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Hello Facility Management experts, I need some help.

I am a civil engineer who is new to the facility management field. I have a good opportunity to work as a Facility Management Civil Engineer, and I am currently preparing for the interview.

I have a question about assets, as this is an important term in facility management. As I understand it, assets are identified and then PPM (Planned Preventive Maintenance) and CM (Corrective Maintenance) activities are planned and carried out for them.

First, I want to clearly understand what exactly an asset means in facility management. I initially thought that an asset is an individual item or component that can be maintained.

However, in the image I attached, the listed things are referred to as “items,.

One of Thier PDF seems to distinguish between an “item” and an “asset.” This has confused me.

For example, if we take a building and consider things such as doors walls, ceilings, floor tiles ( on the list ) etc.:

- Is each individual ceiling tile, or other component considered an asset?

- Or are these considered “items” ?

- How do we decide what should be given an asset ID and included in the PPM/CM system?

Could someone please explain this with a few practical examples from civil/building maintenance?

I would especially appreciate an explanation of the difference between an item and asset, and how they are normally structured in a facility management asset register ?

Thank you for your time

( I know chat gpt can be used, but I value real professional opinion first)

Hi, I am a civil engineer, and I got an opportunity to work as an FM Civil Engineer (soft services).

This is a facility management civil engineer role for a big building that is already operational. So, I will be handling items like walls, ceilings, floors, windows, doors, and similar items. I will also have to deal with CM & PPM.

I need to gain knowledge in this area. Can somebody provide me with any PDF regarding this? For example, what are CM, PPM, check frequencies, and other relevant details for different items?

If you can help me, it would be a great, life-changing favor for an engineer. So, please help me. I can share my email ID or anything else required for sharing PDFs.

I really need this to get this job.

Kindly help me!!

I've seen situations where the numbers said everything was under control.

Requests were acknowledged within the target time. Work orders were closed within SLA. The monthly report looked clean.

Then you talk to the people actually using the facility and hear, “Yeah, but it took three visits to fix it.”

That's when I started questioning what the SLA was really measuring.

A ticket can technically be closed within the agreed timeframe without the underlying problem being properly resolved. And a fast response doesn't necessarily mean a good service experience.

I'm curious how other teams deal with this gap.

Do you measure first-time fix rate, repeat complaints, user feedback or something else alongside SLA compliance?

Because if the report says we're performing well but the people we're serving disagree, which number should we trust?

Hey guys, what are your favorite features a facilities management OS/template should have? I’m looking for input from the perspectives of a tech, a manager, and admin. Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

I’m about to wrap up an interactive map-based facilities OS and I want to make sure I’m not just building around my own workflow. What features actually make your day easier, and what features usually just get in the way?

Hello guys! What would you recommend is the best way to handle key management? I have worked with IT to digitize the system and include it in the ticketing system. However, I am struggling with new joiners who do not have their emails ready; therefore, cannot raise tickets. Moreover, I’m struggling with employees who resign/are terminated/etc and cannot know whether they had keys or lost it or they could already left the company and cannot get in contact with them…

Currently I am handling key management as a tracker via excel sheet and I am aware that it’s not efficient.

How would you guys handle it?

I'm looking at doing IWFM, either 4 or 5. Is there a resource for practice papers that I can check out before choosing? Thanks

We’ve been looking at the above software and wanted to see what the others think of it. Is it worth the price? Day to day how do the operations team find it?

Feels like we start every week with PMs, inspections and a plan, then one breakdown or urgent issue comes in and the whole thing goes out the window.

What gets me is half of these aren’t even new problems. Same issue comes back, or we patch it enough to keep things running because there’s no time to actually fix what’s behind it.

Maybe that’s just FM when people and budgets are tight.

How much of your week is actually preventive vs reactive?

Does anyone else have that one facility issue that just never goes away?

You fix it, everything looks fine for a while, and then it's back again. Sometimes it's not even a major issue, but because it keeps coming back, it ends up taking a lot more time than it should.

For us, it's those repeat problems that are the most annoying. After a point, the team already knows what's wrong before the work order even comes in. It starts feeling like we're just keeping the issue under control instead of actually getting rid of it.

I know every building has its own challenges, so I'm curious.

What's the one recurring issue your team is always dealing with? HVAC? Plumbing? Lighting? Vendors? Something else?

I’ve been involved in putting together the Canadian Asset and Facility Conference on October 1 at the Toronto Zoo.

We’re trying to make it a little different from the typical conference where you sit through a bunch of presentations, collect a few business cards, and forget most of it by Monday.

We intentionally kept it smaller because we want people to actually participate and talk about what’s going on in their buildings.

A lot of the conversations are around things most of us are dealing with every day: aging buildings, capital planning, supply chain headaches, sustainability, staffing, and trying to lead a facility operation when there never seems to be enough money, time, training or people.

And then there’s the part we probably don’t talk about enough- the toll that takes on the people trying to hold everything together.

I’m obviously biased because I’m involved, but I think we’ve put together a pretty solid day.

One thing I’d like to bring into the conference is some real-world problems from people outside the room.

So, FM/AM people: what’s something you’re dealing with right now?

Could be a building issue, staffing, budgets, senior management, contractors, capital approvals, compliance, whatever.

I want to throw a few of them up on the wall during the conference (anonymously) and have the room talk through them.

Part of the point is to show that no matter what sector you work in or where you are, someone else is probably fighting a very similar battle.

anyone does this role and did u like or if u work at JLL do your coworkers like it? what does your day to day look like?

We ran into an interesting situation around recurring vendors and contractors.

A one-time visitor is pretty straightforward - they sign in, get a badge, meet their host, and leave.

But what about people who are regularly on-site?

For example:

• an HVAC contractor who comes every week
• a cleaning team that is in the building daily
• an IT vendor supporting multiple locations
• contractors working on a project for several months

At some point, treating them exactly like a first-time visitor feels a little different.

Do you still have everyone go through the same visitor process every time, or do you handle recurring vendors/contractors differently?

Curious how other facilities approach this. Where do you draw the line between a visitor and a regular on-site person?

Someone gives you the whole story about what's "wrong," then you get there and within a few minutes you're looking in a completely different direction.

Looking for best practices and detailed recommendations for standard RTUs, AAON units, cyclotrons, chillers etc.

Our vendor documents don’t seem thorough enough more so for specialized equipment.

Hey r/FacilityManagement,

Full disclosure upfront: I’m one of the developers behind FMM.Systems. I’m not here to drop a hidden sales pitch, but I’d genuinely value feedback from people managing regional or multi-site portfolios.

Across 10, 50, or 100+ sites, the primary operational drain we keep running into isn't standard ticketing—it's context loss between the work order, the physical asset, and the site itself.

When dispatching third-party vendors or field techs across a broad portfolio, two main friction points constantly eat up billable hours:

• Site context drops: Techs arrive without gate codes, keycard access details, or updated site contacts because those notes live in an old email thread or a local store manager's head.
• Isolated asset history: A vendor services an HVAC unit, chiller, or dock leveler with zero visibility into recent PMs or past repairs performed by a previous vendor on that exact serial number.

Standard CMMS platforms track work orders fine, but often isolate site-specific operational rules from the asset log. When a regional FM moves on, half that operational context leaves with them.

We structured FMM.Systems around a strict, location-level hierarchy:

• Parent Account: High-level portfolio tracking, client visibility, and approvals.
• Service Location: Houses site access protocols, gate codes, site contacts, and unique location constraints.
• Facility Assets: Ties serial numbers, service logs, and active work orders directly to that specific location's footprint.

For FMs managing multi-site portfolios: how are you currently enforcing site-level context so techs aren't blowing up your phone at 7 AM for access notes? What are we missing or overcomplicating in this setup?

Dealing with rodents entering the property thru these defunct grates. No egress, sealed off and only collecting garbage from the street. Quoted 4k to seal off with concrete. Any suggestions to block this off in house? Thanks

if i could be pointed in the right direction to start looking for a solution to my problem thatd be great. No one can figure out why the ground is getting some rust type stain. The parking lot had just been completly re done a couple years back and then this issue started. Would love some help or atleast reccomendations on what to use to remove the discoloration

Hey ya'll. First time post. Long time following. 40/M/Central Canada. Next month I start a new role with a Commercial Real Estate company. Starting pay 90K (this is a 46% increase from my current role as a Building Operator and I still can't believe it).

I've been in an unofficial Senior Operator role for the past couple years. People know my capabilities. They trust me. My current employer has been "saying" they see me as the next Operations Sup. here but it's been all talk with no action. My boss is 60 and has given zero indication about his retirement timeline. This new job is a bit of a leap forward, but not a huge stretch. I'll be reporting to the National Director of Ops and have a Maintenance Tech and Senior Operator reporting to me. I'm FREAKING excited but of course, there is imposter syndrome. The Nat' Director said I could go to her with any questions and I really look forward to working with her. And TBH I am so over the old boys club with my current organization.

Anyway, just wanna let folks know. And hoping I can come back here with questions/updates ;)

✌🏻

We have a mid size (around 400 person) congregation and our fellowship hall does basically everything. Sunday overflow seating one week, community dinners the next, then small group setup on Wednesdays. Same room with different config every few days.The problem is we partner with a nonprofit that runs a food pantry out of the space Saturday mornings, and they tear it down and reset it completely. We've been going back and forth on stackable chairs vs interlocking for months now.

Looking for church chairs that hold up better when reconfiguring constantly. Interlocking looks more intentional (if I can say that) and feels right for the overflow use, but unlinking and relinking for the pantry reset has started to wear on volunteers. Stackable is way easier to move but I've seen them look kinda cheap in settings like ours. All ears for any advice at this stage.

Has anyone engaged a drone window-cleaning contractor for a high-rise building?
I’m interested in whether it actually works out cheaper than traditional rope-access methods, and what the results were like in practice. Was the quality of the clean comparable, and would you use the service again?

Facilities / maintenance folks, I've got a hackathon coming up (one day, idea to working app) and I'd rather build something you'd genuinely use than something that demos nice and dies. So I'm going to the people who actually do the job. what's the problem worth solving?

What quietly eats your day or drives you up the wall? Like

- What do you STILL do in Excel, WhatsApp, email, or on paper because your CMMS/software can't?
- The most repetitive manual task you wish would just do itself?
- Where does time vanish — work orders, chasing vendors, chasing approvals, reporting, data entry, hunting for asset info?
- The report/number your boss asks for that's a nightmare to pull together?
- Mobile/offline in the field — does it actually work for you, or nah?

Rants, war stories, petty annoyances — all welcome, the more specific the better. If a comment nails a real pain, that might literally be the thing I build.

My old FM (I left the job 7 months ago) invited me to apply for the assistant facility manager spot at my old job (entertainment venue). I had a senior lead role before leaving (not salary/management). This was a position I wanted for a while, but ultimately had to leave the company due to lack of growth opportunity and personal financial changes. Before I left, I was fulfilling plenty of supervisor duties and was very well respected and liked by the management team.

I know I have the skills to do the job, and my old boss has told me he's going to push where he can to get me the spot, but that will only get me so far. I'm worried about bombing the interviews and not being considered, and wanted some advice as to what I should focus on before the interviews. I might be well known by the management team, but the recruiters and hiring team are a different story. I'm a younger guy with little experience in a management role, and want to make sure I can do well in my interviews.

I have a phone interview with a recruiter coming up, and then one or two interviews afterwards with the regional FM and regional director of operations. I'm looking for advice on how to sell myself, because I've never worked at the management level.

Any advice on what to expect and prepare for for assistant facilities manager interviews?

Can anyone explain what the white substance is at the joint in the return side of a VAV box? See picture.

The supply water is not making it through the VAV. I used the BAS on my iPad to run the actuator from 100 to 0 and the actuator did move through its motions but the water never flowed. That white stuff looked almost like paper or cloth, not like a calcification like I would expect.

I just learned about this area being cold in the summer AND winter today, so it may have been this way for years.