Unit 18 Facilities Operations Management Assignment

Programme	Travel and Tourism Management
Unit Number and Title	Unit 18 Facilities Operations Management
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

This assignment is based on the case given that a new facilities manager has been appointed at local independent boutique at Green Park Hotel in London. This hotel has been sold off to another owner who would like to refurbish and restructure the hotel for making it more appealing to the guests and people visiting it. Being the new facilities manager the owner who lacks the hotel knowledge has to be guided on the same based on the statutory and legal perspective. The assignment has in total 4 tasks. Task 1 is based on the discussion on the various responsibilities of a facility manager towards staff, operations and customers. Task 2 will discuss on the health and safety, environmental and statutory compliances towards the hotel. Task 3 will give an insight on the control systems, effective systems for processing the information and effective systems for building management. Task 4 lastly will analyze the criteria that could be used to evaluate quality and effectiveness of the operations.

TASK 1

This task will highlight on the various responsibilities that a facility manager has towards its staff, customers and operations in the hotel. Above all the impact of facilities operations of employers would be analyzed.

A Assess your responsibilities as a facilities manager towards your staff

Facility Manager is a person who is the overall in charge and head of the property of the hotel at London. He is the head of the facility in terms of his overall operations. The responsibilities as a facilities manager towards the staff are:
Smooth Operations and management - Ensuring adequate staff has been appointed at the hotel. He has to make sure that the financial, operational and manpower budgets are allocated at the beginning of the year and on basis of that adequate manpower is being placed in the hotel. He has to ensure that they do smooth operations and their grievances are resolved at the earliest. The employees working for the hotel should be able to resolve their queries and the grievances.
Clarity of Role and Job Descriptions - They have been made clear on the roles and responsibilities that they have to perform in the hotel with respect to their profiles. It is important that all the staff members are individually aware of the roles and responsibilities of the hotel operations that they have to carry out.
Employee Engagement and Welfare Activities - He has to include them into employee engagement activities and decision making within the hotel. This would help in generation of new ideas and the ways in which the hotel operations could be made progressive and working as per the budget planning.
Training & Development - He has to guide and train them on the regular basis with the facilities, technical and operational trainings. This will help them in getting aware of the standard operating procedures and their functions within the hotel operations.

B Discuss your responsibilities as a facilities manager you have for operational aspects of the building.

Facility Manager is a person who has to look forward to the various operations with respect to the hotel property. The responsibilities of the facility manager with respect to the operational aspects of the building are:
Statutory Compliance - He has to renew the certifications and licenses of all kinds with respect to the hotel operations (Chase et al, 2001). He has to make sure that there is timely renewal of these licenses and certificates.
Development of Fire Drill and evacuation Programs - He has to develop and ensure that fire extinguishers and fire evacuation programs are installed. This could be referred as annual and emergency maintenance.
Building Management and Operations - The legal and statutory requirements in the building operations for the hotel are being taken care of. The notices, signage and display related to all aspects are being done.
Auditing - Internal as well as external legal and statutory audits are being organized in the hotel.

C Assess your responsibilities as a facilities manager towards customers using the facility.

Facility Manager has to manage the hotel operations from 360 degree angle. He has to make sure that the internal as well as the external customers related with the hotel remain satisfied. The responsibilities of the facilities manager towards the customers are:
Service Management - Providing them the best services and facilities during their stay in the hotel. The customers who visit the hotel have to be going with satisfaction and the happiness for the kind of services and the facilities that have been rendered to them.
Providing better deals and options – It has to be ensured that the best deal and negotiation is being given to the different customers. The customers in order to gain more business have to be given best deals and offer so that they take up and give more deals and business to the hotel.
Customer Satisfaction and Improvisations - Their satisfaction levels and service evaluation is being taken from them in all the respects. The evaluation and feedback mechanisms are the ways in which the satisfaction of the customers could be mapped and evaluated. It has to be ensured that the customers are provided healthy food and hygienic environment within the hotel. The hotel has to make sure that it checks the quality of the food before surfing it to the various customers so that there are lesser complaints.
Safety and Security Assurance - There should be customer safety and security that should be maintained within the hotel. This is very essential to be done in all the ways (Schonberger & Knod, 1994).
All the customers who will visit or stay in the hotel have to be kept satisfied and happy at the hotel premises through provision of the best facilities and services.

D Discuss the impact on facilities operations of employers and/or funding agencies.

Facilities operations should be carried out as per the statutory and legal compliances and as per the standard operating procedures within the hotel. When a specific and specialized facility manager would be appointed at the hotel then surely he will look after the customers, staff and the operations of the hotel. This will make sure that proper statutory and legal requirements are being met in the hotel and the employer is free from any kind of legal and statutory constraints and hassles. The funding agencies will also remain satisfied as to no illegal proceedings and money has to be given in order to keep the hotel operations to be in live state in all the ways. 
Facilities operations will help in keeping a control on the overall operations and the workflow of the services and the operations that are running or taking place in the hotel.

TASK 2

In this task, a discussion would be carried out on the statutory regulations, health and safety and environmental measures that should be adopted and implemented within the hotel.

A Assess the UK statutory regulations that affect facilities operations.

UK Statutory regulations and procedures are very strict with respect to the facilities operations. There should be availability and implementation of the safety and environmental effective and useful policies and practices that are as per the UK law. The hotel has to develop the processes and practices as per the hotel and UK law on safety, environment and health of the customers that are visiting the hotel. There should be presence of all kinds of licenses and certifications as per the hotel operations in UK. The certifications will ensure that the staff and owner of the hotel have specialization of running a hotel facility. The process of internal and external audits has to be streamlined and planned. Facility should be free from all kinds of in securities like fire, health and hygiene.  The regulations states that Alcohol Licenses, Certificates for sound and music and certification on safety and security of the customers and the training of the internal employees have to be obtained by each and every facility based on the kind of undertaking. They have to fulfil the Employment Law, Equality law and Disparity among the people deployed by a facility for the operations.

B Discuss the health, safety and environmental measures that must be implemented in the UK.

UK is the country that is very strict in terms of health, safety and environmental measures that should be adopted in the hotel facility and property. There is Food, Health and Safety Act, 1974 that has been taken out by UK which has to be implemented at each and every facility. The health and safety environmental issues that should be adopted within the hotel are:
There should be regular pest control process that should be adopted. This will help in preventing and controlling the termites, cockroaches and other kinds of pests keeping the facility very clean and hygienic. There should be updating of the health and hygiene related aspects within the hotel as per the statutory compliances. The staff working for the hotel has to be kept on a check for the health camps so that they remain healthy and can generate maximum of their productivity (Gaimon & Singhal, 1992).The audits with respect to these compliances should be organized on regular intervals. These audits will guide on the various loopholes that the hotel property has to resolve and improve upon. Before the food is made or prepared, it has to pass all the tests of quality, health and safety for the customers and the internal staff at the hotel. This will help in controlling the food types, quality and maintaining the hygiene.

C Discuss the documentation required to account for compliance with statutory regulations and health, safety and environmental issues in the UK.

There is maintenance of MIS and Performance Reports at each and every facility that ensure that the status on the various activities are enlisted and documented. There are various documents and registers that have to be maintained and accounted for the compliances with statutory regulations and issues in UK like:
License of operations for the hotel property - These would be fire control, building operation and other statutory licenses.
Certifications and licenses - for the food preparation and serving at the hotel facility. This should be as per the UK hygiene and food safety act.
Certification on the health and safety of the customers - This says that the health and safety of the customers also has be maintained and that would be done when they would be attended and served well in terms of stay, food and environment that is given to them. The checklists pertaining to the hotel operations like housekeeping, security and technical checklist for the machinery. Certification on the green and clean environment and health and safety act 1974.

TASK 3

This task will lay down the importance effective systems for processing of information and control systems that are required in the hotel.

A Develop and deploy effective systems for processing information and maintain communication at your hotel.

Hotel Operations involve a day-to-day and regular interaction and communication among the management, staff and the customers. The walkie-talkie and other technical devices could be used to communicate and convey the information and data to various people for the work to be done. There are other devices like e-mails, telephones and internet facilities that may help the individuals in communicating the correct and right information to the team members for effective operations in the hotel. Management Information System and Performance Management System are said to be few of the processing and maintaining communication systems that will help in spreading and managing the information.

B Identify the control systems required for effective facilities operations for your hotel.

The control systems that could be installed within the hotel in order to provide the effective facilities operations are:
Budgeting – This is area wherein the budgets and plans persisting to each and every area has to be developed and given to departments so that they have control on expenses and financial aspects.
Accounting and Auditing - This is the area wherein the budgets and the financials are checked, audited and controlled. The staff and the management in the hotel has to be guided on the various procedures that have to be adopted in terms of the audits and accounts that are carried out. 
Equipment starts up and closing down procedures and controls – These procedures and manuals will help in checking and operating the devices, tools and equipments related to the hotel operations.
Purchasing & Sales – There should be proper sales audit and checklist on the processes and practices that are carried out in the company. These would be controls to measure the processes, practices and the procedures that could be run in the hotel operations.
O & M Procedures and controls – These operations and maintenance methods will keep a check and process on the operations of the hotel (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). 

C Discuss the systems needed by you as a facilities manager to support effective building management.

For the process of effective building management, the various systems that are required by the facility manager are:
Fire Alarm System – These are the systems that will take care of the fire or any emergency issues that may arise in the building. This would develop as a fire check and evacuation program that will take control over the fire that may break at the hotel.
Plumbing systems – This system will take care of all the processes and steps related with the plumbing features in the hotel. This will keep the water and other sanitary related processes operating and working at the hotel facility at all the times.
CCTV and monitoring system – This is a complete monitoring and observational system that will take care of the visits and exits from the hotel. It will also keep track on the working of the various staff in the hotel. This would be a comprehensive and controlled monitoring process that will keep track of all the activities and incidents that are taking place at the hotel.
Engineering systems – These will take care of the various machines and equipments that are installed within the hotel to manage its operations.
HVAC System – This is a system that will take care of the air conditioning operations and practices within the hotel operations.
Security and systems for observations – This would comprise of the security and the safety mechanisms and systems that are installed within the hotel.
Automation and O & M Systems – These are the automatic operations and maintenance systems that are installed within the hotel (De Neufville & Odoni, 2003). 

TASK 4

This task will comprise of the criteria that could be used to evaluate quality and effectiveness of the facilities operations in the hotel. It will also discuss on the evaluation and review procedures that could be implemented within the hotel.

A Establish appropriate criteria to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of facilities operations at your hotel.

It is very important and very important role of a facility manager to set the criteria that would evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the facilities operations at the hotel:
Setting the targets, objectives and the plans - This would monitor all the functions, programs and tasks that are run within the hotel so that the changes are brought about in the hotel to improve the quality and effectiveness. This will not require any kind of manual tracking systems rather it will have the automated process of checking on the various devices that are present and operated within the hotel facility (Slack et al, 2010).
Development and implementation of the training and developmental programs for the staff working in the hotel – This would help in developing and imparting of the training and developmental programs benchmarked with the competitors on the hotel operations to all the staff that is working with the hotel. This will help in dwelling the essential skills and competencies among the team members that have been working with the hotel. This will keep the staff informed and updated with the necessary skills and competencies.
Development of Vision, Mission and Standards for the Facility and Company as a whole – The company has to develop the vision, mission and the statement for the various standards to give a direction to the team they have been dealing with. 
These will help in keeping track of the processes and introduction of the procedures in the facilities operations.

B As a facilities manager implements evaluation and review procedures to analyze the quality and effectiveness of facilities operations at your hotel.

The evaluation and review procedures that could be installed within the facilities operations are:
Review and evaluation of the trainings that are being organized for the various staff working for the hotel – Trainings unless evaluated and judged from the level of understanding and the implementation of the same in the operations would be of no use. It is imperative that whether the staffs have learned the mechanisms and process could be done by post training evaluation techniques and processes. Development of the online as well as offline process of the feedback from the customers who have in any way utilized the facilities and services of the hotel will help. This process will let us know on the loopholes, weaknesses and the wrong processes that the hotels have been following and help in their correction easily at all the levels (Gaither, 1987). The 360 degree and evaluation of the facilities manager that will help in keeping a check on the quality of a manager in terms of his effectiveness in implementation of the systems. In case the facilities manager is not aware and trained on the important processes of the hotels then he will surely not be able to implement the same within the hotel. The facility manager has to have the correct product knowledge so that he may guide and instruct the team accordingly.
O & M Proactive check and checklist – This checklist would comprise of the various processes that could be checked with respect to the operations and maintenance of the hotel facility or the building. This checklist will keep track on the tools, equipments and the machines at the hotel.

Conclusion

Hotel Operations is also like the maintenance of any other building operations. There is always a requirement of development of the standard operating procedures and the practices that could be utilized as a standard or the benchmark that has to be adopted at the hotel. The facility manager who is appointed at the hotel is responsible of the staff, customers and the operational convenience and opera ability. He has to make sure that the hotel has the desired licenses and the certifications as per the UK law so that he could easily face all kinds of legal and statutory audits from the governmental authorities. There is requirement of the health, safety and hygiene and environmental upkeep in the hotel. These would be done as per the UK hotel operations and legislative act. Facilities manger has to install and keep certain control systems that will help him in keeping a check on various processes, people and the practices that are being done at the hotel.
Thus in the nutshell we could say that hotel operations involve the specialized people who could benchmark the strategies with respect to other hotel and implement the best practices within the hotel.

References

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De Neufville, R., & Odoni, A. (2003). Airport Systems. Planning, Design and Management.
Gaimon, C., & Singhal, V. (1992). Flexibility and the choice of manufacturing facilities under short product life cycles. European Journal of Operational Research, 60(2), 211-223.
Hayes, R. H., & Wheelwright, S. C. (1984). Restoring our competitive edge: competing through manufacturing.
Gaither, N. (1987). Production and operations management: A problem-solving and decision-making approach. Dryden Press.
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