THE USE OF BENCHMARKING TO MEASURE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE IN SHOPPING CENTERS

Abstract

Facilities Management (FM) is a vital area in the operation of shopping centers to attract shoppers and retain tenants whose rental payment is the main source of its revenue. Benchmarking FM performance with other counterparts or within themselves allows the shopping centers to realize their own position and thereby seek improvement in unsatisfactory areas. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of benchmarking FM performance among the operators of shopping centers and find out the popular benchmarking indicators. Findings from the study revealed that using benchmarking to assess FM performance is not popular among the local shopping centers. They quote that they have not thought of it yet, have no time to conduct it, and use other management tools that are easier to conduct and collect data, and more suitable for their shopping centers. This study concludes that people prefer to use management tools that they are familiar with, easy to use and have been used all along. It could also be that the operators of shopping centers have not been adequately exposed to benchmarking