FM exam 2021 - facilities management exam questions and answers PDF

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facilities management exam questions and answers...

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School of Humanities Academic Work Declaration Page Programme Title

BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management

Year of Programme

2021

Module

Facilities Asset Management

Assignment Title

Exam 2021

Lecturer

Tony Quinlan

Student Name

Racheal Campbell

Student Number

20080186

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Declaration of Authorship I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and appropriate reference to the work of others.

Signed___________ Date__________1

___________________________ 4/05/2021______________

Table of Contents Question 1:............................................................................................................................................3

Question 2:............................................................................................................................................7 Question 4:..........................................................................................................................................11 References...........................................................................................................................................16

Question 1: Using “Ansoff’s” Theoretical Alternative Strategies as a conceptual framework explain the options available to a facilities manager seeking to develop his/her facility in an

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advancing property life cycle. Please include relevant tourism/hospitality examples to illustrate your answers. The Ansoff’s model is a tool used by facilities managers to help them look and plan their strategies to help their business grow. It is an important tool needed when marketing planning for a chance to increase revenue for the business by developing new products and services and getting into new markets. The Ansoff model is a good way for a facilities manager to evaluate the businesses opportunities to increase their sales by showing different combinations for new markets e.g., new geographical locations against service offerings (Hussain, 2013). The four strategic options available to a facilities manager seeking to develop his/her facility in an advancing property life cycle is as follows: Market Penetration strategy: The market penetration strategy is all about how an organisation can sell more of their existing services to their existing customer base. It looks at increasing the organisation's sales of their existing services to an already existing market. Using a market penetration strategy is an important option for facilities managers as it is a way for the business to increase their market share. This is a low-risk strategy for managers and gives value to the business as it increases market share and hopefully will become dominant in their existing market by reaching out to existing customers and listening to their needs and wants to provide more value for money to their customers for example a hotel can offer discounts on leisure centre prices and introduce loyalty rewards or a free glass of wine with their meal after staying in their hotel for a third time. This strategy is a way to also attract new customers into existing markets by having more aggressive marketing techniques. For example, if a local Irish restaurant in Waterford expands their number of restaurants in Ireland will attract new customers in their already existing Irish market and introduce a website that is easy to use to grow their restaurant in Ireland and attract new customers. This would be a low-risk strategy as they are only opening in other countries but staying in the same market, so they are not changing significantly. Although this strategy has a low risk of failing, it is also a difficult strategy to achieve development as the business must rely on a limited market so there are less people the business is targeting. This strategy is appropriate to a facilities manager if the current market is growing for example if there is a need for new restaurants and customers want it, if the market can be induced to grow meaning can the restaurant industry be influenced to grow and expand and can also have the market leader become complacent.

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Market development: The Market development strategy looks at how an organisation can enter new markets. It is all about a company focusing on entering a new market using the facilities they already have. A facilities manager can use this strategy as an option to develop his/her facilities, but it is slightly riskier as it takes the organisation's existing service and tries to develop it further into new unknown markets. The two different types of market development are demographic and geographic. If an organisation decides to develop into a new demographic market, they must find new customers already in the same geographic area and if they expand into a geographic market this means they are selling to a new area for example Irish Guinness exporting their products to another country or the Maldon Hotel expanding into the USA. It is important for a facilities manager to conduct a feasibility study to see if there is potential demand for their service in other markets. If he/she believes there is potential in another marketplace for its product/service, then they need to choose this strategy as they need to pursue new customers with their existing service. An example of this strategy being used in the hospitality industry would be Starbucks and McDonald’s expanding into new regions where there were no outlets, but with demand for them being high they expanded to these locations, offering the same existing products and service. This strategy would be a medium risk strategy to use as you are selling existing product/service that you already know your current market likes and if there is high demand this strategy can become very successful for growth in other regions. This strategy will be appropriate if there are no other opportunities in their already existing market and they are stuck in the same position with no further growth and revenue is not increasing. It is also appropriate if a new use is found for an existing product. Product Development: The product development strategy is an option to use to develop a facility as it looks at introducing new products/services to an already existing market. The organisation will create a new product or service to cater to their already existing audience, but it is important for the facilities manager to do his/her research to ensure that there is a need for the new product. A lot of extensive research is needed to develop the new product or service if the company wants to expand the range they are offering. This strategy can be used if the organisation has a good understanding of who their target audience is and who they can improve and come up with innovative ideas to meet their existing market's expectations so they are happy that they will be getting value for their money. This strategy can be achieved if the company invest more into their research and development department so they can cater to their existing market, it can be achieved by looking at their rivals’ products/services and 4

they alter them to create a better version that meets the needs of their customers or they can also partner up with other firms to get access to other distribution channels. They can also use cheaper manufactures, improve their quality, update packaging and it is important to get customer feedback to see how they can improve their products/service. This is also a medium risk strategy as it is an existing customer base but trying something new out can be risky that is why market research is very important for this strategy to work. A hospitality example would be a hotel restaurant adding a new range of products to their drink’s menu. If the product or service is short in the product life cycle this strategy would work to try adapting the product/service to make it better. Diversification: The diversification strategy can be used by the facilities manager seeking to develop his/her facility in an advancing property life cycle as it looks at entering a new market with also introducing new products. Using this strategy, the organisation will go into a new market with a completely new different product/service so this is the riskiest strategy for a facilities manager to use as there is a higher risk of failure entering into an unknown market with a completely different product that a company is unsure will work or not. The diversification strategy can also be the most rewarding option for potential growth and to increase the organisation's sales as it opens to a whole new market and customers. When an organisation attracts new customers, this increases the chance of them spending money with your business. This strategy is appropriate if the business environment changes, for example the changes in laws and rules or a recession. It is important that the organisation has a good management team to support their diversification strategy as a lot of skills will be needed. Market research is also important when using this strategy as the business needs to know the needs and wants of customers. An example would be Disney diversifying into making movies and going into cruise lines as they were only originally a theme park and also Ryanair giving customer discounts when they book car hire with Hertz and Kelly’s Resort Hotel in Wexford diversifying into opening a café. (Hanlon, A. 2020) Options available to a facilities manager seeking to develop his/her facility in an advancing property life cycle.  Refresh or increase capacity of a product or service - develop property to improve or grow service to current markets with current product. When looking at the three options it is important to look at the marketing mix. Regarding product, a product is one of the most important variables so if a facilities manager wants to develop, they should identify if

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they can be more creative with their product/service and see if there is any way to improve the product. This option relates back to Ansoff’s framework of product development mentioned above.  Reposition – develop property to service new markets with current revised product. A facilities manager can consider moving their revised product into a new market or a new position. they can move their existing product into new markets to serve potential new customers that will help develop their facility. Comparing this option back to the Ansoff framework of market development mentioned above.  New - develop new property to deliver new product to new markets which related to Ansoff’s framework of the diversification strategy where a facilities manager can make the product/service more effective, modern, and different. Developing a new product into a new market. Making a new property can apply to new markets meaning the organisation will become more innovative. Factors that need to be considered When deciding to change or develop a facility an organisation needs to consider the external environment which is difficult to control as they are outside factors that can’t be changed by an organisation such as economic changes and legislations. The internal environment needs to be considered but this is easier to control such as the culture of a hotel and factors within the organisation like team members. The market growth potential needs to be considered as an organisation needs to know about demand established or latent. The performance of building in supporting operational and strategic objectives and potential for ROI and timeframe needs to be considered as an organisation needs to know how long the change/development will take and what investment will they get back from it. The site and the land availability around the facility needs to be considered as an organisation needs to know what space is available to them to expand/grow. For example, Whites Hotel in Wexford town cannot expand due to the busy surroundings as they are on a main shopping street there is not a lot of room for expansion available for them. The property life cycle The property life cycle has three phases. The acquisition, in-service and excess phases. The first phase is acquisition which happens during the purchase order process, during this phase there is pre-purchase screening which looks to see if there is equipment already in the facility or if more is needed. New equipment, furniture and fittings needed is identified then they are 6

physically received. The second phase is ‘In-service’ when all the equipment, furniture and fittings are installed and tried out during service. The excess stage is if the assets bought are not needed so they are sold (Stanford University, 2021). Question 2: Levels of investment in Hotel Design Projects are enormous and therefore Stages of the Design Process must be carefully managed to ensure optimal outcomes. Discuss the stages of the Hotel Design Process and Outline the implications of deviation from this “ideal” approach. Offer relevant tourism/hospitality examples to illustrate your answers. When a hotel is investing in their design project, they need to manage their image firstly to ensure optimal outcomes. The hotel needs to look at its company’s own strategy this is critical as they need to know if they are a low cost or differentiation as both strategies have an impact on design image for example if the hotels strategy was low cost like Travelodge and the Radisson has a lot of standardising so their hotel design and layout would be the same throughout all their hotels with basic furniture and fittings and usually has the same colour scheme in all hotels. If the hotels strategy was differentiation, then the hotels image would be different throughout all their hotels with a more expensive design such as Monart in Wexford. The hotel needs to consider the suitability to Location, so they need to know where they want to be located, if its resort or city hotel, and they need to know if extensions can be limited. Branding needs to be considered as the hotel needs to know the image they want to get across to their customers. Economies of scale needs to be considered when looking at the design process as buying in bulk is cheaper so looking the same in all their hotels would be more cost efficient but if the hotel wants to stand out and be different this will be more costly. The hotel needs to look at its service Concept so will there be self-service, interpersonal elaborate to lean, buffet or fine dining. This is important to know when designing the layout of the hotel’s restaurant. The hotel needs to know who its target market is as they need to identify and clearly know who you are targeting, know their customers likes and dislikes to ensure they are getting value for their money. The hotel needs to consider what their budget is when designing so they know how much money they must spend on furniture, fittings etc. They need to know if they will get a return on investment when they invest into the design of the hotel so they need to question if they are investing in larger capital, will they get ROI. It is important for a hotel to look at current design trends as it is crucial to keep current and know new trends to attract new customers and keep existing ones and lastly, they need to consider visual cues to service offering such as style, ambience, and quality.

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The stages of the hotel design process are as follows. Step 1. Objective Market Survey and Feasibility Study: The first stage of the hotel design process is conducting an objective market survey and a feasibility study. Market surveys are used to collect customer feedback and to gain information of customers capabilities like their investment attributes to see if they will decide to come to your hotel. They are used to get valuable comments from a hotel's targeted audience to get an understanding of what their needs and wants are and what they require. Having this survey will then help market researchers of the hotel to then develop the hotel's design. Importance of the Market survey:  To get customer’s feedback. Customers are the most important aspect to a hotel so it is crucial that a hotel knows their opinions so they can offer more of what the customer wants and improve the experience of their existing customers to retain them. Getting feedback will then help improve the design of the hotel to attract new potential customers. For example, if a customer gives feedback about the lack of technology in the hotel, then the hotel can improve the issue so that customers will return. It will also attract new customers when technology advancements are made.  Knowing the customers purchasing decisions: It is important to conduct a market survey, so the hotel gets an idea of what their customers are willing to pay for so that they know what prices are suitable. They can also ask customers about competitors' services so they can improve.  To improve existing services: conducting a market survey is a way of looking at customers' satisfaction levels to see if they are enjoying their experience and to know if they believe they are getting value for their money.  Can help make business decisions: having conducted a market survey will allow the hotel to have an easier decision on what changes need to be made as they know what their customers want and what they need in the future to return to the hotel again.

A feasibility study is a document that is used to give support to a hotel for a specific proposal. It will give the hotel an objective and the correct information that is needed to decide whether they should continue with a specific project or not. It is a written document that shows research of the costs and what the benefits will be from doing the project. It is important to do

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a feasibility study so that the hotel knows what costs will be involved with the new design process, it will show if planning permission is allowed, it will attract potential operators. Step 2. Chose the Designer: It is important that a hotel picks the correct designer for a project so the hotel needs to identify the characteristics of effective designer such as if they are able to handle criticism well if they need to be corrected, if they have good time management skills to get the job done on time, if they have good communications skills so they can get along with other team members of the hotel including the facilities manager, if they are willing to listen and learn new things, and if they are able to stay motivated throughout the design process. The facilities manager needs to know the designers experience, qualifications, and knowledge to ensure they are the right person suited. The designer has a responsibility for space planning, choosing form and colour, lighting, and technology. Step 3: Develop of Written Brief: When the hotel has their feasibility study completed it must be assessed and then the design brief is developed. When developing a design brief there are issues that must be addressed in the brief such as what are the reasons for the new design process, what are the resources available and what the budget will be. A time frame must be included in the brief given an estimated time on how long the project will take and what the quality standards are needed to complete the project. The brief must have a logical structure; it must be SMART meaning the goal for the design must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time phased. It must be PURE meaning positively stated, understood, relevant and ethical. Lastly it must be CLEAR meaning it must be challenging, legal, environmentally sound, agreed and recorded. Step 4: Build an interdisciplinary team around the project: During the design process in the development stage can be called the ‘interdisciplinary approach’ so the project has to be planned out completely. A team must work together around the project to ensure that the design work is not broken, and things do not run smoothly. A team must work together so that the workflow runs as planned and...