bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intelligent buildings
Authors: Eley Joanna
Published: February 2008

The concept of intelligent buildings has evolved as the use of information technology — electronic data handling — has grown. There are several strands to this concept Separating them will enable facilities managers to assess the relevance of the whole, and to make informed decisions on their organisation's need for intelligent buildings — and intelligence in buildings.
Getting value for money
Authors: Williams Bernard
Published: February 2008

Most of the cost‐centres discussed so far in the premises audit series — those which a premises auditor can be expected to analyse, challenge and, if necessary, redress — have related to the cost running and maintenance of existing buildings.
Value‐added services
Authors: Collins Hugh
Published: February 2008

Value‐added is an economist's term meaning that the service offered will have additional value to the user compared with more basic telecommunications (or other) services. Within the telecommunications sector, there has been considerable discussion in recent years as to what constitutes a value‐added service. This argument has now been initially resolved with the publication of a discussion document by the DTI, Value‐added and data services, which defines anything beyond the basic telephone, telex and leased line services as being of a value‐added nature. Thus a telephone answering service adds value, as does an ‘electronic mail’ service linking dissimilar data terminals, perhaps on different continents. The range of service possibilities is very wide and currently seems to be limited only by entrepreneurs' abilities to define commercially attractive presentations of telecommunications services, computers and operators.
New generation fire alarm systems
Authors: Todd Colin , Tong David
Published: February 2008

New generation fire alarm systems are not altogether new in 1986. The British Fire Protection System Association (BFPSA) has had a Technical Working Group discussing them since 1981, the first commercial system was launched in the UK four years ago and the number of available systems is now considerable (see list of systems and suppliers below). As yet, however, there are no definitive standards or codes of practice for their use, and this can make life difficult for the facilities manager who has to specify and operate an alarm system. He is likely to have little more than sales literature for information. To help rectify this situation this first article explains what a new generation system is, what advantages it has, and presents a costed example. A second article will offer advice on how to choose a system together with feedback from users who are already operating new generation equipment.
Computerised facilities management systems
Authors: Harrison Andrew , Leaman Adrian
Published: February 2008

Assembling information is what computers are good at: monitoring information is what facilities managers do with a great deal of their time. In theory a perfect match is indicated. In practice these tasks can be problematical, and the gap between what is expected of the applications software and its actual performance can be large. As a general strategy it is best to start modestly and develop progressively, always keeping the applications within manageable proportions. Commercially useful software for applications in architecture, building maintenance, energy management and project management has been available for at least 15 years. One of the main features of the development of these systems is their reliance on traditional approaches to building design and management Just as the first railway trains were like stage coaches on iron rails, so the first applications software mimicked the manual methods they superseded.
New generation fire alarms: 2
Authors: Todd Colin , Tong David
Published: February 2008

Last month we introduced the advantages of new generation fire alarm systems. We ended our introduction on a cautionary note, however, by warning facilities managers to be wary of the indiscriminate claims of those selling ‘intelligent technology’, which is currently something of a fad in building services. Sound experience of analogue/addressable systems in use is not widespread: the potential for extra capital costs with this equipment and the opportunities for customised designs, means that care must be taken in comparing your needs with the varied facilities available. Some companies specialising in new generation systems accept that they are not the answer for all applications. Others do not Coping with this commercial bias, in the face of genuinely different design philosophies, will prove difficult; more so because of the absence of definite codes and standards (BS 5839 is currently being revised). This article hopes to present some useful information to help you procure the right system.
Office occupations densities
Authors: Harris Robert
Published: February 2008

The square feet available per person (ft2/person) in a building reflect its density of occupation. This can be calculated for either lettable area or usable area, depending on the objective. Lettable ft2/person includes the primary circulation, which reflects the efficiency of the building; whereas usable ft2/person excludes primary circulation and is more useful for space planning purposes. The tables illustrate occupation densities for a range of companies. They have been sub‐divided into sectors, and are ranked according to ft2/person of lettable space. The companies were randomly selected and for reasons of confidentiality are described only by the nature of their business. The companies are categorised by sector in order to discover whether there are any major differences between them. A relatively high proportion of professional companies and clearing banks showed comparatively high densities, while services companies had relatively lower densities. All of the sectors, except the European companies, illustrate at least a doubling of lettable densities between the tightest and most generous. This may be a function of increasing inefficiency as the proportion of primary circulation increases, and/or a pro‐rata fall in population as the proportion of usable area increases.
Databases
Authors: Leaman Adrian
Published: February 2008

The term database has come to prominence in the last year or so as a result of the popularity of the microcomputer. Virtually any microcomputer is now capable of running a database, and many people have first‐hand experience of them. This article looks at some of the main types, and their uses for facilities managers.
Spreadsheets
Authors: Leaman Adrian
Published: February 2008

The spreadsheet was the first applications program written specifically for the microcomputer to be widely adopted in the business world. This article explains what spreadsheets do, and how they are useful in facilities management.
Agrément and innovation
Authors: Garner Norman
Published: February 2008

The successful building, from a facilities management point of view, should offer user‐satisfaction and trouble‐free maintenance. The rareness of this state of affairs owes a great deal to the premature failure or poor performance of new and innovative products whose manufacturer has assured the specifier of the good quality of the product. New wonder flat roofing products that only last a year or two; raised access flooring which creaks and deflects; windows that leak; sound familiar?
Accommodating the disabled: new regulations
Authors: Smart Colin
Published: February 2008

The built environment often appears to have been designed, unconsciously, around a stereotyped user who is between 18 and 40, male, of average height and weight, fit, right‐handed: in other words, for about 20 per cent of the population. The other 80 per cent — women, children, elderly people, those who are unusually tall or short, or left‐handed — have all tended to be limited to some degree by this approach.
Setting the budget
Authors: Williams Bernard
Published: February 2008

The single most important factor in the daily routine of most facilities managers is the amount of money the organisation has allocated them to run the premises. In many cases the facilities manager's contribution to the determination of this figure — the annual operating and capital cost allocation — is minimal or nonexistent.
Project management
Authors: Carter RKT
Published: February 2008

Project management has for a number of years been gradually introduced into the premises and facilities management areas to cope with the complexity of disciplines now involved in building projects. This is especially true of the major building construction programme in the City of London due to the recent deregulation of the Stock Exchange and the tremendous impact this has had on the operations of the London financial institutions. As a consequence of this building explosion, large companies and financial institutions have reassessed their attitudes towards facilities management, particularly the way in which this profession has quickly established itself at senior management level in major companies involved in Big Bang and other projects throughout the country. Although Big Bang exemplifies this approach, the process of forming a project team applies to all projects; the only material change is the scale of the project operation which will of course determine the size of the project management team and the time frame, which in itself will impose personnel parameters.
CAFM bureaux
Authors: Harrison Andrew
Published: February 2008

Previous Facilities articles on computerised facilities management have examined a number of different approaches, from simple spreadsheets to comprehensive CAD/CAFM systems. Regardless of the type of system being installed within an organisation certain common points emerge.
Maintenance report
Authors: Cassells Sam
Published: February 2008

The school building stock in England and Wales amounts to 500 million ft2 of accommodation — a major asset, and one that needs to be protected. Bodies as diverse as Her Majesty's Inspectorate and the Audit Commission have already publicised the fact that this asset is under‐utilised and lacking in the investment to maintain its value or usefulness. This waste of potential resources is not only a national problem but is recognised internationally. It is in this international forum that the Programme on Education Building (PEB) makes its unique contribution.
Budgeting for fitting out
Authors: Williams Bernard
Published: February 2008

The most organisations in this high‐tech age the process of fitting out, altering and adapting space is a regular feature. What is more, it is no longer simply a case of new partitions and carpet and a lick of paint. The significance of the building services elements to the effectiveness of the workplace today cannot be overstated; these elements are costly and complicated and their design and costing do need a professinal touch.
The law and smoking at work
Authors: Tong David
Published: February 2008

Smoking at work, as reported in Facilities in March 1986, is an increasingly controversial issue. The more people who ‘kick the habit’ (over a million gave up between 1980–1982) the more non‐smokers there are to complain. Not only are people annoyed by the smells and irritations — dry eyes, sore throats — caused by cigarette smoke but they are becoming worried by the growing evidence that passive smoking, the involuntary inhalation of other people's smoke, is dangerous to their health.
Integration of technology
Authors: Cole Chris
Published: February 2008

Organisations increasingly rely on information being processed and communicated, and whether the processing is undertaken by personal computers, mainframes, minicomputers, private automatic branch exchanges (PABXs) or voice messaging systems, the communication is invariably by means of a cable. And since organisations have always sought to undertake activities more efficiently — however they have variously described efficiency — the result is that systems, ideally, are used more continuously. Technologists are responding to the challenge of integrating systems.
Business relocation: management and implementation
Authors: Harris Rob
Published: February 2008

According to the CBI's Employee Relocation Council (set up in 1986 as an information exchange and lobbying body), around 250 000 people move home each year, at an average cost of £6600/person, either because their employers ask them to work in a new location, or because the company moves lock stock and barrel to a different part of the country. This involves a cost to British industry of over £250 million pa.
Intelligent office buildings on three continents
Authors: Duffy Frank
Published: February 2008

Lack of depth is the usual price paid for breadth of ambition. However, in order to make sense of the current enthusiasm for intelligent office building it is necessary not only to investigate what is happening in countries as widely dispersed as Japan, Sweden and the United States but also to indulge in a rather liberal interpretation of what office buildings actually are. The first benefit of this point of view is that a great deal can be learned from contrasts between offices built in different countries (and for different organisations) particularly about values held by the individuals and about the social structures which make up the modern office organisation. The second benefit is that a better understanding of how offices are built and serviced, through time, is of great practical advantage to those who must manage rapidly changing organisations.
Meeting rooms
Authors: Owen Natasha
Published: February 2008

It is estimated that managers spend more time in meetings than in any other single activity — these will vary from informal discussion or briefing sessions around the workplace to carefully planned formal presentations involving sophisticated audio‐visual support Even in the smallest of organisations, the provision of comfortable, well‐designed and adequately equipped meeting rooms is essential. Not only is the meeting room a prime tool for management, training and selling the organisation's service, it is also the most potent indicator of corporate image and an important element in the overall design brief.
Managing life cycle costs by design
Authors: Alexander Keith , Marshall Steve
Published: February 2008

Although it is easy to show that some buildings cost more to run and operate than others, few people take the trouble to collect evidence and make the comparisons — reflecting the relatively low priority given to buildings in business. Reductions in costs can be significant to company profitability, yet it is a difficult matter to provide a convincing and fully costed argument for making changes to reduce future expenditure, especially where investment is required and where the benefits cannot be easily quantified. Indications are that significant savings are possible in most building costs in use. Indirect cost reductions may be achieved by reorganisation or by encouraging behavioural changes which will enable the building to be used to its full potential. However, direct cost savings may be made by changes to the physical fabric and positive steps can be taken in managing buildings to benefit from these changes and affect profitability. It has been possible to show through action research that the life cycle costs of buildings can be reduced by design, often at no overall capital cost With the availability of suitable tools the future, and its cost consequences, can become an influential factor in management decisions about the building stock.
RICS evidence to Audit Commission on local authority property
Authors: Garden Martin
Published: February 2008

On each occasion when the Audit Commission pronounces on an important issue, professional institutions and other vested interests feel obliged to stake a claim for pre‐eminence in implementing the strategies or to flesh out the succinctly expressed principles contained in the Commission drafting. This Memorandum of Evidence from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is, unfortunately, no exception to this well‐rehearsed tradition. I have no doubt that the Royal Institute of British Architects and others will follow on with their own versions of the absolute truth as they perceive it.
Cabling trends
Authors: Dukes Bernard
Published: February 2008

There can scarcely be a facilities manager who is not beset by cabling problems or familiar with horror stories of bad cabling. Several eminent reports have highlighted the problem of shoehorning cables into buildings which have not been designed with their provision in mind. The majority have been installed in an ad hoc fashion without any understanding of what the overall requirement was or will be. Even where facilities such as false floors existed, freedom led to anarchy. As a result, some of these privileged users have been forced to relocate if they wanted to change their cabling system.
Air conditioning
Authors: Battle Timothy
Published: February 2008

The excitement and publicity surrounding the introduction of new rules governing financial transactions in the City of London, and the consequent influx of new players anxious to have their share of the action has masked the impact that the growth of information technology (IT) has had on commercial buildings generally.
Life cycle costing — a tool for decision making
Authors: Akhlaghi Fari
Published: February 2008

Facilities operations are influenced by levels of decision making that can be classified in order of priority as strategic/corporate, tactical/ professional and operational/implementational. Facilities managers themselves operate at the tactical/professional level, translating strategic/corporate policies into operational realities within buildings, while dealing with the day‐to‐day problems of monitoring, provision and management. To ensure excellence in the quality of decisions at all levels, it is essential that professionals successfully influence policy decisions and facilities managers are no exception to this rule.
Risk management
Authors: Cassels Sam
Published: February 2008

In the battle for resources the facilities management professional must overcome not only the tendency for many organisations to misunderstand the relevance of his area of expertise, but also the lingering defeatism common to many facilities managers. Given the history of decision‐making in the facilities management field, this defeatism is understandable. Much of the blame for ineffectiveness must however, lie with facilities managers themselves, for failing to appeal to the real motivations of ‘clients’.
Fenzi‐Geometrica — new partitioning system from Ward Building Systems
Authors: Cooper Rodney
Published: February 2008

Ward Interiors has developed a new monobloc partitioning system called Fenzi‐Geometrica — a British product, despite the Italian name, which looks set for success in cornering a large proportion of the UK market.
Reassessing total office occupation densities
Authors: Katsikakis Despina
Published: February 2008

The current Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act, 1963 (OSRP) requires that an office building's stairways must be able to evacuate a total occupation figure based on a density of 4m2 (43 ft2) per person lettable area. This requirement imposes an unnecessary increase in the core area in new office developments—resulting in loss of lettable area and imposition of core elements (stairways) in otherwise continuous, easy‐to‐plan office space. It is, therefore, essential to test the accuracy of the 4m2 per person requirement by analysing the way in which space is allocated in a typical office building and how different organisations use office space.
Barcoding
Authors: Harrison Andrew
Published: February 2008

The articles on computerised facilities management that have previously appeared in Facilities have tended to concentrate on strategic facilities management tasks. These tasks are of great importance both to the facilities management department and to the functioning of the organisation as a whole and they also have the advantage that they require small quantities of data. PCs using spreadsheets or database programs are usually more than able to cope with the tasks.
Risk management
Authors: Robinson Sheila , Robertson Judith
Published: February 2008

Facilities managers are undertaking an increasing responsibility for day‐to‐day risk management. They are in the unenviable position of providing support that is only acknowledged if it fails — if there is a major disaster. Risk is now being analysed in terms of the financial impact on operational productivity — the facilities manager will only be seen to have achieved success if any negative financial impact on operational productivity is avoided or at least minimised. Primarily this means recognising the areas of risk; then using this awareness to develop means of minimising risk without affecting operational effectiveness.
Post‐occupancy evaluation
Authors: Ellis Peter
Published: February 2008

This is the first of three articles on post‐occupancy user evaluation and its uses in facilities management It discusses the background to the present growth of interest in post‐occupancy evaluation (POE); the different purposes of carrying out POE, and some general considerations for facilities managers wanting to employ POE. Subsequent articles will cover techniques for user consultation in more detail; how these are related to the purpose of the POE, and the type of information that is required.
Post‐occupancy evaluation: the planning workshop
Authors: Ellis Peter
Published: February 2008

The previous article in this series (Facilities 5/11, November 1987) discussed the background to the current interest in post‐occupancy evaluation (POE), defined its purposes and outlined the different types of POE and their possible uses by the facilities manager. The distinctions summarised in Table I are important in their implications for the POE techniques to be used, and for the form of information that emerges. This article is about conducting a planning workshop, the technique recommended for the upgrading type of POE, whether of the problem‐solving or of the planned improvement type. The third article will deal with methods more appropriate to the planning type of POE.
Speech communication in the office
Authors: Latham Howard
Published: February 2008

Some facilities managers will be in the position of adapting existing space to cope with changing needs, while others will be concerned with drawing up specifications for new spaces. Both need practical advice from the acoustician about how to deal with existing problems of speech and noise in rooms. Many offices facing crises in space planning and in staff management are also faced with difficulties concerning speech acoustics, particularly in the areas of speech intelligibility, speech privacy and noise. Research into these aspects of room acoustics by the present author has resulted in an improved approach to measuring the information characteristics of both speech and noise in rooms. A design index is described for predicting the intelligibility of speech and is illustrated by a typical example of conditions in the open plan office. Advice is also needed on the implications of new speech technologies (speech synthesis and speech recognition) on office layout. These new products have already been in everyday use for over 10 years in some office environments and are becoming more commonplace. It is shown that as the new, speech‐driven equipment is taken up, the problems of containing noise in open‐plan spaces will increase, unless speech acoustics in the office is given a new priority.
Risk management: new initiatives
Authors: Leaman Adrian
Published: February 2008

Explain clearly to a facilities manager the meaning of risk management and the response will be instantaneous — ‘I do that!’ The more cynical among them will say that they have done it for years, and there is no need to invent fancy jargon to describe what is to them a commonplace activity. But there is a need, because the rise of risk management is a further example of how management science is pervading everyday management practice, carrying with it quantification, analysis and modelling into the more subjective and intuitive world of commonsense management.
Premises and the corporate plan
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Rob
Published: February 2008

Readers of Bernard Williams' recently completed series on premises audits — now updated and published as a book by Bulstrode Press — will be aware of the growing realisation of the importance of that activity in the management of facilities. The audit is not necessarily, however, the first step in premises planning. Although it is an essential part of the process of establishing the status quo, it can be carried out in the absence of a premises policy — nor does it, of itself, establish or lead to the establishment of a premises policy. This article introduces a series which will explore and develop the concept of a premises policy — what it is, how it is produced, when and why it is necessary and, moreover, how the corporate business plan must necessarily impinge upon the premises policy. Whether the premises policy will respond flexibly to the pressures of change, or whether facilities management will be thrown into disarray as a consequence, is clearly going to be a critical factor in the ability of the organisation to carry out its business plan efficiently and effectively.
Post‐occupancy evaluation: evaluating for the future
Authors: Ellis Peter
Published: February 2008

This is the third article in a series on post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) and its uses in facilities management. The first (Facilities, 5/11, November 1987) covered the background to the current interest in POE, and discussed general principles and organisation. The second article (Facilities, 5/12, December 1987) focused on the use of POE to provide information for upgrading or improving existing facilities; and it described in some detail the technique of the planning workshop. This article is about applying POE for the future, either for a move to new offices, producing a new building, or even stocktaking for future planning purposes. So far the term POE has been used to cover all types of user‐based evaluation whether for management, upgrading or planning. But in the present context it would be more accurate to speak of ‘pre‐design’ rather than ‘post‐occupancy’ evaluation. Yet is this really an important distinction? If we see design in facilities management as the continuous process of shaping and reshaping offices rather than viewing it — as many architects do — as a series of one‐off projects, then any contradictions between pre‐ design and post‐occupancy are resolved : they are one and the same.
Tightening up the design brief for building engineering services
Authors: Gilliam Geoffrey
Published: February 2008

The basis of design for the engineering services in an office development is established at the outset by the design brief. This becomes a reference document for the developer, design team and, ideally, the landlord and tenant/occupier as the case may be. A study of commercial office buildings in London that were either under design, under construction or recently occupied, showed that the concepts upon which building engineering services are developed vary widely and can be misleading (Table 1). Furthermore, current industry recommendations are sometimes overlooked and, despite advances in systems technology, the building services design brief often fails to highlight the benefits which are available and the running cost (cost‐in‐use) economies which may be obtained.
Premises and the corporate plan: taking stock
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Rob
Published: February 2008

Last month's introduction to this series (Facilities Vol 6/No 1/ January 1988) placed great emphasis on the role of facilities management vis‐a‐vis the business plan. It clearly stated that a coherent, proactive and flexible facilities management strategy must, necessarily, be a product of the business plan. This second article in the series examines the initial stage of the formulation of a premises strategy: a review of the existing stock of space occupied by a company.
New energy reporting format
Authors: Eley Joanna
Published: February 2008

How much energy does your office use? The London Energy Group (LEG) has produced a new proforma for collecting energy use information from building users in a standardised way. Six years ago, ahead of its time, LEG devised a form for this purpose. Energy auditing was then being practised by many companies. If this form had been used extensively there would by now be a database of comparable information from which targets and other guidance could be developed, but the Department of Energy did not take positive steps to encourage its use and, on first sight, many building managers found it too complicated. The new format that has been developed sets out to simplify the procedure, cutting out, for example, references to primary energy. However, although the amount of information requested has been reduced, and the task of entering it is less exacting, LEG itself has commented that in some respects this is a backward step. Work being done by the International Energy Agency on collecting energy data and a draft European Community Directive on Energy Labelling suggests that the extra information included in the old format is indeed useful and worth including on a standardised form.
Visual distress in the office environment
Authors: Wilkins Arnold
Published: February 2008

More than half the headaches and eye‐strain suffered by office workers can be avoided by the appropriate choice of office environment. This perhaps surprising conclusion can be drawn from the results of a recent study undertaken jointly by the Medical Research Council, the Building Research Establishment and Thorn Lighting.
OPTIMISING SPACE USE
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Robert
Published: February 2008

Last month we introduced three strategies open to an organisation with a premises problem (Facilities Vol 6/No 4/ April 1986). These were to remain in the same building but optimise space use; move away to a new location; or adopt elements of each of these. In this and the following two articles we will develop each of these options in turn, and the steps needed to implement each strategy successfully.
IS YOUR FLOOR BOX REALLY NECESSARY?
Authors: Dukes Bernard
Published: February 2008

The ‘biscuit tin’ floor box with its piano‐hinged lid has become the standard vehicle for connecting the cable which is fed below the raised floor to the desk equipment. Sometimes the unit has been specially developed — at what one can only presume to be considerable cost in the case of prestigious buildings like the Norman Foster Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank headquarters. In most installations, they are more mundane derivatives of the floor box which was housed in the floor screed and provided on a design module of something between 1.5 and 2m. Despite the greater flexibility supposedly inherent in a raised floor solution, the reality is that the floor box in the raised floor copes no better with the transition between the ‘secondary’ and the ‘tertiary’ wiring than it did in the screeded floor.
PREMISES & THE CORPORATE PLAN: Location
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Robert
Published: February 2008

This article presents the second of three major strategies for addressing facilities management in the context of the corporate plan. The previous article (Vol 6/No 5, May 1988) examined the techniques available for optimising use of space, once the decision has been made to remain in the existing premises.
BRITISH TELECOM & MERCURY: A cost comparison
Authors: Meek Kip
Published: February 2008

Mercury Communications Ltd has been in existence as a competitor to British Telecom since 1983. In its early life, however, it only provided competition to BT in the form of private circuits — fixed and dedicated point‐to‐point telecomms links. In the spring of 1986, Mercury began to compete for BT's core business — public switched voice traffic. Although Mercury service has been on offer for over two years, it is only now becoming established. In this article we describe the Mercury switched service and in particular focus on the methods you can employ to estimate the cost savings you can realise by using it. Depending on how heavily you use the telephone, where you are located and the types of calls you make, these can vary from almost nothing up to about 30 per cent of your telephone bill.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN BRENT
Authors: Sprunt Robert
Published: February 2008

In common with all local authorities, Brent's property is hugely diverse, varying not only in age and condition but also in building type and use. It has a stock of over 500 non‐housing properties that range from schools and colleges through social service homes and offices to sports halls and leisure facilities. Together they are worth over £500 million, a huge asset. In 1986 the council embarked on a major property management initiative aimed at managing the stock better and realising the vast potential that it represented. But in seeking to improve the management of this large portfolio of buildings, the council was equally conscious of a number of other issues.
PREMISES AND THE CORPORATE PLAN: Partial relocation
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Robert
Published: February 2008

The decision to move part of the organisation to a new location should be the consequence of the premises policy. Too often premises policy‐making is pragmatic rather than strategic, and not always unavoidably so.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Authors: Hodgkinson Robert
Published: February 2008

One of the greatest opportunities for increasing the efficiency of organisations lies in improving the human resource input. Over a decade ago Likert, in his paper ‘Human resource accounting: building and assessing productive organisations’, maintained that benefits of between20 and 40 per cent can be achieved, if management can be encouraged to channel their efforts in this direction. One of the problems in this approach, however, is to find some reliable means of preliminary diagnosis of the health of the organisation.
PREMISES AND THE CORPORATE PLAN: Conclusion
Authors: Williams Bernard , Harris Robert
Published: February 2008

This is the final article in our series focusing on premises and the corporate plan. As we stated at the beginning, our purpose has been to examine the relationship between the business plan and the premises policy. This we did: first, by highlighting methods for formulating a premises strategy and evaluating strategic options. Second, we illustrated the significance of three fundamental options likely to be confronted by a facilities manager: optimising space use, relocation and rationalisation.
LEGIONELLA: Implications for building management
Authors: Rooley Richard
Published: February 2008

As another major outbreak of Legionnaires' disease makes the headlines with the recent case at the BBC's London headquarters, fears and uncertainties — and some misconceptions — have hit the public at large. The risk of legionella can be reduced to a negligible factor, but a careless slip by a designer, contractor, and particularly by maintenance management and technicians, can prove how fragile our defences against the disease are.
A FACILITIES POLICY FOR THE 1990s: 1
Authors: Chadwick Andrew
Published: February 2008

This is the first of three articles on organisational modelling and its rationale, methodology and application. Developed over the past three years at Hulme Chadwick & Partners, architects and designers, organisational modelling is a technique designed to provide the basis for a long term facilities policy by identifying a company's premises requirements through a complex information‐gathering process. Originally developed alongside the practice's involvement in satisfying the growth needs of companies in the financial services sector, organisational modelling is not exclusive to specific industries. It cannot, however, be carried out without computer‐aided design (CAD).
A FACILITIES POLICY FOR THE 1990s: 2
Authors: Chadwick Andrew
Published: February 2008

The introduction to this series (Vol 6/No 8, August 1988) explained the concept of organisational modelling and the three key processes by which it is made up. Here we explain the techniques for the extraction of information from the subject company in the analytical modelling stage, followed by a brief examination of the products of the synthetic and numerical modelling phases. The organisational modelling flowchart (Figure 1) will be used as an agenda for this discussion.
A FACILITIES POLICY FOR THE 1990s: 3
Authors: Chadwick Andrew
Published: February 2008

The final article in this series illustrates the application of organisational modelling to three different companies. The three case studies have been chosen because in each the prime product ‐ the client commission ‐ of the procedures has been different. For reasons of confidentiality, the companies remain anonymous. The projects illustrated are:
A PROFESSIONAL APPROACH TO FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Authors: de Lucy John
Published: February 2008

The facilities department in larger organisations has recently become the focus of greater recognition, as a consequence of widespread acceptance of the fact that good working environments matter and the realisation that the costs of providing them are now second only to personnel costs. What used to be a necessary yet expensive and low‐status department has become a vital component of the organisation with short lines of communication to the chief executive. The shift in focus is also a consequence of the high‐tech building boom in the South‐east. Large new buildings equipped with intelligent systems carry with them the burden of high occupancy costs and heavy funding and depreciation.
RAISED FLOORS:
Authors: Hodgkinson Robert
Published: February 2008

A recent report, commissioned by Vigers Chartered Surveyors and carried out by the Building Performance Unit at Liverpool Polytechnic, has collected extensive evidence of defects in raised floors. One of its central themes is to provide guidelines for facilities managers wishing to obtain value for money from their raised floor installations. This article provides advice to managers who wish to extend the life cycle of raised floors in their care and in doing so reduce the scale of defects in use.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LIGHTING SOURCES
Authors: Wilson Sheena
Published: February 2008

In an early issue of Facilities (Vol 2/No 10, October 1984) we categorised the main light sources, giving details of rated power, efficacies (the ratio of light output to power consumed), lamp sizes and costs. Here, we update some of this information, indicating developments rather than lamp characteristics.
FUNCTIONS, HARDWARE AND GUIDELINES
Authors: Bordass William
Published: February 2008

Ideally, lights should be controlled to meet the needs of building occupants as closely and as economically as possible. Not so long ago, you could put a switch — or a bank of switches — by the door and there was little else to think about. Local switches are still quite effective in small cellular offices, but in larger spaces all the lights tend to get switched on by the first to arrive, often because it is not clear which switch does what. The lights then stay on — even when daylight is adequate or when the room is empty, and often until late at night — because nobody bothers or dares to switch off for fear of inconveniencing others.
PLANNED LIGHTING MAINTENANCE FOR OFFICES
Authors: Walker Bill
Published: February 2008

Many companies that now have no difficulty in accepting cleaning as a significant and legitimate cost centre in offices still would not consider lighting in the same context. Indeed, some property managers seem to believe that maintaining a lighting system entails no more than the replacement of lamps as they fail. What is required is programmed maintenance to inspect, clean and ‘group relamp’ the lighting fittings on a routine basis. Not only does this ensure that a proper return is made on the investment in the system, but that it produces what it was designed to produce.
DEFECTS IN BUILDINGS:
Authors: Hatfield Boodle
Published: February 2008

Occupiers of buildings must now beware. In the House of Lords decision D & F Estates Ltd and Others v Church Commissioners for England and Others (see Facilities Vol 6/No 9 /September 1988) given on 14 July 1988, the House of Lords considered the extent to which the cost of repairing a defect in a building which was discovered before the causing of any injury or personal damage to other property, was recoverable by a negligence claim by the occupier against the builder. The case concerned the scope of the duty of care which a builder owes to a party such as an occupier in the absence of a contractual link or a uniquely proximate relationship (that is, a relationship so close that it is akin to contract). This article explains the facts of D & F Estates and its implications for the occupiers of buildings.
SPECIFYING CLEANING SERVICES
Authors: Wilson Sheena
Published: February 2008

Even quite large corporate occupiers make decisions about their cleaning services, whether they are contracting them out or employing their own labour direct, purely on the basis of perfunctory information on the standard and frequency of cleaning and the terms and conditions of work.
INTERNAL CLEANING — AN INDUSTRY VIEW
Authors: Butler John
Published: February 2008

The development of new buildings and the refurbishment of old ones over the past 25 years has unfortunately been unaccompanied by any detailed consideration of how they are to be kept clean. Anyone concerned with maintaining buildings will have their own horror stories of uncleanable windows, elegant surfaces which are destroyed by conventional cleaning methods and services which require regular maintenance in inaccessible positions.
DEEP CLEANING — FOR WASHROOMS, KITCHENS AND VENTILATION
Authors: Buckley Stephen
Published: February 2008

Air conditioning, canteens and washroom facilities all contribute to the productivity and reputation of an organisation. Increasingly, unfortunately, standards of hygiene in these areas fail to meet the levels required by law, either because of a lack of specialist cleaning equipment, poor staff supervision or lack of time to perform adequate cleaning and maintenance. Facilities deteriorate, with subsequent risk to human health.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT AT ERNST & WHINNEY
Authors: Eley Joanna
Published: February 2008

Ernst & Whinney, international chartered accountants, have occupied their London headquarters building, Becket House, since December 1982. The building is a 147 000 sq ft speculative office development on 12 floors, completed in 1972. Ernst & Whinney are sole tenants.
GETTING LANDLORD'S CONSENT UNDER THE NEW LAW‐A PARTIAL REFORM: PART 1
Authors: Hatfield Boodle
Published: February 2008

New legislation has recently come into force which should make it easier and quicker to get consent to transfer a lease or to underlet leasehold property. This month we will review the existing law about obtaining the landlord's consent not only to transfers but also to such things as making alterations and the delays and problems which may be met. We shall look at how the Law Commission proposed to ease those difficulties, note that, unfortunately but nevertheless usefully, reform has been restricted to improvements aimed at speeding up consent to transfers of leases and, finally, set out some practical advice to follow.
CLEANING: Maintaining the corporate image
Authors: Eley Joanna
Published: February 2008

On the whole, commercial and public buildings regularly have their windows cleaned. For many of them, exterior cleaning stops there. But is exterior cleaning sufficiently important to receive part of an already tight facilities budget — perhaps at the expense of something more significant?
Lloyd's Corporation
Authors: Eley Joanna
Published: February 2008

The new Lloyd's Corporation building seems to be unique in terms of its exterior cleaning requirements as in so many other aspects. John Mitchell, Facilities Manager for the 1986 Lloyd's building, is responsible for managing and maintaining a building unlike any other, and cannot look to colleagues for experience and advice.
OFFICE SECURITY AUDITS
Authors: Ward Roger
Published: February 2008

All businesses strive to maintain their assets so that they can be employed in the efficient commercial operation. Due to statutory requirements that have come into effect in recent years, much attention has been paid to areas of health and safety. No such responsibility has been placed on the facilities manager to treat losses due to breaches of security in the same way.
CD‐ROM in the office
Authors: Harrison Andrew
Published: February 2008

CD‐ROM stands for Compact Disc — Read Only Memory: 600 Mbytes of information (text, data, image or voice) can be stored on a single disc. Its arrival has been heralded as an advance in personal computer storage as dramatic as that of audio CD in the world of long playing records.
GETTING LANDLORD'S CONSENT UNDER THE NEW LAW‐A PARTIAL REFORM: PART 2
Authors: Hatfield Boodle
Published: February 2008

In the first part of this article (Facilities Vol 7/No 3/March 1989) we saw that, where a lease prohibits a tenant from carrying out a particular act without the consent (or approval or some other similar word) of the landlord, the general rule is that the words ‘such consent (etc) not to be unreasonably withheld’ will not be implied into the lease if they are not expressly included.
WIRE MANAGEMENT IN FURNITURE: THE NEW BRITISH STANDARD
Authors: Calver Peter
Published: February 2008

After a long period of review, draft and public and industry comment, the British Standard code of practice on wire management — BS 6396:1983: Electrical systems in office furniture and office screens — has now been completely updated and is due to be published in its new form in July 1989. BS 6396 will now become a full British Standard in its own right rather than a code of practice, but will retain its number. The original four‐page document has been expanded to 15 pages. The major changes are discussed here.
RESIDENTIAL FM COURSE AT READING UNIVERSITY
Authors: Bell Jane
Published: February 2008

Representatives of 20 major companies from as far as Bahrain and South Africa attended the FM course held recently at Reading University. Run in association with Facilities, the five‐day event was the first of its kind in the UK and, according to organiser, Professor Bill Biggs, was as much about bringing like‐minded people together for an exchange of views, as it was about offering a rigorous academic framework: ‘The main thing is to bring people together for a long enough period so they can really start to talk.’
CHILDCARE FACILITIES
Authors: Hay Susan
Published: February 2008

Care of the under‐fives of working parents has been given headline status in recent weeks, as media coverage has drawn attention to Europe's ageing population. Employers are warned that the vitality, productivity and even security of Western Europe is threatened by this demographic change, in which more people move out of the labour force than enter when young.
INFORMATION AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT:RETRIEVAL OF PAPER FILES
Authors: Hall Maggie
Published: February 2008

This article, the third in our series (see also Facilities, Vol 6/No 10 and Vol 7/No 1) outlines the chief methods for classification and indexing records. Filing systems are methods of collecting similar or related documents. The success of any filing system depends on the ability to retrieve information stored. Classification is the means of defining the relationship of the documents and indexing is the means by which they are identified.
DATA CABLING AND NETWORKS
Authors: Harrison Andrew
Published: February 2008

That are the responsibilities of facilities managers and within what boundaries and contexts do they undertake them? A common talking point in the facilities management press and on the conference circuit, the question still begs an answer.