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AUGUST 2005 By Mary Duke Our new President for the 2005-2006 year, Anita Landwehr opened our meeting
by announcing our new leadership:
New Board Officers
Committees
The Challenge
And, don't forget to sign up for World Work Place!
Team Building - Kick-off Meeting
On Thursday, July 7, we enjoyed an afternoon of team building. Kelly
Vidovic,
an independent consultant, gave an excellent Presentation on key personality
types. She analyzed which type each of us represented, how we think and how we
can interact better with each other. And, to top it all off, she pegged each of
us fairly accurately. The seminar was interactive and interesting, and we all
got a few laughs out of it!
July 14 Meeting Highlights
Charles gave a technical briefing on Emerging Construction Technologies for
Facility Managers.
Charles discussed facility life cycles from creation of the facility phase
and emphasizing that the facility will have a life cycle of about 20 years, thus
creating a series of projects over that time period.
He indicated that there is a productivity gap and that construction lags
behind the economy. Productivity is the ratio of what is produced to what is
required to produce it. Construction has lost revenue. In order to overcome some
of these issues, technology is being improved significantly.
Charles mentioned that 4-D interactive CAD is becoming more prominent in the
industry and that the use of GPS technology in locating tagged material of items
is the tool of the future. One example he gave was locating a problem with a
piece of equipment on a project and being able to find it immediately.
Radio Frequency ID is another example noted:
Other uses:
This technology is also useful in tracking condition of items such as by
temperature, humidity, inventories, forest fires and earthquakes, etc.
This also opens the door for "Real Time" information so people can
do something with the information in a timely manner, especially in the event of
an emergency.
Technology reduces human error and saves time and money. It also serves to
reduce claims (overhead).
Some of the sponsors for the pilot programs are KBR, Fluor Daniel, Proctor
and Gamble, Chevron, DOW and Dupont.
August Meeting Information
Please join IFMA-Ausitin for a Round Table Discussion on August 11 at 11:30
at the Embassy Suites Hotel (at 5901 N IH 35.) The meeting cost is $20 for
members and $25 for non-members, lunch will be provided.
Please RSVP to rsvpifma@yahoo.com by noon on August 8. Please visit our web
site www.ifma-austin.org for more information and a link to the Embassy Suites
web site. New Member Highlight
Rosemary Ulrich, President of Prime Design, one of our newest members, was
profiled by NASE (National Association for the Self-employed). She has a growing
business and is looking for leads. Click the link to read the profile and see
what makes them different and what they have to offer.
http://women.nase.org/Profiles/Rosemary_Profile.asp
You can reach Rosemary at the following numbers:
512-288-9873 Phone Metrocon - Dallas
Robin Connolly provided the attached link regarding Metrocon (Dallas) that is
partly sponsored by IFMA.
Outsourcing Alternatives
Efficiency Experts Create Innovative Partnership to Help Businesses Analyze
Facility Management Outsourcing Alternatives
Businesses and facility management teams are confronting serious and on-going
challenges to create and sustain positive performance. As global competition
intensifies and resources become more constrained organizations must use less
capital to achieve business goals. To survive managers must optimize facility
assets, reduce total costs, and maximize value to their customers. If top
management determines that an outside service provider can perform the same
service faster, cheaper, and better it is quite possible that the service will
be outsourced.
The practice of outsourcing facility management to third-party companies is
undergoing rapid growth in the United States. Unfortunately, operating and
executive management is often forced to make important outsourcing decisions
based on performance measures provided by parties who might be motivated to
showcase data in a way that promotes their own self-interests. Aggressive third
party facility management companies who perform their own audits want to
persuade property owners and managers that they can add more value at less cost
than the in-house facility management department. Conversely, an in-house
facility management department is placed in an awkward position where it is
difficult to be objective when requested to audit its own performance and use
measures to justify its existence to upper management.
Facility managers must be proactive and keep up with the best. The old saw
"Plan or be planned for!" is especially relevant today. There is a
genuine need for facility managers to rigorously apply detailed and orderly
processes at regular intervals to identify and exploit opportunities for
improvement. They must thoroughly evaluate each alternative by comparison, and
choose the optimum solution based on acceptance criteria that is agreed to by
top management. An in-house facility management staff can forestall or avoid
becoming a takeover target by demonstrating that their organization is worth the
cost.
Rick Sievert, Ph.D. President of The Sievert Group of companies based in
Schaumburg, Illinois and Sanjay Mehrotra, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of
Northwestern University's Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Program have
formed a strategic partnership to help businesses analyze management and
operational problems and make optimum economic investment decisions. Together
Sievert and Mehrotra help service and manufacturing establishments explore,
evaluate, verify or justify facility management outsourcing alternatives.
Decision support services are based on independent technical/economic
evaluations and formulation of optimization models.
For More Information please contact: Phone: (847) 397-2700 Ext 108 Education Opportunity - Houston
Houston announces the following course information coming up in August.
Please click on the hyperlink to view the course description and registration
page. This course will be held in Houston, Texas, in our office.
http://www.ifma.org/learning/events/business_fm_onsite.cfm The Business of FM in Houston, August 23-26, 2005
For members looking to complete the first area of the Facility Management
Professional designation, brush up on their FM fundamentals or for those new to
the FM profession, the Business of FM introductory course will be held in
Houston this August. Spend four days immersed in the principles,
characteristics, theories and concepts that make up the business of FM. This
course will include an introduction to FM, as well as managing, advancing and
evaluating the business of FM.
Attendees will gain an introductory overview of the nine facility management
competency areas. Delivered by an outstanding FM expert, this course will
provide attendees with a better understanding of the profession and the practice
of facility management.
2 FMP Credits/Area 1, 3.0 CEUs If you have any questions, please contact:
Ronna Winchester. World Workplace News
World Workplace 2005
With a variety of sessions, events and networking opportunities
to choose from, your three-day investment will be filled with the education
and interaction you need to grow as an FM professional.
Be sure to complete
and return your registration form to IFMA headquarters or register online by
Aug. 26 to receive the discounted early registration rate. Also included is
a registration form to fill out if you would like to take advantage of the
courses being offered at IFMA's Fall Symposium immediately preceding World
Workplace.
Keep an eye out for this helpful resource or visit
www.worldworkplace.org today to learn more about the FM event of 2005!
You are receiving this message because IFMA believes you will benefit
from this information. You are not receiving it because you are subscribed
to an electronic list. If you have any comments about this type of message
or if you do not wish to receive any further notices, please reply to ifma@ifma.org
or call 713.623.4362. IFMA Headquarters is located at 1 E. Greenway Plaza,
Ste. 1100, Houston, TX 77046-0194.
?Articles Please contact Mary Duke at Marydu@fmgi.com with your submittals. |
Charles Carpenter, who is now our past President, did an OUTSTANDING job. He
showed a great deal of patience and was a great leader at World Workplace,
especially at the House of Delegates. He was awarded a plaque for his work.
Thanks Charles, for a job well done!
Anita also set a challenge for ALL members: Invite those people you know or
work with who are not yet members and get them to join! And, get those who are
members to come to the meetings!
Robin Connolly introduced our speaker, Charles Wood with Fiatech.