Many organizations faces the challenge of providing an excellent, high-tech campus experience while addressing the increasing financial pressure. This is where the emergence of Smart Building Technologies and digitized Facility Management (FM) take place. These smart facility management technologies are coming to the forefront as institutions aim to cut costs and improve the high grounds of the institution. With the tech-enabled classrooms and workspace, organizations are evolving in delivering an experience beyond expectation, to the today’s students.
The advancement of technology is benefiting the universities and industrial organizations behind the scenes, too. Tech-enabled facility management organizations are seeking new ways of bringing efficiency to the real estate facilities and facilities related to other sectors. They are creating new opportunities to reduce waste, expedite work orders, extend equipment life or even gain the advantage in lease negotiations. Besides, the FM professionals are adding value to the organizations by using data, insight tools, and automated systems that are explicitly created for facilities.
Driving Waste out of Facility Maneuvers
One method to expose potential savings in the facilities of the organization is to scrutinize the operations related to the building equipment. When these building systems run smoothly, the organization can save and attain a cost-effective environment through better capital planning.
There is a severe need to upgrade energy-hogging equipment, such as HVAC systems, with computer-controlled equipment that produces millions of data points. The influence of the smart building data and analytics software enables the use of wireless sensors to gather building data for investigation at a central command center. This flood of data can be harvested from sensors, gives FM the capacity to detect and reduce the problems related to the performance.
Currently, smart building software uses algorithms to examine the received data. For example, in some instances, an advanced technological platform can make automatic adjustments in the fan settings to ideal levels, to save energy without compromising airflow. While the FM team will get an automated alert for a manual repair required. The tech-enabled facility management leads to a robust, viable business case for system updates, predictive analytics for repairs or replacement, thereby, lending a hand towards more precise capital planning.
Optimizing Smart Space Utilization
Today’s FM tools are used for revealing the everyday use of a particular building. The tech-enabled facility management operations provide with better optimization of the workplace and to gauge the need of additional space. The FM organizations use the performance data to enhance services and advise the clients on workplace and space strategy.
A look at the real-life usage is exclusively essential nowadays, because the modes of teaching are quickly evolving in the universities. With the modifications in the teaching delivery models, the spaces required for the learning also need to be modified. Technology has implemented space utilization studies in the universities, in which the professors hold court in smaller classrooms. This facilitates collaborative and interactive learning by using existing space more effectively. Spaces that are-or are not being used can be pinpointed and gathered with the use of data and insight tools to their full potential.
Digitizing the Role of FM
Technology can help the FM professionals to operate more efficiently and enhance the campus experience for the faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Technology has automated various FM service deliveries, from move-ins and facilitated requests for maintenance and repairs. With this, the data of the FM activities can be collected and analyzed to improve decision-making, capital planning, and campus experience.
A tech-enabled FM system can provide an online platform for a facility manager to log in, report a plumbing repair, and suggest an approved plumbing contractor quickly.
The foremost organizations are using computers, sensors, and data to rationalize FM functions and outspread the limits of facility management into higher value-added activities. The introduction of technology in FM has replaced the traditional paper processes and adopted new ones- such as using sensors to identify malfunctioning HVAC- that exclude the necessity for reporting the human involvement. The information collected by these computerized processes can disclose employee preferences, facility usage, cut costs and deliver better facility services.
The automated processes also capture information that was never tracked in paper-based systems and can automatically monitor the arrival and departure of a technician.
The Tech-enabled Future
The constantly evolving technology in facility management will soon witness the introduction of robotic automation technology. These robots will facilitate the operations and get employed for the energy management and for the functioning in the various sectors. The emerging organizations and universities will fully leverage technology in their facility management practices that will radically remodel the processes of waste management, reduce human interference and increase productivity.
In the FM companies, the IoT would take the form of smart wireless sensors that can be retrofitted into any building, in minutes and the information can be retrieved from any smartphone, tablet or the desktop.
Further in the future, through Big Data, the facility managers will be able to make better decisions based on former and present data collected through surveys, smart meters, IT networks and occupant behavior.
Organizations Getting Smarter with Tech-enabled Facility Management
