Large buildings and infrastructure require intentional, technical, and expert management. This is how large facilities, buildings, or infrastructures are able to stay functional. A building or a facility is made up of different components, and a facility manager is responsible for making sure that those components continue to function in efficient unison.
A facility manager can be likened to a caretaker, building super, superintendent, site manager, maintenance head, or manager.
What is Facility Management?
Facility management is a core function for most infrastructures like data centers, hospitals, factories, or 24/7 operations.
Facility Management refers to all the endeavors, measures, or processes that aid the functionality, safety, and efficiency of buildings and infrastructures.
According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Facility Management is the organizational function that integrates people, place, and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business.
Facility management or Facilities management (note that both terms are interchangeable according to the ISO) is a fast-rising career and discipline around the globe. It is an integrated approach to the management of buildings and infrastructure.
What is The Job of A Facility Manager?
A Facility Manager manages facilities, as the name implies. Whatever building or infrastructure it might be, the primary responsibility or job of a facility manager is to ensure that the buildings and their components are all working effectively. This means that a facility manager has to make sure that the different systems that make up the facility are meeting their intended purposes. The role of a facility manager is to ensure that the staff are productive, comfortable, and safe.
How To Become A Facility Manager
One prominent path to becoming a facility manager is to acquire a CFM (certified facility manager) certification. You can achieve this by completing the necessary training and meeting the professional experience requirements set by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA**)**.
What Are The Duties of A Facility Manager?
Facility managers work to eliminate every risk factor that may be present in the environment, and they also have to ensure that there is optimum uptime.
The duties of a facility manager include:
1. Overseeing building operations and maintenance
2. Managing power, water, HVAC, and other critical systems
3. Ensuring health, safety, and compliance standards are met
4. Coordinating repairs, inspections, and preventive maintenance
5. Managing vendors, contractors, and service providers
6. Monitoring operational performance and uptime
7. Supporting sustainability and energy efficiency efforts
8. Responding to emergencies and operational issues
The duties of a facility manager can be classified under four pillars of facility management.
What Are The 4 Pillars of Facilities Management?
The 4 Pillars of Facility Management, or facilities management, are:
1. People
2. Processes
3. Building
4. Knowledge
- People**:**
The first pillar of facilities management is People. Without People, a facility is useless. A core duty of a facility manager is to ensure that there is a safe space for workers. From seamless check-in to the hands-on elimination of hazard risks, facility managers need to make sure that the people (visitors or staff) in the environment are safe and comfortable.
-Processes:
This is an essential part of facility management; facility managers need to be able to establish measures, controls, and standards to ensure that the facility or infrastructure being managed is functional. This may include: routine checks, frequent surveys and investigations, monitoring, and inventory records. The goal is to bring efficient organization into facility management.
-Building:
The job of a facility manager revolves around the building. Maintenance and upkeep of the building is a core part of facility management.
It also includes developing sustainable energy and resource strategies, or proactive responses to shortages or failures.
- Technology:
In the past, facility managers often overlooked the importance of technology, but it can no longer be ignored. Technology is key to unlocking optimization for facility managers. By using the right technology, facility managers can cut costs, reduce manual work, and run their operations more efficiently. Effective facility managers don’t just learn about new tools; they use them to track performance and make better decisions.
Technology can optimise facility management with detailed and automated reports, workplace analytics, and custom dashboards. These give you clear insights into how your facility is performing.
Additional tools like CO₂ monitors, heatmaps, office space sensors, and visitor management systems can be utilized to stay efficient and support business goals like sustainability, reducing operational costs, and energy cost savings. This is why Proptech is gaining a lot of attention and adoption in recent years. There are several facility management software systems that aid facility managers now; the impact of IoT in facility management has been tremendous.
What is Proptech Facility Management?
Proptech facility management is the integration of technology in the processes of facility management. PropTech (Property Technology) refers to the use of digital technology to improve how properties are built, managed, and operated.
In facility management, PropTech enables smarter, data‑driven operations. It allows facility managers to move from reactive maintenance to proactive and predictive management, especially in areas like power, energy use, uptime monitoring, and cost control.
Manage Your Facility’s Power Better With Pai Enterprise
Power is one of the most critical and costly components of facility management. With Pai Enterprise, facility managers gain clearer visibility into energy usage, costs, and performance. Pai Enterprise places energy intelligence at your fingertips. It is an enterprise-grade software paired with a durable smart sensor that provides intelligent energy insights, energy availability and consumption patterns, alerts managers on power and temperature anomalies, and gives efficient sizing optimization recommendations.
This helps reduce waste, improve uptime, and make better operational decisions.
Pai Enterprise supports modern facility managers with the tools they need to manage power intelligently, efficiently, and sustainably. Curious to see how it works? Contact someone on the team! We will walk you through a demo for free. Book a free call now.