What is a facilities manager?

A facilities manager is an individual who represents the tenant or the owner-occupier of property by aligning property strategy with productivity strategy with a view to the use of real estate for the provision of service and the needs of the occupier and end user.  The facilities manager operates on a strategic, tactical and operational level by implementing a property and productivity strategy as regards the buildings and the property infrastructure that support its use in conducting the business of the property occupants.

The responsibility of a facilities manager is to effectively manage the property within the specified budgets and in timely manner by managing the expense side of the budget while ensuring that the assets are in optimal condition to support the core business operations.  They manage the optimization of space utilization through the use of key performance indicators to measure optimal occupancy that meets a certain cost/quality ratio and satisfies the productivity standards of the employees and production standards of the specific primary business unit, where the target indicators are costs/quality, total cost of ownership (TCO) and satisfaction level.