Challenges and Solutions for Facility Management in Housing Societies

Abstract

The study focuses on the challenges faced in facility management (FM) by the housing society of 900 flats with 4000 residents and their solutions.FM is essential however it is perceived as an evil and unnecessary activity.FM is a job delegated to persons with no knowledge of basics and treated as secondary task. Discussions were held with various stakeholders of housing society to understand the issues and arrive at the solutions. The research papers on the FM were perused to understand the FM in housing societies prevalent in the environment. The records and documentations were found to be lacking in the society. Digitization of data is non-existent which prevent implementation of building information modeling (BIM).BIM is enabler for FM in the present environment considering the fast pace of information age. The awareness level of the residents in the FM in and around the city is alarmingly low which is causing loss of hard earned money as is evident from the fact that the society has not yet installed roof top solar photovoltaic grid connected system thereby causing loss of about 5 lakhs rupees per month. The strategic FM which will encompass BIM is found to be the solution for the society.