DEFINING FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) IN THE MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Facilities Management (FM) can be summarised as creating an environment that is cohesive to carry out an organisationís primary operations, taking an integrated view of the infrastructure services and use it to give customer satisfaction and value for money through support for an enhancement of the core business. However, since FM has been identified as a multi-disciplinary area of development and opportunity, it has resisted a universal definition. Unlike in the UK where the FM market is well established, the Malaysian FM market is still in its infancy and its related duties are fragmented with limited knowledge on the subject. Several branches of the built environment dominants in Malaysia such as property management, building maintenance and assets management define FM based on their own interpretation resulting FM becoming more ambiguous in the local context. The research is conducted through five phaseís mixed-methods research design in collaboration with Construction Industrial Industry Board of Malaysia (CIDB) and a prominent local FM service provider. Through these alliances, relevant FM stakeholders are identified as the respondents to the research undertaken. The paper provides a fresh input on how FM is defined in the Malaysian perspective to be commonly shared and emulated by the Malaysian FM stakeholders and the built environment community at large.