Realities of the modern economy require organisations to compete with creativity and innovation. Central to this is the workplace environment and the need to optimise human capital in knowledge-based business operations. Principles of corporate real estate and facilities management recognise that increasing user satisfaction and supporting user requirements can enhance workplace productivity. However, the traditional workplace investment provisions heavily concentrate on cost savings while failing to optimise the savings with potential side- effects on workplace-user satisfaction and requirements. This conflict is an area lacking research and forms the basis upon which this research is structured namely to develop a workplace-utilisation model optimising workplace occupancy-costs, user satisfaction and requirements. The study adopted a mixed methods research approach interviewing office/facilities managers and collecting workplace-user opinions from UK offices. Data analysis comprises multiple research tools including the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), statistical analyses, logistic regression models and occupancy-cost analysis. The combination of these tools was used to create a holistic approach to workplace utilisation, user satisfaction and requirements. The study highlighted the benefits of using AHP and cluster analysis in workplace-satisfaction assessment as the techniques can reveal the needs of workplace users to enhance office productivity on a group preference basis. The logistic regression models emphasised that drivers and barriers to fulfil user satisfaction and requirements should be carefully managed as complex relationships exist. The study also conducted scenario-based office-level analysis and found that using a user-centric workplace practice can help offices achieve better occupancy-cost saving compared to the use of existing and property-centric practices. The holistic approach led the study to propose an optimal workplace-utilisation practice where office occupancy costs and user-satisfaction level are traded-off. The study highlighted key contributions from a holistic approach to workplace practice, user satisfaction and requirements. These are firstly, using a user-centric approach is beneficial in assisting organisations achieve more efficient costs of office occupancy. Secondly, the study found that maintaining a high level of satisfaction leads to higher productivity which is important for organisations seeking to improve long-term growth through satisfaction-based performance of knowledge workers. Finally, the study emphasised the balanced approach to workplace practice by trading off user satisfaction and workplace efficiency to achieve optimal performance.

The international competition and the demand to increase productivity of manufacturing and production lines have attracted the management of industrial organisations from a wide spectrum to implement Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) as a tool for improving productivity and system’s output. Some Libyan companies are still facing many problems concerning maintenance activities of assets. Inadequate maintenance can have cost impact on the maintenance performance and production. Following the privatisation of the Cement industry in Libya, companies are now interested in improving productivity, reducing cost, improving maintenance procedures and reducing the negative effect on the environment. To address the above issues within the Libyan industry, this research presents an investigation into the need for implementation of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) in Libyan cement industry. TPM is a generic maintenance philosophy that transforms maintenance activities from what is considered to be the 'necessary evil' into an essential part of the business. In TPM, maintenance and downtime is integrated within the production system and scheduled as an essential part of the manufacturing process. This thesis investigates the problems facing four cement factories in Libya. Following a comprehensive literature review around the research problem; case studies, statistical data, semi-structured interviews, detailed questionnaires and site visits are utilised to evaluate and understand the problems within the four factories. Based on the analysis, this thesis suggests a new Framework and associated models for implementing Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and identifying the key Factors to improve the overall maintenance performance.

Facilities management (FM) is a practice that contributes added value to organisations. An optimum FM service delivery can be achieved by giving more emphasis to the performance measurement (PM) aspect. The significant functions of PM in maximising the efficient productivity of organisations’ service delivery have been acknowledged and proven globally. However, there is still a gap in the scope of PM in FM, especially in Malaysia, whereby its concept is still not as well- developed as it is in other industries. There is also a lack of an appropriate set of performance measures that can be used by FM practitioners in the industry. The literature review for this research has also shown that FM industry in Malaysia is still immature and in need of a step forward to be as competitive as other FM industries globally. This has driven this research to endeavour to discover and comprehend the effective key PM elements in measuring FM service performance. This research aimed to develop a framework that proposes appropriate FM performance measures that can be used by organisations in Malaysia. The qualitative methodology approach from the pilot study survey, case studies and interviews has shown significant findings on three levels of analysis. First, there is a gap in the literature about the FM industry in Malaysia, and a greater understanding of the FM service delivery needs to be further addressed and developed. Second, by using a comparison study, this research has demonstrated that the PM designs in the UK are comprehensive, detailed and customer-driven, whereas PM designs in Malaysia are simple and supplier driven, but not objective-oriented. Third, findings from the interviews, which aimed to evaluate the proposed framework, have demonstrated that the developed performance measurement framework (PERFM) in this research embeds positive qualities of an effective PM framework and is suitable to be implemented in FM practice in Malaysia. From the findings of this research, it is strongly anticipated that PERFM would enable the FM practitioners to better understand the FM service scopes and the performance specifications and targets that should be achieved within their capacities. PERFM is also expected to offer values and benefits and serve as a platform in bringing up the FM industry to a whole new level.

Since the 1980s, successive governments have imposed a range of performance assessment regimes for incorporation within the service management processes of public bodies with the intention of emulating the success achieved from their use in delivering ‘effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy’ within the private sector (De Bruijn 2007). Concurrently, increasingly knowledgeable and resourceful stakeholders have sought confirmation that as well as meeting its statutory obligations their local authority is consistently delivering its local community with a range of high quality, flexible services by working, where appropriate, in partnership with other public or private sector organisations. Given the above, soft facilities management (FM) services (ie those that provide support to the front line services, such as cleaning, reception, mail room), provide a significant overhead to the local authority, the research sets out to determine the role of facilities management within the local authority context and FMs’ awareness and use of performance assessment within this context, as part of the soft FM management process. Following a review of the literature, a theoretical model was proposed that outlined the factors affecting the effective use of performance assessment within the management of soft FM services within a local authority context. The factors were determined to be the organisational and wider environment, use of knowledge/information and education and awareness of performance assessment within the FMs. The research methodology comprised a questionnaire, a set of semi-structured interviews and case studies. Accordingly, the research evaluated - if there was a generic profile for soft FM services within the local authority context - the factors that affect the effective use (or result in non-use) of seven performance assessment techniques (operational and strategic) within the management of fourteen soft FM services, and - their value, if any, in assisting the FM to ensure the provision of accountable, value for money services that satisfy the customers/stakeholders they serve. 4 In order to ensure a consistent approach for assessing soft FM services within this context, the research proposed a four-step methodology for defining and assessing FM services and their performance. Despite the requirement for local authorities to evidence accountability, provide ‘value for money’ and customer responsive services, the research established an unexpectedly low level of knowledge of any performance assessment technique other than benchmarking and a corresponding low use of the evaluated techniques. This was despite recognition by FMs within a local authority context of the perceived value of performance assessment as part of the service management process. There also appeared to be limited endorsement from Senior Management and Council Members for its use within the management of soft FM services. Furthermore, a knowledge base or soft FM related information on the use of performance assessment both in a wider context, and more specifically within the local authority context proved limited, as did training of FMs in the selection and use of an appropriate performance assessment technique as part of the soft FM service management process. Benchmarking forms the basis of a range of mandatory performance assessment regimes within the public sector. Therefore, in case studies undertaken with local authority FMs, FMs higher and further education and within the National Health Service an assessment was made of its use within the performance assessment of soft FM services within these sectors, and including an evaluation of whether benefits may be gained, or ‘value added’ from cross sector comparisons. Again, the findings were that use within and across sectors proved disappointingly low. The research concluded that current use of performance assessment of soft FM services within this context is limited and ineffective. Improvements to this situation require the adoption of a generic soft FM service remit within local authorities, which would better support meaningful service comparisons, appropriate training for FMS in the use of performance assessment as part of the soft FM management process, a sound knowledge base from which soft FMs can draw best practice, and increased management support. If these cannot be achieved any requirement for its continued use must be questioned.

This study determines the ability of FM to operationalise the management of sustainability through delivering a change in culture towards Sustainable Facilities Management (SFM). Delivering a sustainable built estate is an increasingly important aspect of society considering that it produces 45% of all UK Carbon emissions (Kelly, 2008). Through a combination of case study and observational research methods this study answers the query of where Facilities Management (FM) can fit in as part of the solution. A mixed methodological approach was taken using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A grounded theory was followed with the research findings developed through multiple stages. A content analysis conducted on 65 FM organisations established the current position of the industry towards SFM. Interviews were conducted with 10 FM professional to create an understanding of sustainability in the FM context. However, the main focus of the case study was a two year ethnographic study to test the response of an FM organisation to environmental policy. To test the result of this primary energy and waste data was used to analyse the impact of SFM operationally. Energy and waste were two sections of sustainability that were chosen to be used to further analysis due to the availability of measureable data. Finally, the impact of physical facilities upon the environmental behaviour of building occupants was tested through a questionnaire regarding recycling facilities; 500 questionnaires were issued, with a response rate of 38%. The research shows that FM is in a key position to participate in delivering environmental policy for the built environment. SFM can be operationalised to deliver a consistent, methodological approach that has sustainability as a core element. This shows that the model of FM is changing. Facility design and provision does impact on occupant behaviour, physical facilities should be considered as a factor implementing environmental behaviour.

The general lack of senior management concern about maintenance activity in industry over the last 20 years, revealed in government surveys. is reflected in the limited literature and virtual absence of research into the principles of organisation theory applied to maintenance organisation structures. This thesis seeks to aleviate this situation by following a systems - contingency approach in a research and comparative analysis of maintenance organisations in the aluminium industry. The key design elements involved in the structure of these maintenance organisations are identified. They are found to be departmentation. size/shape. role of senior maintenance manager. roles of maintenance engineers. roles of maintenance foremen. intra-departmental co-ordination. and inter-departmental co-ordination with production and engineering groups. Those factors. primarily human factors. upon which these design elements may be contingent are proposed and the significance of their impact predicted. Their inter-dependence and influencing mechanisms are described with the aid of a set of systems models. The relationship between changes in the maintenance organisation structure and improvement in maintenance and business performance is demonstrated. together with proposed methods for identifying and measuring that improvement. On the basis of this research. the analysis and design of each key element is possible. and a rational approach to the design of a whole maintenance organisation structure in an aluminium smelting firm can be proposed. It is demonstrated that much of this approach 1s equally relevant to the design of maintenance organisation structures in other process industries.

Classification is the most important step in conducting scientific enquiry. It enables us to recognise, identify and conceptualise behaviours, events, occurrences, objects or phenomena. Yet, classification has not been developed for Facilities Management (FM). This Thesis investigates demand side of Facilities Management by introducing a classification system for client FM organisations, which are currently perceived as irrelevant to each other, operating in their own territory with no other reference than their context organisation.

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The aim of this thesis is to devise new optimisation techniques for restricted continuous facility location problems. In this work, forbidden regions and barriers are considered as the main restriction types for locations. In the first search paper, a general modelling framework for restricted facility location problems is introduced with arbitrarily shaped forbidden regions or barriers. Phi-objects are canonically closed sets of points and efficient tools in mathematical modelling of 2D and 3D geometric optimisation problems. Point sets that contain isolated points, points that are removed from an object (deleted points) and objects with self-intersection of their frontiers are not classified as phi-objects. In the first research paper, the phi-objects are used to model real objects mathematically. It is shown that the proposed modelling framework can be applied to both median and center facility location problems, either with barriers or forbidden regions. The instances from the existing literature for this class of problems are solved to optimality using the new framework. Further, a realistic multi-facility problem instance derived from an archipelago vulnerable to earthquakes is also solved to optimality. This problem instance is significantly more complex than any other instance described in the literature. In the second research paper, a new formulation based on multi-commodity flows with unknown destination is described and adapted to the problem type at hand. The proposed model is defined on a discretised space and this discretisation technique can also be applied to deterministic and stochastic continuous restricted location problems using any distance metric. As a solution method for the presented formulation, a solution algorithm, based on Benders Decomposition, is developed to take advantage of the discrete network structure. Extensive computational experiments, which are derived from a well-known and complex instance from the literature are carried out, on both deterministic and stochastic multi-facility restricted location problems. Results are analysed to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution technique. In the third research paper, capacitated versions of the restricted facility location problems are studied. To the best of our knowledge, these have not been studied before. Similar to the second research paper, the continuous space is discretised and a model developed on a discrete space. Various acceleration techniques for Benders Decomposition are tested to improve the efficiency of solving the problem instances. A large number of deterministic instances is generated from three core instances. Two of these are well-known instances in the literature. The other instance is newly proposed in this paper. Numerical results are presented to determine the most efficient solution approach for the approximated continuous problem.