The FCI is primarily used to support asset management initiatives of federal, state, and local government facilities organizations.
Thomas and Richardson had calculated the FCI for budget preparation and used the ratio to allocate operations and maintenance money across naval activities and installations.
To calculate an FCI, a facility manager or third party assessment professional needs to quantify the cost of maintenance, repair and replacement deficiencies.
Managing the Facilities Portfolio provided a set of ratings: good (under 0.05), fair (0.05 to 0.10), and poor (over 0.10) based on evaluating data from various clients at the time of the publication.
"Repair Needs" is the amount necessary to ensure that a constructed asset (i.e. building or structure) is restored to a condition substantially equivalent to the originally intended and designed capacity, efficiency, or capability.