Facility Management is changing with Technology
Building Automation and Information Technology Can Reduce Costs
Oct 5, 2009
While the objectives of facilities management remain the same, the methods are getting transformed. Technology can improve delivery of expected services to users of the facility, save costs by making services available only when needed and monitor the facilities round the clock for any incidents requiring attention.
What is Facility Management?
Facility has come to mean built up structures occupied by businesses, schools, resorts, sports arenas, convention centers and other establishments. Facilities maintenance has thus come to mean care and maintenance of these structures.
Facility management is concerned with results such as:
- Maintaining the building and ancillary services such as electric power, plumbing, lighting, air conditioning, etc in a manner that results in their continued availability and longevity
- Ensuring that the occupants of the building receive the services expected from the facility such as air that is comfortably warm, good lighting that enables efficient work, clean and aesthetic environs that are pleasing and healthy, and work stations that help productivity
- Securing the premises against unauthorized access and detecting any security breaches that do occur in a timely manner
- Ensuring safety of the occupants through implementation of adequate safety measures such as fire extinguishers and escapes, and guard rails and protective barriers in hazardous areas
- Complying with regulatory provisions such as obtaining necessary permissions, insuring the premises and any others
Whereas property management is concerned with design and construction of the facility as well as marketing the facilities to users, facility management typically comes into the picture once the facilities are operational and occupied. However, many of the facility management tasks require the right kind of design and construction for their effectiveness, and it is best that facility managers be associated with these stages. Unlike the property manager, the facilities manager has to attend to the operational requirements of the facility occupants.
The facility manager has to be aware of the business needs of the occupants. For example, specific facilities such as continued connectivity can be critical for businesses like data centers and banks and facilities management will include ensuring such connectivity.
Building Automation and Facility Management
Automated buildings make use of sensors and controllers to ensure that desired conditions are maintained at all times. For example, sensors will continuously monitor temperatures, light levels, humidity, current flow, air flow and such things that affect the working environment. If the sensed levels go beyond tolerable limits, controllers will activate devices that will bring them back to desired levels.
Cost savings are achieved by turning off heating, lighting, air conditioning etc when the building or room is unoccupied. This might be achieved by turning them on at specified times or by sensing occupant movements and keeping necessary services turned on for, say half an hour after the last movement.
Security systems can turn on lights and alarms if movements are sensed during times when the business is shut for the day. Hidden cameras can photograph intruders and their activities.
Using such means, the effectiveness of facility management can be enhanced while costs can be reduced.
Facility Management Practices
Good facility management practices will include:
- Initial diagnostic assessment to identify areas of high risk and those that need improvement
- Managing transition from unsatisfactory existing states to desired states through planning and implementation
- Maintenance management that adopts the best practices to ensure effective facilities maintenance at optimum costs
- Vendor management to ensure that required supplies and services of acceptably quality are received in time
- Incident management to detect damaging incidents promptly and initiate quick steps to minimize their impact
- Continuing audit to review effectiveness of existing practices and also to benchmark them against industry practices
Unlike property management, facility management is greatly concerned with ensuring that the facilities deliver expected services to its occupants. Additionally, facilities managers are responsible for managing the maintenance of the facilities, and securing it against unauthorized intruders. Modern facilities management practices adopt technology to automate many of the tasks, leading to higher effectiveness while minimizing costs.
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