Jane Bell

Facilities Management and Changing Professional Boundaries

Considers the relationship between the emerging facilities management discipline and the existing building‐related professions. Defines facilities management and argues that it is impossible for the facilities manager to become expert in every area of responsibility. Facilities management must help to integrate the work of specialists in the many distinct areas involved. Discusses the issue of co‐ordinated professional qualifications.

The UK Professional Qualification

Discusses the long‐awaited official professional qualification for facilities managers under the aegis of the BIFM. This will offer a choice of three main routes: (1) Direct Examination, (2) Higher Education (both of which have an academic focus and also involve practical experience), and (3) Professional Competences, which is more challenging and is based on work and training experience.

Facilities – 20th anniversary issue

Introduces the special issue of Facilities, looking back at the changes in the journal over its first 20 years of publication.

Relocating into the 1990s

Details the TSB′s administrative activities′ change to premises in Birmingham from London and shows the change to a better, environmentally friendly office to be advantageous, particularly with regard to the staff.

Profits from Design: How Do We Measure Success?

Examines the recent work of three authors, gives examples of projects in organizations and quotes facilities managers, all to show that office design improvements, made with the participation of employees, result in measurable increases in output, reduced costs and improved service quality. Notes how this phenomenon is compatible with and can form part of a total quality management system for service organizations.

Is full air conditioning really necessary

Considers the problem of choosing between either fully air‐conditioned or naturally ventilated space. Examines the choice taken by Refuge Assurance PLC to operate its headquarters building without constant air conditioning. Describes the cooling and environmental systems of the building and energy performance. Argues that it would be a brave step to eliminate air‐conditioning altogether from any modern building.

The Association of Facilities Managers

Although the job has existed since commercial premises began, the profession of facilities management is less than 10 years old. Moves towards achieving coherence as a professional group began in the United States, where as early as 1975 an annotated bibliography on planning educational facilities was published. This was followed by the appearance in 1980 of a new journal, Facilities Design and Management, the introduction of the first graduate programme in Facility Planning and Management at Cornell, and the establishment of two groups — the FMI and the IFMA — to represent the interests of those involved in facilities management on a day‐to‐day basis.