Daily Independent Online.
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Monday, July 26, 2004.
Buildwell boss seeks to enthrone facility
management ideals
By Olaniyi Ola
Head, Property & Environment, Lagos
Mr. Afolabi Adedeji, the managing director of
Buildwell International Company Limited and a member International Facility
Management Association (IFMA) Nigerian Chapter, has called on all the
three-tiers of government to set up a policy framework to review and assess the
facilities management spectrum of both the public and private sector with a
view to ensuring that optimum gains are made by the productive sectors of the economy.
He made
this statement in Lagos, last week, in a chat with Daily Independent.
Meanwhile, to catch up with the gains of its first
workshop coupled with the lack of maintenance culture in every facet of our
national life, Buildwell International Company Limited, a facilities management
concern, is fine-tuning arrangements to hold a three-day seminar in September
with stakeholders in the construction and allied industry. The workshop will
hold from Tuesday, September 21 to Thursday, September 23, 2004, at the Federal
Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The workshop will bring together renowned academics
and human resource practitioners like Professor Reuben Iyagba of the University
of Lagos, Dr. Sola Aina, Prof. J. K. Kofi Duncan, Prof. Kayode Familoni, Mr. A.
B. O. Ajai, Ayoade Adenrele and Mr. Charles Attah among others.
The objectives of the workshop include helping key
officers and management staff of public and private concerns to develop skills
and techniques in facilities management and maintenance as a management
function; impacting the latest skills and knowledge in information systems that
are peculiar to facilities and maintenance management; assisting participants
to cultivate the human resource competence required for facilities and maintenance
management culture in their respective organizations; assembling managers who
have direct and indirect responsibility for facilities maintenance and
management and encourage them to rub minds on how to cultivate a maintenance
culture; and the impartation of knowledge and techniques required to carry out
preventive maintenance to avert the breakdown of critical equipments and
machinery.
“The methodology of the next includes lectures,
case studies, group discussions, film shows and slide shows while the target
audience cuts across managers and executives handling facilities maintenance
management and allied matters although such participants may not necessarily
have core technical backgrounds but are expected to have some form of
experience with facilities maintenance function. Resource persons are Nigerians
who are internationally acclaimed experts with a combination of technical,
human resource and business skills relevant to the field of facilities
maintenance management,” Adedeji said.
Facilitators will include Mr. Afolabi Adedeji,
managing director of Buildwell International Company Limited and a member
International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and a host of other
experts in investment, information technology, insurance and risk analysis,
building systems, law and engineering services.
He continued: “Facilities managers are major
budget holders, typically controlling the second biggest corporate spend after
human resources, hence they are under relentless pressure to provide an
efficient and cost effective working environment together with highly
responsive support services. Maintenance is the work necessary to maintain the
original anticipated useful life of a fixed asset. It is the upkeep of property
and equipment. Maintenance includes periodic or occasional inspection,
adjustment, lubrication, cleaning, painting, replacement of parts, minor
repairs, and other actions to prolong service and prevent unscheduled
breakdown, but it does not prolong the life of the property or equipment or add
to its value.”
The national workshop is also expected to impart
knowledge and techniques required to carry out preventive and predictive
maintenance with a view to averting breakdown of critical equipment and
machinery, and providing workable solutions and make recommendations to enhance
the practice of facilities management in Nigeria.
