Soft facilities management
[edit] Introduction
Facilities management is the ‘...integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities’. Ref EN15221-1: 2006 Facility Management – Part 1: Terms and definitions. It is concerned with the management of facilities at both a strategic and a day-to-day level to deliver operational objectives and to maintain a safe and efficient environment.
Facilities management is an interdisciplinary activity with a high concentration of maintenance tasks that can be broken down into two types:
- Hard facilities management (the fixed, physical fabric of the facility, which cannot be easily removed).
- Soft facilities management (the services that help the facility to function).
[edit] Soft facilities management services
Soft facilities management services typically make the workplace more comfortable, pleasant and easy to use for building occupants and users. They can also affect health and safety, security and so on.
Soft facilities management services services might include:
- Car parking.
- Catering and hospitality.
- Cleaning.
- Landscaping.
- Pest control.
- Post management.
- Security.
- Waste management.
- Window cleaning.
Soft facilities often involve some degree of human interaction from professionals who handle these tasks.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Business process outsourcing (BPO).
- Carbon neutral contract.
- Facilities management.
- Facilities management audit FMA.
- Hard facilities management.
- Insourcing.
- ISO/PAS 45005 Guidance for working safely during COVID-19.
- Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management IWFM.
- Maintenance.
- Maximising maintenance budgets after lockdown.
- Move management.
- Vested outsourcing.
Featured articles and news
The sad story of Derby Hippodrome
An historic building left to decay.
ECA, JIB and JTL back Fabian Society call to invest in skills for a stronger built environment workforce.
Women's Contributions to the Built Environment.
Calls for the delayed Circular Economy Strategy
Over 50 leading businesses, trade associations and professional bodies, including CIAT, and UKGBC sign open letter.
The future workforce: culture change and skill
Under the spotlight at UK Construction Week London.
A landmark moment for postmodern heritage.
A safe energy transition – ECA launches a new Charter
Practical policy actions to speed up low carbon adoption while maintaining installation safety and competency.
Frank Duffy: Researcher and Practitioner
Reflections on achievements and relevance to the wider research and practice communities.
The 2026 Compliance Landscape: Fire doors
Why 'Business as Usual' is a Liability.
Cutting construction carbon footprint by caring for soil
Is construction neglecting one of the planet’s most powerful carbon stores and one of our greatest natural climate allies.
ARCHITECTURE: How's it progressing?
Archiblogger posing questions of a historical and contextual nature.
The roofscape of Hampstead Garden Suburb
Residents, architects and roofers need to understand detailing.
Homes, landlords. tenants and the new housing standards
What will it all mean?
Comments
Facilities management service providers are playing an imperative role in the current economies by managing and sustaining various maintenance services effectively. There are many soft facilities management service providers who offer reliable services to us at affordable rates. Thank you for sharing this wonderful and detailed article on soft facilities management. It was very informative and I enjoyed reading it. Keep on writing and expecting more such relevant articles in the future.