Preface

Introduction

This book was developed as an anthology to celebrate the past 40 years of international Facility Management (1982-2022) and beyond with a look to the future challenges for the FM profession.

The book was jointly initiated by Josef R. G. Mack (Germany), and Edmond P. Rondeau (USA) who have known each other for many years. They have collaborated on several projects together during the past 30+ years, including working on a book on Facility Management (FM) 20 years ago together with Walther J. F. Moslener that was published in Germany in 2001.

The co-editors of this book are Professor Dr. Michaela Hellerforth (Germany) and Edmond P. Rondeau, AIA Emeritus, RCFM, IFMA Fellow (USA). Detailed information on the co-editors can be found in Appendix C. Both have authored/co-authored numerous FM and real estate books, have spoken and taught at universities, and have been active in FM internationally for decades.

The concept for this book has a mixture of 50+ FM contributors from 16 countries around the world. These contributions have been provided from the contributors' point of view, from their memory and from documents and other credited sources. Contributors have many different backgrounds and education including FM professionals, academics, vendors, architects, engineers, interior designers, consultants, and business developers from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. All have an affiliation with one or more related associations, and many have been recognized for their service and support to FM.

The main topics you will see that the contributors addressed included one to some of the following areas from their objective point of view:

• the making of the term "facility management" in their country
• the acceptance of FM in their country
• the implementation of FM within their country
• the spreading of the term FM globally
• the similarities and differences of FM globally
• the status of academic efforts, continuing education, and realizations to promote the field of FM worldwide.
• the growth of women in FM and women FM leaders
• the transformation necessities for traditional structures
• the challenges in the future for the built environment in general, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the general impact to offices in regard to People, Process, Place, Technology, and remote working by the bringing together of workplaces and office needs - all of this amplified by climate change, energy crises, sustainability, social implications, etc.

Goal

The goal of this book is to describe why from a personal perspective Facility Management developed formally in the US and also Canada, from a nongovernmental and business perspective, compared to how Facility Management developed in various countries in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

The selection of FACILITIES, as a plural term, is used to show the perspective chosen by the initiators for this interdisciplinary approach of their anthology and this legacy covering the forty years of international FM and beyond. In combination with @, the icon for Information Technology as an essential bridging element to MANAGEMENT.

The title is designed to express the general importance that facilities have in the built environment not only for working processes, cost, and productivity, but also for research, educational, care and living space. The three nouns of the subtitle reflect the three dimensions of the book's content which displays the origin, the implementation, and the potential still inherent in FM.

In the Concept part principals, sponsors, and creators of the research project spanning over 40 years into the relationship between people, workplace, and buildings are identified. The abstract academic FM idea is explained, leading to the first FMI and the subsequent coining of the term as well as forming the National Facility Management Association (NFMA) in the USA in 1980.

The Realization describes the development of the concept in academia and the work environment, and the transformation of the professional association into a transnational activity, claimed in 1982 by the name-change to International Facility Management Association (IFMA). The educational and professional activities, the founding of FM associations in other countries, their realization, and activities are characterized. Development of technology, scientific placement, academic classification, implementation of the profession in different areas and companies internationally are represented.

The Vision part includes success as well as shortcomings of the realization and transformation in the academic, the institutional, and the commercial world. To create a platform of demands for the immediate future it is required for the built environment to respect social, economic, ecological, and demographic changes under sustainability demands and global climate-change.

Insight

Facility Management is still facing misunderstanding as a concept in some parts of the world, despite the role it plays for over four decades already internationally since its invention, "born and coined" by academia, raised and brought into professional and corporate hierarchies through the initiative of an association, and finally accepted as a profession with academic training, university seats, and research far beyond the USA, implemented in Europe, and spread out worldwide.

A variety of technical FM books on the subject have been available for some time, not only in English but in many languages. They have aimed to serve as introduction to the body of knowledge, the description of tools and technics developed and available, as well as functional approaches to the phenomenon that is FM, whereas the origin of the term FM and its potential as a holistic concept remained often only worth a footnote or vague annotations.

To fill this gap, the vision of this anthology strives to offer academic and sponsoring thought leaders of the beginning, drivers of the professional development throughout the past, and today's experts and protagonists in FM and adjacent fields including academics in educational institutions nationally and internationally, a platform to reveal their very personal involvement, ideas, experience, and outlook gained in their practice, simultaneously disclosing roots, perspectives, and even inherent answers to questions still pending today and the future.

This approach allows the reader insights into the process of the creation of the term up to what the development and present state of the art can offer. Furthermore, the unique display of experience and background of the contributing contemporary witnesses gives an insight into the causes leading to the development of the concept FM in the last quarter of the past 20th century providing a global perspective.

Readers of This Book

This anthology is for readers interested in the built environment and its personal, social, structural, and technical aspects; factors important to all of us throughout our entire lives. Readers are primarily students, professionals and researchers in planning, engineering, structural analysis, building, real estate, HVAC, IT, etc. Included are top experts in related social and political science, laymen wanting to understand the FM phenomenon, gain an overview of the history, implementation, and perspectives of development and its possible potential for the future.

What is special about This Book?

The publication offers a platform for recalling the original vision, experience realized, and the insight of founders and contributors to the development as well as their findings, achievements, and legacy for FM. All contributions are pinpointed and standalone but are not redundant, highlighting the contributor's view.

Being contemporary researchers, educators, experts, and professionals with different backgrounds from building, real estate, and industry from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. These contributors summarize the state of the art in international FM in their countries to provide an assessment of the existing solutions and their potential for meeting the requirements regarding facilities in the future under the challenge of sustainability, climate change, and - last but not least - growing social and political issues all over the world.

The volume of the anthology was designed to be approximately 500 pages and includes essays from the 50+ contributors. The average length of the contribution was 10 pages (plus/minus) each, which included citations, figures, charts, plots, a brief bibliography, with a short educational and professional history of the author.

Making a Difference

Despite the path of success of FM books in the decades passed, the awareness about the origin of FM, the real idea behind the concept, and the vision of the beginning in some countries has decreased, remained untold to a wider public, or even got lost, despite the academic and corporate spread internationally. Under this experience, the proposal to use the anniversary mentioned for an academic checkout into the achievements seemed not only of academic interest, but of an almost historic importance, as long as eyewitness of the founding period are still available.

However, when the idea became a...