Benchmarking challenges in facilities management in Nigeria

Comparison of strategic content of facilities managers functions with other building support practitioners in Lagos, Nigeria

Purpose

The literature propounds that facilities management (FM) differs from other building support services (BSS) because it features a significant strategic content. However, research indicates that this deep seated strategic and value-adding practice is mostly unavailable except in the most matured markets. The purpose of this paper is to compare the strategic content of the functions performed by FM practitioners with that of other BSS providers in Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria. This is to determine if the content of the FM functions is comparatively more strategic and invariably more value-adding than that of other BSS providers as indicated in literature and also to identify required areas of improvement, both for practice and training.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was carried out through self-administered questionnaire directed to a sample of 123 BSS providers that work with office buildings in Lagos, Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, means, χ2 test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.

Findings

Rather than the strategic tasks, the FM group as with the non-FM group were more regularly involved with the less specialized facilities operations/maintenance and facilities support service tasks such as, security, fire, emergency management, cleaning and waste management. Specialized FM support service tasks such as mail services, reprographics, catering and travel services, were least often performed by both groups. The study found that facilities managers were slightly more involved than the non-facilities managers in performing the strategic group of tasks. This was indicated by the higher cumulative mean values and ranking of the level of involvement. The facilities managers also ranked higher in their involvement in the individual strategic tasks. The study also shows that FM practitioners use the more strategic ways to determine the needs of users. These findings imply that FM presents a slightly more strategic edge, which is, however, insufficient.

Practical implications

Although the FM practitioners may feature a slightly more strategic content of functions than their non-FM counterparts, the edge is insufficient to add significant value to clients’ business as postulated in literature. Lagos FM practitioners must become more involved in strategic functions in order to enhance FM’s value-adding edge and hence distinguish it better from other BSS practices.

Originality/value

The study positions the Nigerian FM practice in the light of expectations in literature and re-affirms the supposition that the practice is relatively strategically immature. It also identifies the contingent needs of local and multinational organizations that may require or intend to provide FM and other BSS in the Nigerian context, invariably allowing for international comparisons.

Performance measurement scale for facilities management service in Lagos-Nigeria

Purpose

Literature established that applicable parameters must be used in determining facilities management (FM) performance in any market; otherwise, findings could be confusing and misleading. This is particularly relevant to Nigeria where FM application is in its infancy and seriously constrained by particular socio-economic conditions which make it prone to crises situations such as frequent power outages and surges, abundance of fake and adulterated construction materials and equipment, heavy presence of unqualified artisans, poor transparency and terribly chaotic and unpredictable traffic to mention a few. Hence, this research aims to identify contextual parameters for evaluating performance of FM service in office buildings in Lagos, reflecting these peculiarities.

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopts survey design, using self-administered questionnaires that were served on building occupants. Means and standard deviation were used in the analyses. Factor analysis was used in identifying the important factors or constructs and to confirm the practical significance of the measures.

Findings

The study developed a multi-item scale of 41 measures for evaluating performance of facilities managers in offices in Lagos, Nigeria. The scale comprises three major dimensions, i.e. “financial”, “quality of service” and “crises response and management”. Using factor analysis, the study identified five important factors, two of which (comprising ten new measures) have not been featured in previous studies.

Practical implications

The developed performance measurement scales (PMS) can be applied to FM performance evaluation, management and control in the Nigerian context. The PMS and identified factors would also aid FM policy formulation, resource allocation and facilities review.

Originality/value

The research is considered the first to develop a PMS for FM in office facilities in Lagos, Nigeria. The new factors and measures that were uncovered in the study makes it possible to evaluate the Nigerian facility manager’s ability to manage the near-crises challenges imposed by the peculiar socio-economic context. Furthermore, the scale adopts simplistic financial success criteria, which makes it relevant and easy to use for the poor financial record disclosing and research-averse Nigerian audience. It is also more relevant to the less strategic and more operational task-based Nigerian FM context and by extension, to the context of other developing countries with similar socio-economic features.

Evaluating maintenance budget for an AC plant under its contextual conditions

Purpose

Maintenance actions are initiated by the annual maintenance budget (AMB) allocated for a plant system. It ensures that the assets are kept in a healthy and reliable state. The purpose of this paper is to scientifically evaluate the AMB for an air conditioning (AC) plant system, which forms an integral part of facility management.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper estimates the AMB of an AC system for specific contextual conditions using incidence matrix of the budget influencing variables. The diagonal elements of the matrix represent the values of the budget variables, whereas the off-diagonal elements represent the degree of influence among these. The maintenance budget function is derived from this matrix and is used to evaluate the AMB for the AC system as a percentage of its asset replacement value (ARV).

Findings

The AMB for the AC plant system considered in the work is evaluated as 11.1 per cent of ARV for the conditions unique to its context. The actual maintenance expenditure is lower by 7.6 per cent than the estimated value of the budget.

Research limitations/implications

The results of the methodology are a good guide for practicing facility managers. The shortcoming of the methodology is that it relies on fixed weights of the inter-relations among the budget variables, which may not be necessarily true.

Practical implications

This approach is expected to aid the maintenance managers in envisaging the AMB for their plant systems which operate under contextual conditions specific to their plant.

Originality/value

There is no evidence to indicate existence of maintenance budget evaluation methodology for an AC plant system based on its contextual conditions. This paper attempts to fill this gap.