The Core Services of the Facilities Management Based Company in Malaysia

Many questions rose on defining the implementation of Facilities Management (FM) in Malaysia. To date, the FM player only provided services sufficiently without the desires to enhance their services by taking into account the standard of practice which should form the basis. The extent of the services in Facilities Management based companies in Malaysia is not known and this paper aimed to identify within the context. The scope of study is limited to respondents in Klang Valley area. Literature review is used as a basis and questionnaires survey distributed to 20 companies, representing 56% of the total FM companies in Klang Valley are used to capture the data. The senior management level is assessed to represent. The results revealed that the implementation of facilities management services is limited, but still evolving. The majority of the FM based companies provides facilities services under the category of building operation and maintenance as their core business and procured them by in-house. The core services comprise of Electrical System, Cleaning, mechanical, HVAC system, plumbing & Sewerage , Fire Protection, Landscape, Lifts and Escalator, Security & Safety, Parking Management, Consultancy & Advisory Services, Waste Management, ICT System, Pest Control, Energy Management & Conservation, Building Audit Services, Customer Care Management, Transition Management, Catering &Vending Services. Based on what FM can offer, there is the necessity to reinforce the awareness to ensure continuously improve the management of national assets and facilities.


Introduction
The facilities management is a fairly new profession in the private sector. It has emerged to become the fastest growing profession in the real estate and construction sector. In practice, facilities management can cover a wide range of services including real estate management, financial management, change management, human resources management, health and safety and contract management, in addition to building maintenance, domestic services (such as cleaning and security) and utilities supplies, as discussed by [1].
The definition and scope of FM remains a contentious issue and the definition depend on the local culture, organizations interests and people's personal interests. Thus, Facilities Management is of interest to Malaysia in its quest to achieve its vision of 2020. Hamilton [2] has conclude that what appears to be inhibiting development is a lack of understanding of the role of FM and some conflict between professions disciplines as to which one should be recognized as licensed proprietor. The awareness on the importance of FM is often not being discussed, whether in the public sector or private sectors. Noor and Pitt [3] therefore stated that in Malaysia, R&D in issues regarding development of FM is inadequate and limited, thus suggested further research undertaken.
Preliminary desk-study shows evidence that FM services contract awarded by the government to the locals. However, the extent of the services in Facilities Management based companies in Malaysia is not known and this paper aimed to identify within the context.

The Review on Facilities Management
Over few years, facilities management has grown as a business discipline and also as a scientific discipline, slowly finding and anchoring its position among the organizations' business processes [4]. Globally, Facilities Management is in many respects still a relatively developing business which started to develop as a cohesive concept as early as the 1980s [5].
Like other countries in South East Asia, Malaysia shares a similar approach to FM. However, there is limited understanding and practice of FM benchmarking in the South East Asia region. Nonetheless, Hamilton [2] had a notion that adoption of the Western methods for application cannot be simply done in Asia without careful assessment of the Asian context, particularly for developing countries.
An organization core and non-core facilities are identified based on its nature of business, goals and objectives, and users' requirements. Procurement of quality facilities usually transpires at strategic, tactical and operational level in order to achieving quality facilities towards achievable vision, mission and objectives. Since FM within organization covers a wide range of activities, therefore several of the facilities which are non-core, usually outsourced or contracted-out by the organization. Also, it can be procured in-house or by combination of in-house and out-source.

The Facilities Management Service Provisions
In defining facilities management it is useful to identify those activities which can be considered under the banner of 'facilities management services'. The Centre for Facilities Management (CFM) identifies six categories of services, namely; Building Operation and Maintenance, Information Technology and Telecommunication, Support Services, Transport and Transition, Infrastructure Management and Environmental Management.
Building Operation and Maintenance is the second largest contracted out area and has the largest proportion of contracted out activity in comparison to in-house activity. This reflects the large number of suppliers in the industry. [7] explained that the operation and maintenance (O&M) includes all aspects of running a building over the course of its useful life. One goal of effective O&M is to achieve the intent of the original building design team, so that building systems deliver services to building occupants. O&M is also the discipline through which long-term goals of economy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and pollution prevention can be achieved, while meeting the comfort, health and safety requirements of the tenants.

The Development of Facilities Management in Malaysia
Although FM is prominent in Western Europe, US and Japan, it is still relatively new concept in Malaysia [8]. Malaysia has successful examples of the development of FM, where there would appear to remain a general lack of understanding, and consequently progress, of the key drivers which continues to hamper the successful development of FM [6]. Noor and Pitt [9] declared that the earliest privatization of FM service contracts were implemented in the public health services by the Ministry of Health and followed by the Federal Government Buildings located at all states in the country. Whereas in the private sector, Telekom Malaysia was leading Government Link Company (GLC) to outsource the FM services for all non-telecommunication facilities in the Peninsular Malaysia.
In the year 2002, the International Islamic University of Malaysia (UIA) implemented a comprehensive facility management outsourcing service contract for the Gombak Campus and later migrated to the Kuantan Campus. The Northen University of Malaysia (UUM) however chose to implement a co-sourcing approach in delivering a comprehensive FM program in managing the main campus in Sintok, Kedah. During the same period, the Public Works Department had also implemented Comprehensive Facility Management Service contracts in managing Putrajaya Federal Government Buildings. These were some of the prominent government-owned facilities which were operated and maintained by FM service providers in the form of outsourcing service contract. [9] have also discussed the FM service provider is a one-stop centre for the asset owner to get all support services with a well defined agreed service levels and customer's expectation requirements.
In 2007, the First National Asset and Facility Management Convention (NAFAM) were held in August to address the current issues and future challenges in managing national assets and facilities. This convention showed that the FM profession has evolved and adapted to meet the demands of a fast growing built and human environment industry. Agreeing to an annual NAFAM, the Prime Minister (former) has urged both the public sector and private sector to come up with a more effective and efficient procedural framework in order to continuously improve the management of national assets and facilities. This convention was a major revolution to the future changes with regards to the perception of FM professions and practices in Malaysia. NAFAM has organized to address the issues raised and set to meet the following objectives: x To create awareness on current issues and challenges in managing government assets x To assess the strength and weaknesses of current system, its effectiveness and efficiency x To explore ways to minimize and improve the quality of government assets x To formulate a blueprint or master plan for centralized national asset and facilities management Acknowledgement to these efforts, the Facilities Management industry in Malaysia currently has developed to a stage where the aspiration and expectation of the industry has grown in tandem with the higher demands and needs of facility stakeholders. At present, there are two established associations known as Malaysia Association of Facility Managers (MAFM) and Malaysian Asset and Project Management Association (MAPMA) formed by interest group representing FM stakeholders in undertaking the promotion and development of Asset and Facility Management initiatives [3].

Results and Discussion
The analysis of the questionnaires has generated fundamental outcomes on the core services offered by the FM based companies in Malaysia.
The demographic of the respondents revealed that, despite the six designations offered in the questions, there is other background identified. Thus, shows the range of different disciplines involved within this area service business. This is so portrayed in the concept that facilities management propagated by Sapri and Pitt [4] as the actions (process) by which organizations deliver and sustain quality services in built environments (space) to meet strategic needs of stakeholders (people), it ensures buildings, system supports and core operations contribute to business achievements despite changing conditions.
The designation of the respondents is majority (20%) Facilities Engineer (Mechanical), followed by Facilities Manager and Assistant Facilities Manager (15%) respectively. The Maintenance Manager, Facilities Engineer (Civil), Facilities Engineer (Electrical) and Technician represent 10% and the remaining 10% of the respondents are represented by Project Executive and General Manager. Thus, the choice of the senior management level as the targeted respondents is justified.
In terms of the background education, is represented by 15% each from Building Surveying, Construction Project Management, and Mechanical and Electrical Engineering fields. In addition, 30% are from Real Estate Management. The remaining 10% of the respondents comprise of Facilities Management and Building Services Management background.
The majority (40%) of the respondents has between three to five years' working experience in this field, followed by 25% who have between six to ten years' working experience. In addition, the respondents who have between one to two years working experience and more than ten years working experience is represented by 15% of the respondents respectively. The remaining 5% of the respondents have working experience between six months to a year. Thus, shows the availability of the business establishment in the country.
The nature of the facilities management services offered and the procurement method differ from one to another. Table 1 shows the ranking of the services provider as core and non-core business within their organizations. Table 1: Organization's core and non-core business in ascending priority Table 1 shows that while operating as Electrical, Cleaning Services and Mechanical system as their core facilities, Waste Management, Parking and Catering & Vending Services is also in operation respectively as the non-core facility. An organization core and non-core facilities are identified based on its nature of business, goals and objectives, and users' requirements. Core facilities are facilities which directly support the business whilst non-core facilities are the facilities that indirectly support the business. Hence, any activities which do not contribute to the income of the organization should be considered non-core; does not lie at the heart of the raison of the organization. The essence of FM is to focus on its core business or activities which form as essential part of the endproduct, by out-sourcing its non-core activities in order to promote the achievement of an organization goals and objectives.
Facilities management within organization covers a wide range of activities, therefore several of the facilities which are non-core, usually outsourced or contracted-out by the organization. Hence, Table 2 shows the ranking of services in practice chosen to b e procured either in-house or outsource.  In addition, it also revealed that most of the respondents are the FM companies which offered multi services covering wide range of activities for any development facility. This is supported by the fact that the majority (65%) had obtained government contract for facilities management. On the other hand, the remaining of 35% from the respondents had never procured the government contract for facilities management. The respondents unanimously (100%) agreed that Building Operation and Maintenance is the vital expertise in FM services currently. This is represented by 55% strongly agree and the remaining 45% of the respondents agree with the statement. This current phenomena of the FM companies practices show that the FM profession has evolved and adapted to meet the demands of a fast growing built and human environment industry.

Conclusion
Facilities management in Malaysia has started as early as 1990s in which during this period, an integrated property management and maintenance services were commonly known to be as facilities management. In addition, FM in Malaysia is growing under the shadow of property management and often interpreted as maintenance management. Nevertheless, it is justified that the Building Operation and Maintenance category is the primary areas of facilities management in practice.
The core services covers wide range of facility comprising of ; Even though the survey revealed that FM in Malaysia is developing more on theoretical rather than practical, but the engagement of the majority on government contract shows positive development on areas of facilities management. The government requires them to provide the expertise in more than one service with the minimum three to five years experience in their respective fields. To carry out the government contract, the contractor should aware that they are bound to perform the services according to the provision of the said contract and complied with the standard specified in the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) provided.
Judging on the concept that FM can offer based on the literature worldwide, there is the necessity to reinforce the awareness to ensure significant contributions both the public and private sector to