Your building is talking; are you listening?
Buildings are just like you and me. Susceptible to drastic temperature swings, weather exposure, how hard they are used and how well they are taken care of. Buildings sag, get sick, gain weight, settle, sweat, off-gas, and after years of increasing costs to maintain, eventually die. Your building is talking, perhaps screaming, 24/7, 365 days of the year. Are you listening, understanding, and leveraging the critical intelligence its systems, sensors, and significant assets provide you?
Buildings, like people, speak several languages. A single incompatibility can result in a complete and total communication breakdown, thus allowing tribal knowledge to drift into outer space. Without a data management strategy, data sets become outdated and less accurate over time, limiting the power of data-dependent technologies. Without accurate data, more technology is not necessarily better; it’s just more.
The only certainty is change
Facility data management is far more dynamic than construction data. Chilled water pumps typically don’t need replacing due to performance failure during construction. The pump is specified, procured, and installed. However, the operation deals with daily change management and must have a system for updating the original data set. If our closeout documentation is not dynamic, it is of little value to our clients post-construction.
Applying construction methodology to operations data has long been the basis behind the typical Operations and Maintenance (O&M) manual and its shortcomings. Operators need a different kind of information to be successful in operations than a simple regurgitation of construction documents via plans and 3-ring binders.
Consider the operations manual that comes with every car. It only contains the information needed to operate and maintain your vehicle, not the information to build one from scratch. For our clients to optimize the operational efficiency of their investments, we need to provide maintenance guidance, not construction guidance.
Building lifecycle data driving rapid growth and strategic management planning
Facilities continuously produce vast amounts of data and operational information that, until a few decades ago, was barely monitored, let alone captured and leveraged. The recent building data explosion is central to a new 2024 Facilities Support Services Global Market Report, which states that the worldwide facilities support services market is expected to multiply in the next few years at “…a compound annual growth rate of 10.2%.”
According to the report, the rising value of the industry shows an increasing emphasis by facilities on sustainability and green practices, intelligent building technology, remote monitoring, digital transformation, and cybersecurity concerns – all driven by the precise gathering and processing of building lifecycle data. The report also states that the growth in the forecast period can be attributed to factors such as increased focus on health and safety compliance, aging infrastructure that requires maintenance, the drive for energy efficiency, and overall economic recovery – factors influenced by building data metrics.
“… the rising value of the industry shows an increasing emphasis by facilities on sustainability and green practices, smart building technology, remote monitoring, digital transformation, and cybersecurity concerns – all driven by the precise gathering and processing of building lifecycle data.”
Understanding and responding to data-driven operational and maintenance challenges is critical to strategic decision-making in our rapidly evolving business environment. Ensuring your enterprise’s premises are well-managed, safe, sustainable, and functional is crucial for sustained business success; thus, market trends, opportunities, and industry metrics shouldn’t be overlooked.
Imagine a building where innovative management systems continuously offer simple and meaningful information about what is happening inside. If you’re not capitalizing on lifecycle building data, you’re not building or operating a truly smart building. For today’s contractors, engineers, and building owners, achieving the capabilities of intelligent buildings is essential to your success.
Interested in learning more?
Interested in learning more about how you can leverage lifecycle building data to optimize the operations and maintenance of your building? Please get in touch with Eric Hall and ask about Lifecycle Building Data strategies.
