Key performance indicators for measuring performance of facilities management services in hotel buildings: a study from Sri Lanka

Purpose The concept of facilities management (FM) has been acknowledged as a novel avenue brought in to ensure productivity and customer satisfaction in the Sri Lankan hotel industry. Accordingly, performance measurement (PM) has become a crucial entity, where key performance indicators (KPIs) have become the most important instruments of PM in determining how well these FM services are performing. Unfortunately, nowadays, the service quality of hotel buildings has significantly retreated due to the absence of a proper PM system with relevant KPIs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify relevant KPIs to measure the performance of the FM services in Sri Lankan hotel buildings. Design/methodology/approach A mixed approach was used to conduct this study. Data were gathered through expert interviews and an expert survey. The expert interviews were conducted to identify the relevancy of KPIs that are discovered through literature review to the Sri Lankan context, and the expert survey was conducted to identify their level of importance. Collected data were analysed using content and statistical data analysis methods. Findings Empirical findings revealed that a PM system with relevant KPIs can be identified as a crucial requirement for FM services in hotel buildings in Sri Lanka to meet the customer needs successfully. Adequate and relevant KPIs are significantly vital for an effective PM system for FM services. Thus, ultimately, 68 most important KPIs have been captured amongst the generally identified KPIs, which can be used in developing a proper PM system to measure the performance of FM services in hotel buildings. Originality/value The previous studies have just focused on the PM in FM services in a general manner where a significant dearth in existing knowledge can be identified when it comes to exploring relevant KPIs for an effective PM system to be implemented in hotel buildings in Sri Lanka to measure the performance of FM services. Accordingly, the current study unveils the most important KPIs, which can be used in measuring the performance of FM services in hotel buildings. The study recommends the use of a proper PM system with identified KPIs by respective industry practitioners to enrich the performance of FM services in hotel buildings in Sri Lanka and thereby achieve the ultimate goals successfully.

Investigation of Facilities Management Implementation Process for Malaysian State Mosque

The mosque has been a focal point of Islam since its inception, serving as a place of worship, a centre of education, economic pursuits, communal services, and spirituality. However, due to a variety of causes, the scope of mosque functions has been constrained as the world has developed rapidly. In summary, congregational capacity and facilities relating to hygiene, safety, and space utilisation are among the problems being closely examined in Malaysia. Based on the problems, the subject of mosque management's competencies that need to be improved in order to become more professional arises. Reviews of literature suggested that facilities management (FM) approach has the potential to be incorporated in the management of mosque. The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of FM process in mosque in supporting the achievement of mosque’s functions. A quantitative approach was adopted in this study. The implementation of FM process from 12 state mosques in Peninsular Malaysia were investigated using questionnaire survey which distributed among the mosque management that manage mosque facilities. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaire survey data with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results from the questionnaire survey revealed that, 50 per cent of the mosque has implemented most of the FM process model elements whereas other mosque still need further improvement to ensure the standards of FM process model is achieved. The results indicated that there is potential for improvement in mosque that possesses low position in implementing elements of FM process model that includes FM formulation strategy, requirement analysis of services, FM solutions development, FM solutions implementation and monitoring service provision. The finding could assist the top management level of the mosque in strategising the implementation action plan of mosque facilities management.

An analytic network process model for hospital facilities management performance evaluation

Purpose This study aims to establish a rigorous model that can pragmatically evaluate the facilities management (FM) performance of hospitals. Design/methodology/approach Among the applicable performance indicators that were identified from extant literature, a focus group study shortlisted ten key performance indicators (KPIs) in four categories (safety, physical, financial and environmental) and verified their practicality. Using the analytic network process (ANP) method to process the focus group’s responses yielded importance weightings for the KPIs and developed the intended evaluation model. This model was then validated by a case study. Findings From the empirical data collected, two types of FM performance data and two scenarios of KPI scores were identified. To process these data and scores, a robust calculation method was devised and then proved useful in obtaining an overall score for holistic hospital FM performance. The case study confirmed the appropriateness and validity of the model developed. Research limitations/implications Through illustrating how the ANP method could be applied to develop an FM performance evaluation model, the study contributes knowledge to the multi-criteria decision-making domain. Despite the geographical limitation of the model established (i.e. centered around a group of hospitals investigated in Hong Kong), the study can serve as a reference for developing performance evaluation models for other buildings or infrastructures globally. Practical implications The model constitutes a practical tool for evaluating the FM performance of hospitals. Using this model on a regular basis will enable performance benchmarking and hence, continuous improvement of FM services. Originality/value The ANP model established is the first of its kind tailored for evaluation of hospital FM performance.

A framework for facilities management supply chain performance evaluation: case study of hotel buildings

Purpose The performance of the facilities management supply chain (FMSC) in the hotel sector is challenged by the diverse nature of parties involved, their relationships and the flows of services and products. Although performance measurement systems have been endorsed by researchers worldwide as a mechanism to evaluate and improve performance, there seems lack of mechanisms to evaluate the FMSC performance in hotels. Hence, this paper aims to develop a framework that would enable to evaluate FMSC performance in hotels. Design/methodology/approach A case study strategy was used, where 3 five-star hotels in Sri Lanka were studied for the purpose. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 professionals involved in FMSC and through document reviews. A content analysis was performed and the framework was developed. This was validated with 3 subject matter experts in the field. Findings The study findings revealed that the FMSC process is different from manufacturing and service supply chain (SC) processes as it comprises both product and service elements and incorporates internal, as well as external customers. The developed FMSC process comprises seven sub-processes as follows: delivery of products, delivery of services, sourcing, make/fulfil, delivery of FM services and products, receipt of FM services and receipt of products by customers. Based on the derived FMSC process and the key activities, 38 key performance indicators were developed and used in the framework to evaluate the performance of FMSC. Originality/value The developed performance evaluation framework is expected to facilitate performance measurement of the SC and enhance its performance. Further, it would enhance cooperation among FMSC partners and assist in achieving FMSC excellence.

Prediction of Intensive Care Cases for COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia: An Artificial Neural Networks Approach

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Malaysia is a part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic. The emergence of COVID-19 has led to high demand for intensive care services worldwide. However, the severity of COVID-19 patients that need intensive care unit (ICU) treatments requires details investigation. This study aims to predict the number of ICU cases due to COVID-19 disease in Malaysia. The prediction was done based on the data related to new, recovered, and treated cases which were collected from the website of the Ministry of Health Malaysia started from April until August 2020. Artificial Neural Networks Multilayers Perceptron Backpropagation (ANN-MLP-BPP) model was developed for predicting ICU cases based on the usage of the real set of data. The ANN-MLP-BPP model was validated by splitting the data into 80% for training and 20% for testing. The results show that with the increase in the number of undertreated cases, the number of predicted ICU will also be increased. The predicted ICU admission is almost equivalent to a 1 percent increment of the number of cases undertreated. These findings may help the frontline physicians in planning and handling the facilities management during the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the future.

Soft skills requirements in e-complaint project team to support facilities management at Malaysian polytechnics

PurposeIn the context of the study, soft skill means identifying efficient and effective approaches for improving operation and maintenance (O&M) processes in facilities management and extending the management of building facilities and infrastructure. Applying the concept of soft skill to the O&M processes of facilities management at polytechnics in Malaysia, the paper aims to identify problems with conventional working practices in this area and to recommend potential solutions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews evidence that conventional working methods generate significant problems related to paper-based forms, improper database management and flawed decision-making processes.FindingsThe paper finds that the application of the concept of soft skill reveals the need for more sophisticated management solutions in the O&M processes of facilities management.Originality/valueThe concept of soft skill will guide future improvements and developments in maintenance management systems (MMS) to fulfil requirements in this area.

Clinical data management A Review of Current Practice in Australia

The practice of clinical data management (CDM) in Australia has seen and continues to experience tremendous growth. As such, this article reviews the current practice of CDM in Australia. The article addresses the history of the profession and provides insight into the difference between the sectors, the evolving role, ongoing requirements for training and education, and an overview of the regulations and how these impact the Australian CDM landscape. Current practice of CDM in Australia differs considerably between industry, academic, and non-profit sectors though the uniform regulatory requirements are provided nationwide. This has raised challenges for mostly academic, non-profit, and small-scale trials which are more likely to lack access to resources, facilities, management, and funding. Australian clinical data managers are required to have formal skills related to data, technology, security, and project management, though they are also expected to operate at the highest levels of excellence across all areas of their diverse roles. It is only in recent years that CDM has evolved to a stronger focus on data quality. Regardless of these challenges, clinical data managers have played, and continue to play, a key role in Australian biomedical research. They have provided guidance on data collection, processing, and management procedures to ensure that studies achieve high quality outcomes. However, more research is needed to develop specific CDM training courses to help Australian clinical data managers to meet a standard of knowledge, education, and experience to be officially recognised as a profession.

Connecting Reservoir, Wells, Facilities Management, HSEE to Accelerate Data Driven Value: Digital Fields Expansion

Oil & gas industry player have always been big investors in advancement of technology, especially in the direction of extracting additional petroleum to address the production decline. In the spirit of automation, PETRONAS has various automated technical workflows that tackles different types of challenges and purposes. The operational, technical and engineering aspects of increasing production and effectiveness of execution are built upon these processes related to automation of data sources as well as systems integration. With the recent challenge that forced the employees to work remotely, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the Digital Fields (DF) solution can cater for more information and to transform the way of working. Linking distant teams to work together on the same platform to resolve production related issues, centralized monitoring and diagnostics is key to this transformation. Workflows can enable organizational vision since having the right type of information available in a visualization environment that provides actionable insights to the right "persona" across different domains and teams accelerates production increases and decreases the production decline at brown fields. The success of this is linked with working together with the Reservoir, Wells and Facilities Management (RWFM) team to ensure the critical information are captured. The improved synergy between offshore and onshore staff due to the shared operations visualization supports further analysis and decision making irrespective of their location. Providing the "persona" with the relevant production and other related data in a modern analytical platform allows them to concentrate on production optimization rather than the data gathering aspect of the traditional method. PETRONAS has considerable experience in developing automated digital oilfield workflow solutions and extending Digital Fields capabilities with greater coverage of other systems such as Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) and topside facility management is part of the current and future roadmap. In this paper, we will describe the journey taken by PETRONAS Upstream Digital in extending the Digital Fields capability, and how the effort in digital transformation has helped in unlocking greater value in the daily operation.