The FMBAS Conference, titled “2025 – Transformation Through Strategic Facility Management,” will be held for the sixth time on November 27 at Hotel Moxy in Belgrade. This event will bring together facility management experts, providing an opportunity for experience sharing, discussions on the latest trends, and networking with colleagues and industry leaders.
Senior Facility Manager at MPC Properties, Andrej Cupać, shares insights on the importance of facility management.
When we talk about facility management (FM), we still start with its fundamental definition—what does this concept represent, and how does it contribute to business operations?
– The simplest explanation is that facility management (FM) encompasses the processes of managing and maintaining buildings. More specifically, it is a multidisciplinary profession that integrates people, places, processes, and technology to ensure the functionality, comfort, security, and efficiency of the built environment and/or a facility.
How Does Facility Management Become Important for Your Business?
– At the corporate level, facility management (FM) contributes to achieving strategic and operational goals. Efficient facility management—through the optimization of resources and activities—is crucial for the success of any organization.
On a daily level, effective facility management ensures a safe and efficient work environment, which is essential for conducting any business, regardless of its size or scope.
Facility managers are responsible for ensuring that the systems within the built environment or facility function seamlessly. Their role is to ensure that the places where people work and live are safe, comfortable, productive, and sustainable.
What Is the Role of Facility Management in the Entire Lifecycle of a Building?
– The lifecycle of a building begins with the design phase, continues through construction, and culminates in the operational phase, which is the longest stage of a building’s lifespan.
It is of great importance to include the facility team in the design and construction phases, as positive experiences and practices from the operation of other buildings can significantly influence the selection of technical solutions, materials, and equipment manufacturers.
Experience with various equipment manufacturers, the availability and cost of their spare parts, service prices, the quality of services, agreements with distributors (service providers) on future cooperation, the conclusion of binding agreements via email, the cost of regular maintenance, the cost of interventions, and information about the number of employees in the service team are just some of the elements in the decision-making process for equipment selection.
The operational phase of a building can last up to 100 years, and it is estimated that the operating costs of a building can exceed 65% of the total costs throughout the building’s lifecycle.
Preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, investment maintenance, adaptation, and reconstruction are the stages of operation that a building goes through multiple times during its lifecycle.
Facility management combines technical maintenance and management, physical-technical maintenance, cleaning, IT support, maintenance of green areas, and energy consumption optimization.
How to Improve Facility Management Services?
First and foremost, it is essential to avoid ad-hoc activities in the decision-making and management processes of facilities. Given that this is a relatively new field, which is not sufficiently covered in higher education institutions, it is necessary to focus on the training of new personnel.
The process of training and developing FM activities is represented in the first and only association for facility management in Serbia, FMBAS (Facility Management Business Association of Serbia), founded by MPC Properties, Tokata, and Marera.
The association organizes training sessions and conferences several times a year. The IV FMBAS Conference, titled “2025 / TRANSFORMATION THROUGH STRATEGIC FACILITY MANAGEMENT”, will be held on November 27, bringing together experts in facility management and offering opportunities for experience exchange, discussions on the latest trends, and networking with industry peers and leaders.
Registration is done through link, We invite you to shape the future of the facility management profession together with us!