Fall in line or be side-lined

Rogier Roelvink, customer strategy director, Oracle Construction and Engineering, says that FM mangers need to embrace the reality of technology and automation.

Technology is going to change facilities management roles, automation will bring in the robots. Machines will be smarter and faster than people. Facilities managers will need to adapt to this new reality and adopt the technology to remain relevant and in a job. The job will look and feel different and it will (still) be important, but you either fall in line or be side-lined.

McKinsey conducted a study of US jobs that are most adaptable to automation. The research states that although automation will eliminate very few occupations entirely in the next decade, it will affect portions of almost all jobs to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the type of work they entail. In discussing automation, McKinsey refer to whether or not the automation of that activity is technically feasible.

In practice, automation will depend on more than just technical feasibility. Five factors are involved: technical feasibility; costs to automate; the relative scarcity, skills, and cost of workers who might otherwise do the activity; benefits (e.g. superior performance) of automation beyond labour-cost substitution; and regulatory and social-acceptance considerations. The hardest activities to automate with currently available technologies are those that involve managing and developing people (9% automation potential) or that apply expertise to decision making, planning or creative work (18%). (McKinsey & Co)

Technology is not the enemy though. As Lawrence Wintermeyer states: “Technology should not be viewed as something that is going to enslave us, nor will it save us, it is here to enable us .”

Upskilling facilities management