What Is Hard Facilities Management?

Common areas include electrical installations, heating, ventilation, plumbing, drainage, building fabric, roofing and other building systems. The actual appointment should identify the assets and activities included, together with specialist services and interfaces with retained contractors.

An asset list makes that scope concrete. 'Maintain the heating' is less useful than identifying the equipment, locations, service requirements, access arrangements and records available. The same principle applies to roofs, doors and other fabric elements that do not have a manufacturer's model number.

Planned maintenance follows an established programme. Its tasks and intervals need the appropriate basis for the equipment or building element, including applicable requirements, manufacturer information and competent assessment.

Reactive work responds to a reported fault or defect. It should capture the findings and result so that repeat problems remain visible.

Renewal and improvement deal with changes that go beyond the original maintenance task. They need a defined project scope, budget and completion requirements rather than being hidden inside an unrelated work order.

A replacement item of plant can need electrical work, lifting or access arrangements, controls changes, commissioning and updates to the asset record. A roof repair can also involve water-damaged internal finishes. A hard FM plan should identify those connected activities before treating the main task as complete.

This is also why a list of certificates is not a complete maintenance picture. Inspection findings, recommendations, remedial actions and changes to equipment need to be connected to the relevant asset and decision-maker.

Start with asset and location references, previous reports, service history, known defects and operating constraints. Distinguish information verified at site from assumptions in an old register. Record what could not be inspected and why, so absence of a finding is not mistaken for a complete assessment.

Reporting should show overdue work, recurring faults and outstanding actions as well as completed tasks. That information supports decisions about investigation, repair and replacement.