Automated Monitoring to Improve Facilities Maintenance
Large buildings take a lot of maintenance, but your maintenance department is probably kept as small as practical to save money. This reality creates a demand for electronic and digital tools to help you keep track of your building’s status and needs. Automated monitoring systems make a facility manager’s job easier in a number of ways.
Working When Humans Don’t
Your flesh-and-blood maintenance workforce is only available part of the time, even if you and some of your staff are always on-call for maintenance emergencies. These days, that emergency call is likely to be initiated not by a person but by a computer. The 24-hour fire and security monitoring we have come to rely on are just two familiar examples. Automated maintenance systems of all kinds are able to have “eyes” on every part of your building while your human staff are getting some well-earned sleep.
Staying in Places Humans Can’t
You and your maintenance workforce are responsible for the whole facility, but some parts of the building are far less accessible for maintenance than others. A good example of an essential building element that you aren’t able to see every day is the roof. Although you can periodically walk over your facility’s roof to check its condition, you can’t keep a team continually patrolling the roof night and day. What is happening on your roof when you’re not looking can have costly results. Automated roof alarm systems with predictive monitoring can notify you 24/7 about current problems, and even warn you ahead of time about potential issues that could become a problem. This is especially valuable in cold climates where a rapid accumulation of snow can undermine a roof’s integrity faster than you might think.
Seeing Things Humans Don’t
Even when you and your maintenance staff are present and productive, there are some things you won’t notice simply because of the limitations of human senses. Automated sensors that “see” in the infrared spectrum can detect cold spots that could alert you to energy leaks or even hidden mold. Moisture monitors can detect dampness and warn you of the potential for water damage before a human would ever notice any leaks or condensation. Air quality monitors can “sniff” out carbon monoxide or other hazardous gases and airborne contaminants that humans couldn’t detect until it was far too late.
As a facilities manager, you’ve probably felt the need to be in multiple places at once in order to monitor everything going on with your building. Automated asset management and monitoring systems can’t clone you, but they can give you a remote “presence” to make your job more manageable.