As the demand for improved connectivity continues to grow, the roles of facility management teams will continue to evolve. Today’s teams are still responsible for essential maintenance and repairs, but their job description has expanded beyond caretaking to include reducing operational costs and preventing unexpected repairs.
Meeting these evolving needs can be problematic due to budget restraints and the shrinking workforce of skilled labor. Regulatory compliance for new green building codes and sustainability requirements presents additional challenges for property owners and their facility teams. Lastly, changing data needs for tenants requires coordinating contractor and vendor schedules and invoices while overseeing the work performed.
However, a flexible and adaptable operation and maintenance plan can help teams improve building performance and long-term asset protection, while increasing tenant satisfaction levels.
Choosing the Best Maintenance Plan Strategy
The best maintenance plan for your facility depends on several factors, including the types of assets being used, their existing condition, and their criticality to tenant workflows and processes. Most maintenance strategies fall into one of three categories.
Corrective (or Reactive) Maintenance provides efficient repairs or replacements as needed. While this is a “run-to-failure” approach, it’s ideal for non-critical or low-cost assets with redundant features.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) relies on routine inspections, testing, and maintenance to help avoid unexpected repairs and downtime. This option works well for extending the lifecycles of older equipment and managing predictable wear.
Predictive Maintenance (PdM) utilizes sensors and data analysis to predict when maintenance or repairs are needed, based on the asset’s actual condition. PdM works well for highly critical assets with continuous uptime or extensive operation cycles.
The best maintenance strategy is never static; it should evolve based on changing technical assets, business needs, and insights gleaned from the collected data. A common approach is a balanced strategy that is split 80% preventive or predictive, and the remaining 20% assigned to the reactive maintenance category.1
What Are the Core Areas Facility Managers Must Oversee?
While the specific duties may vary depending on the property’s size and age, the following are the most common domains for facility managers and their teams.
- Operations and maintenance: Overseeing the day-to-day functions of building systems, such as HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical. This includes proactive and preventative maintenance to avoid major failures.
- Asset management: Keeping an updated inventory of all assets, tracking their life cycles, scheduling maintenance or repairs, and monitoring their performance.
- Energy and sustainability management: Monitoring and optimizing energy consumption to reduce costs and environmental impact. Responsibilities can include implementing energy-efficient upgrades and promoting eco-friendly practices.
- Real estate and property management: Managing the facility’s physical spaces, which can involve property strategy, lease management, and capital project planning for expansions or renovations.
- Comprehensive documentation: Prioritizing collected data and asset documentation can streamline operations and audits, ensuring regulatory and budgetary compliance for a suite or the entire building.
Handling these FM needs while addressing the tenant’s technology needs can exceed the limits of many traditional data cabling systems. Much of the built environment relies on hidden cable trays above the ceiling, which makes changes, upgrades, or a complete reconfiguration both time-consuming and expensive. As a result, many FM teams are turning to raised access floor systems to handle today’s business needs while remaining flexible enough to handle new technologies as they become available in the marketplace.
Smart Tools That Give Facility Managers an Edge
Facility managers can utilize various hardware and software tools to collect and analyze building usage data, thereby increasing efficiency and enhancing occupant experiences. Some of the most popular smart tool options include.
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) that track maintenance schedules, asset warranties, and parts inventories to support proactive strategies.
Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) provides a centralized hub for building data and task automation, offering insights to reduce operational costs while ensuring compliance with established standards.
Internet of Things (IoT) sensors refer to the different devices used to collect real-time data on occupancy, temperature, and equipment performance.
Building Management Systems (BMS) can be used to monitor, control, and automate a building’s mechanical and electrical equipment and systems.
Raised access flooring systems, like the Gridd® Adaptive Cabling Distribution® System, relocate data cables from above the ceiling to the new space (less than 3”) created above the existing floor. As data cable changes or upgrades become necessary, removing the carpet tiles or other modular floor finish provides fast and easy access to every cable or connection point within the space. This allows property owners and facility teams to quickly adjust or reconfigure a space without incurring the costs associated with traditional construction services.
With Gridd® Mobile, teams can utilize Augmented Reality (AR) to locate, test, upgrade, or modify the data network in response to the ever-changing needs of property owners and tenants. The intuitive interface allows workers, contractors, designers, and engineers to quickly access all the project details using a smartphone or tablet.
The Financial and Strategic Benefits of Smarter O&M
Smarter operations and maintenance (O&M) utilize data, technology, and analytics to transition from reactive maintenance to more strategic, predictive, and proactive asset management. This approach generates significant financial and strategic benefits, including lower costs, higher revenue, reduced risk, and enhanced operational efficiency.
Smarter O&M policies can also reduce a building’s carbon footprint, thereby improving LEED and BREEAM scores while complying with new green building codes. Today’s O&M processes involve much more than repairing or replacing components when they fail. Facility teams must be able to add value or services that enhance occupant comfort levels, thereby improving employee retention and productivity.
For greater facility control and impact, teams can start by auditing their current O&M systems for potential deficiencies and limitations. Teams should also assess their data cabling system’s readiness for adopting CMMS or CAFM platforms, or consider moving from a reactive to a preventive or predictive maintenance model. To learn more about how a raised access flooring system can improve O&M outcomes to reduce future costs, contact a Gridd Advisor.
