Dr Danny Shiem-Shin Then
Associate Professor
Programme Leader - Graduate Programme in Facility Management
Department of Building Service Engineering
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Email: bessthen@polyu.edu.hk |
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Dr John Hinks
Innovation Manager
Group Facilities and Logistics,
Group Purchasing and Property Operations
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc,
Email: john.hinks@rbs.co.uk
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Working Commission W70 has a proud history of success and growth since its inception in the late 1970s, sustained by a common vision that the successful management of the built environment must embrace a holistic view of the built facilities as a sustainable business resource in an increasingly dynamic world.
The focus of Working Commission W70 has evolved and changed in its two decades of existence. W70’s remit has broaden considerable from a like-minded gathering of experts concerned with deteriorating social housing in Europe, to its present-day concerns with effective resources management under the broad umbrella of facilities management and asset maintenance.
The renaming of the Working Commission W70 to focus on Facilities Management and Maintenance reflects the maturing and acceptance of a management approach of built facilities that is customer-focused and business-driven. This approach views the creation of physical assets as the start of a life-cycle asset management process that must respond to the changing needs of business in an increasingly dynamic global environment. Such a process must increasingly rely on an integrated resources management approach, driven by the businesses needs.
There is growing endorsement, internationally, of the need to promote the strategic contributions that facilities professionals can bring to realising corporate objectives, in addition to the critical technical support roles that they have always carried out effectively.
In moving from a backroom function into a position of potential influence in developing strategies to support the achievement of business goals, the constant challenge for facilities management is, and will remain, the ability to continuously adapt and add value through providing innovative facilities solutions – whether that be a portfolio realignment as a result of corporate downsizing; introduction of flexible working practice; creating a teaming workplace environment or a radical outsourcing of traditionally in-house services.
Working Commission W70 has, and will continue to be, a unique forum on the changes in education, research and practice that are transforming the traditional approaches to the provision of physical workplace and functional workspace, and its ongoing management and maintenance. The continuing challenge of W70 is to remain relevant against a sea change brought about by convergence in computing and communication technologies and social transformation in lifestyles and work in the future.
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