Technology developments are making building maintenance an easier task. See the benefits of new building maintenance trends.
Building maintenance: overview
The industry of building maintenance is among the fastest growing and ever-competitive industries, where major companies are turning their attention to technologies to simplify their processes, increase communication, and automatize their field service tasks.
Digital transformation in commercial and residential buildings allows individuals, processes, and technology to collaborate. Building maintenance is changing from a plant or asset-focused task to one focused on the experience of the end-user and its outcomes.
Technology advances in building maintenance
Based on research on building maintenance, the most reputable companies for building maintenance benefit from the latest developments and earn millions of dollars through their services. Therefore, most conversations about the maintenance of buildings are centered around trends that will aid in the future of the business processes we run.
Outsourcing
In keeping with a myriad of other important trends related to the improvement of employee experience, many companies have stated that they were outsourcing the maintenance of their buildings to specialists in facilities management for various reasons.
They include:
- Lowered costs.
- Professionals in the industry provide improved administration of the facility.
- Improved care for equipment and fixed assets.
- Focus on improving the building to enhance employee satisfaction instead of focusing on general maintenance and repair issues.
The growing IoT
It’s not a secret that the number of workplace devices that are connected is increasing. If you’ve been keeping track of trends in facilities management in the last few years, you’ll see that office Internet of Things (IoT) is a huge opportunity. As more devices are introduced to the market and brands start to differentiate themselves, the devices are getting adopted faster than they ever have before.
Large and small companies are constructing their IoT ecosystems with varying levels of sophistication. Smaller offices may possess one Amazon Echo unit and a couple of smart outlets, with basic synergies. The larger offices might contain a wide range of connected devices that IoT powers.
Whatever the company’s involvement in the IoT is certain that these technologies will rise to new heights of importance. Sooner or later, the office that isn’t equipped with an integrated IoT is likely to be an anomaly.
Modern Building Maintenance CMMS
A well-designed program can help streamline maintenance tasks and reduce costs. The easiest method to manage the maintenance of buildings is to automatize work order tasks with the help of Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software and Advanced Distribution Management Systems.
CMMS lets maintenance supervisors effectively keep track of inventory levels, assign work orders to the technicians available through a central database and track assets. The importance of asset tracking is that it offers valuable, high-level insight into the overall performance of your building spaces.
While preventive maintenance can help reduce the chance of emergencies, however, breakdowns of equipment are inevitable. This is why managers must have corrective measures in place to be able to refer to quickly. Technicians need to know how to handle emergencies and repair the normal operation as fast as they can.
Sustainable Building Practices
Most companies are interested in working with facilities management companies that offer sustainable solutions and equipment that help decrease their operations’ carbon footprint. For example, they could suggest using sustainable methods such as banning non-biodegradable material from creating eco-friendly buildings.
Be aware that the responsibilities of facility management involve deciding the performance of utilities and energy supply as well as building maintenance. The identification of recycling practices related to the management of waste. Today, facilities management is a key component of the sustainability goals.
Although the focus has recently changed to eco-friendly, modern structures, older buildings can achieve efficiency in energy use through the right use of the latest infrastructure.
Facility managers also can ensure that employees are aware of positive environmental practices.
Integrated Facilities Management
Innovative managers are taking things one step higher by bringing all their offerings under one supplier.
It’s about more than just reducing the number of vendors. It’s about maintaining responsibility and control: an integrated team that connects the advisory and transaction service, facility management, and management of projects.
The primary benefit facility managers can reap from this is increased consistency in the level of service and the streamlined procedure of making decisions because the key ones are taken by those aware of “all the pieces of the puzzle.”
If the service provider fully knows the corporate’s objectives and operational goals, they can make informed suggestions. This could be anything from lease renewals to changes of workplace locations and strategies to improve performance.
Facilities management is maturing. Like in nearly every industry, technology is the driving force of change. Facilities managers today combine the desire for innovation with knowledge, strategic thinking, and continual improvement.
Building Automation
Building automation solutions promote the integrated management of a building’s resources, making use of state-of-the-art technology to ensure comfort, safety and increased productivity. At first, the automation of systems already has a positive impact in terms of economy, mainly by increasing the intelligent use of resources and eliminating “blind spots” resulting from exclusively human action.
However, an aspect that is often overlooked can make this economy even greater: building maintenance. With some practical measures, it is possible to anticipate the need for maintenance of equipment and software, aiming at a real reduction in costs.
With remote monitoring, carried out by an SCP (Building Supervision and Control) system, a smaller number of people have direct contact with the control of resources, making human interference more strategic, based on reports on consumption history and conditions general equipment and software. This intelligence allows building maintenance to occur in three ways: preventive, corrective and predictive.
Management software allows that, by comparing the variables read with historical values and trending algorithms, it is possible to anticipate a malfunction or even a failure before it occurs, which we call “predictive maintenance”.
A predictive intervention, unlike a preventive intervention, which only prevents failures, anticipates failure considering the natural wear and the expected useful life of a given component or system. Anticipating failures reduces costs of downtime or possible damage to other systems or equipment that make up the building automation.
Conclusion
In today’s highly competitive marketplace business, the most efficient building maintenance companies are seeking ways to increase their services, improve the number of customers they serve and automate key functions of their businesses to make time available to improve methods and processes continuously.
They’re doing this because they know the importance of having systems that can meet the requirements of their clients. They can provide more satisfying customer experiences and differentiate themselves from the marketplace.
