On the whole, facility teams struggle with a lack of resources. Dwindling workforce and budget cuts in parallel with steadily increasing responsibility contribute to a constant feeling of playing catch-up. Making the transition to preventative maintenance can seem, frankly, unattainable – and it is, using manpower alone.
With the help of technology, however, adopting a preventative maintenance model becomes a realistic goal, and not only for facility teams in brand new buildings or cash rich businesses. Even rudimentary analytics can point teams to potential problems, before they’re full blown failures.
For example, basic analytics tools can alert facility teams that:
- One room is not maintaining its temperature setpoint. This could indicate a problematic damper.
- That one unsatisfied room can be keeping a larger fan, or worse, the plant, supplying more than necessary for tens of hours each week, leading to other more expensive problems, including equipment failures.
- One poorly reading building static sensor can lead to all the fans in a building working harder than they need to. Simple analytics can tell you that the sensor isn’t moving, or that it’s reading higher or lower than expected during off hours, something most control systems aren’t setup to do.
Building your workflow around preventative maintenance
Daily comfort or issues reports can give teams directions for the next day or week. One actuator that’s not working well can be an opportunity for a technician to inspect the outside air damper on a unit. One failed outside air damper can be a good reason to inspect others. An analytic showing that a fan is struggling to maintain airflow could mean it’s a great time to service all the motor bearings in the building.
The reactive cycle results in missed opportunities
When teams are stuck in the reactive cycle, they’re often fixing things after failure (when they are most expensive), or after the problem has rippled, potentially affecting other systems, clients, or tenants.
They’re also missing opportunities to explore for other potential improvements. In the first example, if that team had gone to explore that damper, they might have found that the hot water valve actuator wasn’t hooked up correctly. Seeing this, they can then set up a proactive scan of other spaces to inspect and ensure this isn’t a problem elsewhere.
Being reactive also means you’re not fixing things at the most opportune times.
- A failed hot water valve in the winter is going to make for an incredibly unhappy tenant, whereas looking for signs of issues in the spring using the data available to you means that you can make repairs to a hot water system in the summer, when clients or tenants won’t be as adversely affected.
- A simple analytic that looks at the hot water valves operation, and whether or not the supply temperature is able to maintain a set point can lead a team to inspect a valve before a client is affected.
In fact, the tenant might be impressed with the teams proactive approach, contributing to a positive relationship between the facility team and the client. Proactive maintenance not only makes life easier for the facility manager, but also for Bob in unit 4A.
Using analytics & proactive maintenance to improve your client base
Analytics can’t fix everything, but they can often light the way to larger, scarier potential problems. Proactive maintenance enables facility teams to keep tenants happy and protect valuable assets, extending the lifetime for their equipment. Solving issues before a client is angry is imperative in the modern real estate market, and a reason to boast, possibly enticing more lucrative clients or tenants to your space.