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Concept
Facilities engineering
Summary
Facilities engineering evolved from "plant engineering" in the early 1990s as U.S. workplaces became more specialized. Practitioners preferred this term because it more accurately reflected the multidisciplinary demands for specialized conditions in a wider variety of indoor environments, not merely manufacturing plants.
Today, a facilities engineer typically has hands-on responsibility for the employer's Electrical engineering, maintenance, environmental, health, safety, energy, controls/instrumentation, civil engineering, and HVAC needs. The need for expertise in these categories varies widely depending on whether the facility is, for example, a single-use site or a multi-use campus; whether it is an office, school, hospital, museum, processing/production plant, etc.
The term Facilities Engineer emerged in the 1990s from the already existing vocation of the Plant Engineer. This evolution occurred in order to match the rapid advancements in technology at the time. There was a need for a more specialized and dynamic type of engineer, while still having the general background knowledge and experience of a plant engineer or a stationary engineer. These skills consisted of, but were not limited to: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, civil engineering, business management, statistical analysis, communications, and effective supervision skills. The result of this development was a jack-of-all-trades engineer who takes their specialization into a facility and helps it operate unhindered at its highest level of efficiency. That is to say that a facilities engineer is quite simply a plant engineer placed into a position where they must utilize a certain set of skills based upon the necessity of the employer. This need generally calls for hands-on maintenance but can also include managerial or even supervisory responsibilities. While the purpose of a facilities engineer may seem straight forward, the large variety in facilities within different industries calls for a very broad range of training.
Official source
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