Browsing by Author "Jayasena, N"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Accessibility of emergency evacuation for differentlyabled people in public hospital buildings in Sri Lanka: the national policy enhancements
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2018-06) Manoj, S; Mallawaarachchi, H; Soorige, SDA; Jayasena, N; Sandanayake, YG; Gunatilake, S; Waidyasekara, KGAS
It is very difficult task in nature and a prevailing issue in the world today to provide a reasonable access for differently abled people within any building. Specially, giving fair and impartial accessibility has become very complex and an ongoing global issue. However, various policies and guidelines have been developed in countries enabling buildings to be used by the differently abled people by building them in terms of ease of access for emergency evacuation. Among the other buildings, healthcare facility has obtained the first concern when considering its’ heavy use by differently abled people. Thus, this research was conducted with the purpose of studying on the accessibility procedures of emergency evacuation for the differently abled people in public buildings with special emphasis to public hospitals since the current evacuation means in healthcare sector are not adequately developed based on the needs of differently abled people. The research was conducted using case study method under qualitative phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among building professionals who had more than five years of experience in the field of accessibility to collect the data. Hence, three public hospital buildings in Sri Lanka were selected. Accessibility procedures of emergency evacuation and issues in existing practice were investigated related to safety and security, access to built environment and access to communication in line with the National Policy on Disability for Sri Lanka. Case study data revealed that not having predetermined procedure for evacuating differently abled people and less awareness on existing safety and security procedures thus need special attention. Accordingly, a framework was developed to propose the probable enhancements for the national policy. The enhanced policy can be used as a national strategy to assure the ease of accessibility of emergency evacuation for differently abled people in public hospital buildings in Sri Lanka.
item: Conference-Full-text
customer relationship management in facilities management: a study of office buildings in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2018-06) Herath, HMPK; Rajini, D; Rathnayake, U; Jayasena, N; Sandanayake, YG; Gunatilake, S; Waidyasekara, KGAS
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy used by the business organisations in order to optimise the service efficiency in the current competitive business environment. The aim of CRM in Facilities Management (FM) is to build an acceptable long-term relationship with customers and users of the facility for long term sustainability. Though CRM in FM is an area gaining importance, the CRM practices in FM is still unclear. Therefore, this study intends to develop an understanding of the current CRM practices in FM in Sri Lankan Office buildings focusing on the tenants, identify the issues and propose strategies to overcome them. The case study approach was adopted as the research method and the required data were collected from both the management and tenants of the selected cases. The data collection was done through semi structured interviews whereas the analysis was conducted through code-based content analysis. The results of the study showed that CRM in FM in Sri Lankan office buildings sector is at a low level and there are different issues related with CRM process, employees who involved in providing customer services and the technology used for CRM. The identified common issues were unavailability of a mechanism to evaluate CRM process or tenants to give their feedback, the FM employees’ poor communication skills, ineffectiveness of manual processes used for some CRM activities and the like. Conducting customer satisfaction surveys, training and development on CRM practices, periodical tenant meeting, etc. are the proposed strategies to overcome those issues. It was also established that the current CRM practices can be enhanced by implementing the identified strategies, with the effort of all the parties involved in service provision for tenants in Sri Lankan office buildings. The results of the study guide the industry professionals to improve the CRM practices related to FM in Sri Lankan office buildings.
item: Conference-Full-text
Environmental sustainability assessment of facilities management: a case of apparel industry in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2018-06) Jayasena, N; Mallawaarachchi, H; Sandanayake, YG; Gunatilake, S; Waidyasekara, KGAS
With the adaptation of businesses to sustainable approaches, facility manager’s role has been expanded to be responsible for the sustainable performance of a building. Specially, escalating changes in the built environment has initiated the need of evaluating environmental sustainability (ES) of building facilities. Specially, apparel industry shows a significant impact to the environment, thus, it highlights the need of having a way to evaluate the environmental sustainability in facilities management (FM) in apparel sector. Therefore, this research was aimed to develop a model to evaluate the environmental sustainability of FM in apparel industry in Sri Lanka. By reviewing key literature, thirty-four (34) environmental sustainability indicators were identified under energy management, water management, waste management, asset management and maintenance management. Under the survey approach, pair-wise comparison through structured questionnaire was used to evaluate the identified indicators. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) tool was used to derive the relative performance scores of each ES indicator and ranked. Energy management was identified as the most significant FM function related to environmental sustainability. Energy sub-metering and application of sub-meter reading on identification of significant energy consumers, availability of waste management policy and availability of environmental impact assessment for the assets were determined as top priority indicators that need to be considered to ensure the ES of FM in apparel industry. Accordingly, the identified performance scores can be used as a basis to evaluate the ES of FM functions in order to formulate the suitable strategies to instigate the environmentally sustainable FM practices in apparel industry in Sri Lanka.