Glossary
Facilities management glossary
Plain-English definitions of the facilities management terms buyers meet in tenders and contracts: hard and soft FM, TFM, IFM, PPM, SLAs, KPIs, CAFM and more.
- Facilities management (FM)
- The management of the buildings, services and workplace that support an organisation, covering maintenance, compliance, cleaning, security and occupant services. Facilities management services.
- Hard FM
- Services tied to the fabric and plant of a building that usually carry statutory duties: mechanical and electrical maintenance, fire systems, lifts, water and building fabric. Mechanical and electrical maintenance.
- Soft FM
- People-based services that make a building usable and pleasant: cleaning, security, reception, waste, grounds and catering.
- Total facilities management (TFM)
- A single provider delivering and managing both hard and soft services across a building or estate under one contract. Total facilities management.
- Integrated facilities management (IFM)
- Several FM services combined under one management layer, contract and reporting system, often with some services subcontracted. Integrated facilities management.
- Planned preventive maintenance (PPM)
- Scheduled servicing of assets before they fail, set out in a maintenance calendar. The alternative is reactive maintenance, where work happens only after a fault.
- Reactive maintenance
- Repairs carried out after something breaks, usually through a helpdesk with attendance times set by priority.
- Service level agreement (SLA)
- The contractual standard a provider commits to, such as attendance and fix times by priority level.
- Key performance indicator (KPI)
- A measured result reported against the contract, such as the percentage of PPM tasks completed on time or jobs attended within the SLA.
- CAFM
- Computer-aided facilities management: the software that holds the asset register, schedules PPM, logs reactive jobs and stores compliance records. Integrated workplace management systems.
- Asset register
- A list of every maintainable asset in a building, with its location, condition and maintenance requirement. It is the basis of any accurate FM price.
- Statutory compliance
- The inspections and tests required by law, such as fire, gas, electrical, water hygiene, lift and asbestos duties. Statutory compliance guide.
- Responsible person / duty holder
- The person legally accountable for a building's safety duties — usually the employer, owner or managing agent. The duty stays with them even when the work is contracted out.
- Service charge
- The cost of shared building services recovered from tenants or leaseholders under their lease, which is why block and multi-let FM budgets are closely scrutinised. Block management services.
- Dilapidations
- The repairs a tenant owes a landlord at the end of a lease, measured against the lease's repairing obligations. Good maintenance records reduce disputes.
- Schedule of rates
- Agreed prices for work outside the fixed contract sum, such as additional repairs or minor works.
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