FM in Public Spaces
VIVIANE CARDIN
- Considering Petrobras’ scale as the largest company in Latin America, what is the scope of the Facilities organization, and what are the main challenges that come with that responsibility? How does this reality shape the organization’s strategy, priorities, and the value it delivers to the company?
When I talk about the scope of Facilities at Petrobras, I like to start with one simple idea: before delivering any service, our commitment is to the safety of people, facilities, and business continuity. From there, our work touches many aspects of the company’s daily operations, including facility management, construction projects, food services, information and records management, transportation, business travel, multi-user contracts, and real estate management. We operate nationwide in environments that differ greatly from one another, with different users, risks, and levels of criticality depending on each site’s reality.
A few numbers help illustrate the scale of that responsibility. We support 161 facilities across 16 Brazilian states, including 81 operational sites. We manage more than 2 million square meters of built space, including over 300,000 square meters of office space, as well as more than 20 million square meters of green areas. We maintain 72,000 assets and systems, manage 43,000 real estate records, oversee 335 active contracts totaling BRL 23.45 billion, and manage 996 capital projects. In mobility, our fleet includes 2,619 vehicles that travel 59.3 million kilometers each year, and we issue approximately 25,000 airline tickets annually. Our administrative facilities alone serve a population of around 40,000 employees and contractors. Even within those office environments, there are highly critical spaces, such as Integrated Operations Centers, Remote Control Rooms, and facilities that support real-time decision-making. So we are not talking only about building support services, but about an organization that directly influences business continuity, productivity, user experience, safety, and the efficiency of shared services.
At that scale, the way the organization is structured makes a significant difference. We need a centralized management model that establishes standards, direction, and an integrated vision while maintaining teams and support structures close to each site, because that is where needs arise and services are delivered. We also have teams dedicated to processes, data, reliability, and performance so operations are not driven only by daily urgencies but can also learn, benchmark, improve, and anticipate future needs.
Another important point is that our operating model relies heavily on outsourced services. Much of our execution capacity comes from supplier partners who work alongside us every day. That is why the quality of Facility Management depends not only on solid contracts and performance indicators, but also on close oversight, clear expectations, and mature relationships with the people delivering services in the field. In practice, this includes team mobilization, performance monitoring, safety assessments, corrective actions, alignment with users, and rapid response whenever an essential service threatens to affect operations.
At the same time, we must accomplish all of this with cost discipline. As a Shared Services organization, we strive for cost optimization, productivity, and efficiency without compromising service quality, reliability, or availability. The challenge is not simply to spend less; it is to make better decisions. In Facility Management, poorly planned cost reductions may later appear as reduced availability, increased risk, a poorer user experience, or rework. That is why our strategy must balance safety, operational efficiency, financial sustainability, and value creation for the business.
Ultimately, Petrobras’ scale creates complexity, but it also gives us an important opportunity: turning the experience accumulated across many different environments into corporate knowledge. When a solution works well at one facility, our role is to learn from it, adapt what makes sense, and apply that knowledge across other parts of the company.
- Petrobras holds a unique position as a mixed-ownership company controlled by the Brazilian government while competing in a highly competitive global market. How does that influence Facility Management, particularly in planning, service procurement, governance, and decision-making?
This characteristic mainly influences the way we plan and make decisions. Petrobras must balance institutional discipline, transparency, and competitiveness while supporting a company that operates in a dynamic market. In a private company, it is often possible to identify a need, evaluate alternatives, and move quickly with procurement. In our case, the process is more structured and must comply with governance requirements that are part of our responsibility as a mixed-ownership company.
That creates practical challenges for Facility Management. In many cases, we work through competitive bidding processes designed to ensure broad competition among suppliers. These processes involve companies with different levels of experience, maturity, and technical knowledge, and factors such as price may carry significant weight in the selection process. That is why the quality of technical planning is critical. We need to clearly define the problem, establish consistent requirements, set appropriate qualification criteria, and clearly specify the expected service levels.
There is also an important impact on knowledge continuity. When a contract changes, the service provider may change as well, along with part of the workforce performing the services. In simpler activities, the impact may be limited. In complex operations, however, accumulated experience, familiarity with risks, and knowledge of the operating environment cannot be rebuilt overnight. That is why contract transitions, mobilization plans, knowledge transfer, and close monitoring during the first months of a new contract must be treated as strategic priorities rather than isolated administrative tasks.
The positive side is that this discipline forces us to make better decisions. When used effectively, governance is more than a control mechanism. It creates traceability, objective criteria, and greater predictability in management. Our challenge is to turn that structure into an advantage by connecting compliance, planning, and operational performance to deliver value to the business.
- Facility Management in public-sector and mixed-ownership organizations is often associated with structured and highly regulated processes. In practice, how do you balance compliance, transparency, and operational agility while meeting business needs without sacrificing efficiency?
I often say that compliance and agility should not be seen as opposing forces. In practice, agility does not come from working around the rules. It comes from preparation. The better we understand future business needs, structure our contracts, anticipate risks, and define responsibilities, the less likely we are to rely on improvised solutions later.
This relates to what we discussed about procurement, but here the focus is operations. The work done in advance—forecasting demand, assessing risks, aligning with internal clients, evaluating solutions, and defining performance indicators—is often invisible, but it is what enables smoother execution. A simple example is when a business area anticipates an increase in occupancy, a workspace redesign, or a specific operational requirement. The response is much more effective when Facilities is involved before the final decision is made rather than after the request has already become urgent.
Another key factor is the use of data. In an operation involving hundreds of contracts, thousands of assets, and facilities spread across the country, decisions cannot rely solely on individual perception. Performance indicators, ongoing monitoring, portfolio management, and trend analysis help identify issues earlier, prioritize resources, and support preventive action.
In this context, our Integrated Services Management and Asset & Reliability teams play an important role. They help consolidate information, monitor performance, promote benchmarking, standardize best practices, and turn data into better decisions. That may include comparing the performance of similar contracts, identifying recurring causes of service requests, prioritizing critical assets, or replicating solutions that have successfully reduced failures at a particular site.
Ultimately, the balance is achieved when governance is no longer viewed only as a control mechanism but as a management tool that organizes priorities, strengthens decision-making, and enables more consistent action.
- Petrobras manages an extremely diverse infrastructure that ranges from corporate offices to critical industrial facilities. How does that diversity shape your Facility Management strategy, and what capabilities do managers need to develop to support such different operational environments?
Managing environments as different as corporate offices, administrative centers, technical facilities, and industrial sites requires flexibility, integration, and a deep understanding of the business. At the same time, that diversity is also a strength because it pushes us beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and encourages us to develop management models that are consistent while remaining adaptable.
Practices developed in one type of environment can inspire improvements in another. A more robust maintenance routine in a critical facility may improve processes in office buildings, while a workplace comfort, occupancy, or user experience solution developed in an office environment may help rethink spaces that support industrial operations. This exchange of experience is a valuable asset that only a company with this level of diversity can generate.
This reality also helps develop more versatile teams. Professionals exposed to different operating cycles, levels of criticality, user profiles, and service delivery models broaden their perspective and strengthen their judgment. Rather than looking for a single solution that fits every situation, our role is to establish standards, governance, and decision criteria while preserving the flexibility to adapt services to the needs of each operation.
For that reason, Facility Management leaders need to be resilient, adaptable, and creative, as they do throughout much of the industry. At Petrobras, however, this also requires a close connection with the business and the ability to strengthen a genuine service culture. In a company of this scale, communication is more than an interpersonal skill; it is a strategic management tool. It helps align expectations, translate technical and contractual constraints, provide predictability, explain priorities, and reduce misunderstandings among areas with very different needs and levels of criticality.
I would particularly highlight results orientation and the ability to bring people together, always supported by systems thinking, leadership, communication, and data-driven decision-making. In practice, that means working closely with operational teams, understanding safety constraints, translating technical demands into contracts, performance indicators, and action plans, and negotiating solutions that meet users’ needs without compromising efficiency or control. A service culture emerges when we stop looking only at task execution and start understanding how every delivery affects business continuity, people’s experience, and the confidence that our internal clients place in the Facilities organization.
LUCAS RABELO
- In your day-to-day role managing Facility Management operations at a company the size of Petrobras, what are the main challenges in turning corporate strategy into efficient operations, especially in critical, high-complexity environments such as industrial facilities and administrative buildings?
Stepping away from the institutional perspective for a moment, I would say the biggest day-to-day challenge is making strategy fit the reality of each operation. The corporate direction may be the same, but the way it is executed varies significantly depending on the environment, the level of risk, the criticality of the operation, the user profile, and the impact that facility has on the company.
That is why delivering a standardized service is not enough. We need to understand the business we support: how that area operates, its critical hours, its constraints, what cannot stop, and what impact a Facility Management failure could have. From there, we adjust workflows, resources, service levels, and management models.
An administrative building, for example, may appear to be a conventional workplace, but some house facilities that are closely connected to the company’s core operations, such as integrated operations centers, remote control rooms, and monitoring centers. In those environments, availability, reliability, and resilience are no longer just desirable attributes; they become essential conditions for business continuity. A failure in HVAC, power, access control, technical cleaning, or building maintenance can stop being a local inconvenience and begin affecting a critical operational routine.
Another challenge is turning intention into routine. Strategy only works when it becomes part of the daily agenda through performance indicators, contracts, procedures, clearly defined responsibilities, and ongoing follow-up. That means prioritizing critical assets, organizing maintenance plans, aligning suppliers, addressing recurring service requests, monitoring service levels, and quickly escalating anything that threatens safety or business continuity.
Ultimately, being effective in this environment means balancing standardization, customization, and a long-term perspective. We need standards to achieve scale, flexibility where operations require it, and continuous attention to market trends, technologies, and solutions so the organization is prepared before a need becomes an urgent issue.
- Supplier procurement and management are central to any Facility Management operation. In a mixed-ownership company, what are the biggest challenges in building long-term relationships with outsourced service providers while balancing legal requirements, operational performance, risk management, and innovation?
In practice, supplier relationships are one of the most sensitive aspects of Facility Management because a large part of what we deliver depends on contracted service providers. Competitive bidding is essential to ensure transparency, fairness, and compliance, but it does not, by itself, create a long-term relationship. That relationship is built through day-to-day management: clear contracts, effective oversight, mature communication, and the ability to solve problems without losing control.
There are also regulatory and contractual limits on contract duration, which require continuous planning. In complex operations, there is a learning curve, team mobilization, accumulated knowledge, and a need for continuity. That is why we cannot think about a contract only until it is signed; we need to consider its entire lifecycle.
That lifecycle includes mobilization, assisted startup, performance monitoring, corrective actions, risk management, preparation for renewals or new procurements, and transitions whenever necessary. Without that broader perspective, organizations risk losing knowledge, repeating mistakes, or experiencing periods of instability every time a contract changes.
The most sensitive issue is innovation. Because contracts are based on predefined requirements, incorporating new solutions during execution can be more difficult. That is why innovation has to begin earlier, during the planning stage, with requirements that allow for future improvements, well-designed performance indicators, and room for enhancements that remain consistent with the contract.
It is also important to recognize that innovation does not always mean sophisticated technology. It can be a new way of scheduling maintenance, a digital process for tracking work orders, a performance dashboard, improvements in team mobilization, or a simple solution that reduces rework and increases safety. What matters most is that supplier relationships remain focused on performance, risk management, and the value delivered.
- In the private sector, Facility Managers are often seen as having greater autonomy to implement changes quickly. Based on your experience, what are the real differences between Facility Management in a mixed-ownership company and in private organizations? Are there areas where the public-sector model can actually be an advantage?
The most visible difference is the speed at which changes can be made. In many private organizations, it is easier to renegotiate terms, test new solutions, redefine priorities, or incorporate innovations during the life of a contract. In a mixed-ownership company, contracts tend to be more structured from the outset, with scopes, requirements, and obligations defined more formally. That provides security, transparency, and control, but it also leaves less room for improvisation.
That said, I do not see this only as a limitation. It forces us to plan better. If we know there is less flexibility during execution, we need to study the market more carefully, discuss different scenarios, anticipate trends, involve users, and translate future possibilities into well-designed requirements before procurement begins.
The advantage comes when that discipline is used effectively. Our contracts team works with clear requirements, objective performance indicators, responsibility matrices, performance criteria, and governance practices designed to reduce subjectivity and strengthen accountability. In large-scale operations, that can become an important competitive advantage.
I also think it is important to point out that autonomy is not simply the ability to make changes quickly. Autonomy means being able to build a technically sound proposal, engage stakeholders, demonstrate risks, present data, and make change possible within the institutional framework in which you operate. A Facility Manager needs to take the lead, but also needs to know how to turn a good idea into a solution that is technically defensible, contractually viable, and operationally executable.
- Facility Management has evolved from being primarily an operational function to playing a much more strategic role. Considering Petrobras’ reality, what trends—such as digitalization, data-driven management, sustainability, and shared services—do you believe will transform Facility Management in large public-sector and mixed-ownership organizations over the coming years?
Digitalization is one of the main drivers of transformation. For us, it is closely connected to asset management, facility reliability, and the ability to make decisions before problems arise. That includes smart buildings, automation, sensors, integrated monitoring systems, occupancy management technologies, and tools that provide greater visibility into operations.
An important example is the Integrated Monitoring Center (CIM), which brings together, within a single management platform, information from critical equipment and systems located in buildings across different regions of Brazil. Solutions like this strengthen our ability to monitor operating conditions, anticipate failures, and prevent disruptions that could affect the productivity of the facilities we support. In practical terms, it is the difference between discovering a failure after users have already been affected and identifying signs of deterioration before they become downtime.
This is especially important because, as we have discussed, we are not dealing only with office buildings. In many cases, we manage infrastructure that directly supports the company’s core operations. Ensuring the availability and reliability of those facilities creates direct value for Petrobras by supporting business continuity, safety, efficiency, and productivity.
Sustainability will also become increasingly important. Beyond being a market expectation, it is directly connected to Petrobras’ strategic commitments. As Facility Management professionals, we can contribute in practical ways through energy efficiency, waste management, responsible use of resources, mobility, environmental comfort, and smarter use of space.
Another key trend is the role of shared services. In large organizations with multiple sites and different operational realities, the challenge is achieving scale, standardization, and efficiency without losing close alignment with the business. In my view, Facility Management will become less reactive and more consultative, helping business areas make better decisions about workplaces, resources, and ways of working.
To make that happen, a strong service culture is essential. No matter how much we advance in technology, contracts, and performance metrics, services are still delivered by people for people. We have been developing that culture around three principles: connection, to better understand users’ needs; ownership, to take responsibility for the quality of what we deliver; and problem-solving, to act proactively, collaboratively, and with a solution-oriented mindset. In practice, that means listening more carefully to users, taking ownership of an issue until it is resolved, engaging the right teams, reducing rework, and avoiding labeling a request as “out of scope” before understanding the impact it may have.
In practice, the trend is for Facility Management to move beyond being viewed simply as building operations or service delivery and to be recognized as a function that supports productivity, safety, business continuity, sustainability, and the overall workplace experience.