AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE USE AND RECEPTIVENESS OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) TECHNOLOGY OF EXISTING BUILDINGS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This dissertation is an exploratory study on the use and receptiveness of facilities management (FM) technology of existing buildings in Singapore for smart buildings. To aid the dissertation, six main objectives are set out which is to find out: (1) Views on the term “Smart Buildings”, (2) Views on the different types of technology available (3) State of existing buildings in Singapore (4) Receptiveness of upgrading the current use of technology, (5) Barriers which are preventing them from upgrading their technology and (6) Proposing strategies to tackle some of the barriers as noted earlier. Literature review was done to find out what is Smart Buildings and to define some technology used in the market which aids the assessment of FM practitioners’ understanding of the terms. Structured interviews are administered on ten FM practitioners managing different building types and two case studies are carried out on two of the buildings to gain a deeper understanding of responses made by the interviewees. Grounded theory method (GTM) is used to develop a theory based on the interviewees’ responses. Four main categories developed mainly the company and management factors, general factors, human factors and external factors which ultimately influences why upgrading of technology is not preferred. Generally, a summary of findings include that majority of the buildings in Singapore are not as smart as one would feel it to be. The main reasons are due to low knowledge of the industry on new FM technologies as well as their benefits offered costs of implementation and also there not existing a “need” to improve. Institutional theory is utilised to find out root causes of barriers towards upgrading of technology to aid in the proposing of recommendations. The value of study lies in providing reason to argue that buildings in Singapore are not as smart as one thinks and massive effort is required to change the perception of industry players especially lower management whom are highly unreceptive towards technology. Limitations of the study include low participation rate, lack of strict profiling of respondents, unaccountability for all building types, inability to identify smart buildings and lack of input from line workers