for innovation and exploitation of new technologies designed to support the operational stage of a facility. In addition it will consider whether such technologies are fully exploited or whether they remain largely a localised phenomenon. Put another way, how often do such new technologies remain unexploited or fail to diffuse?
The specific objectives of the study are to:
- Examine the range of new technological innovations and accompanying implementation solutions being used by organisations. Such technologies include:
- Automated identification and data capture (AIDC)
- Remote monitoring
- Condition monitoring
- Network enabled embedded systems
- Help desk systems
- Identify the impact and extent of these new technologies in the post occupancy period of a facility.
- Identify the sources of these technological innovations encompassing users, operatives (cleaners, maintenance staff, security), site managers and facilities managers.
- Identify the mechanisms and innovation climate that enabled the innovation to arise.
- Examine the degree of diffusion that the particular new technology has witnessed through the organisation, if at all.
- Test the transferability of the new technological innovation to other organisations.
The research will examine the motivations and factors which brought about the new technological innovation rather than concerning itself exclusively with the innovation itself. The study will consider the route by which the innovation came about and the way in which the innovation diffused (if at all) throughout the organisation. It will also attempt to evaluate the requisite factors that were necessary to make the new technology a success. This will be achieved by (1) assessing the characteristics of organisations where innovation has occurred and flourished; (2) assessing the receptivity of other organisations to approaches proven to produce innovation in other organisations.