FMJ.CO.UK CAFM FOCUS
OCTOBER 2020 33
support health and hygiene regimes, for
example sanitising and handwashing and
the need for air-conditioned environments
to be more closely monitored. Planned
work orders can cover anything from
electrical systems, lighting to water systems
and treatments and ensuring that all HVAC
and environmental systems are checked,
occupancy levels are reset, and fire testing
routines are resumed and maintained.
It’s also important to restore planned
preventative maintenance tasks with your
service provider – waste, food
and drink, post, pest control
and statutory checks on
facilities such as gas
systems and li s.
Asset
management and
stock control
With home
working still the
case for many
o ice workers,
CAFM can help keep
track of IT equipment
allocation. For those
on site, it can track new
equipment that has been purchased
to support safety in the workplace –
screens, automatic hand sanitising units,
temperature gauges and air quality
monitors.
So ware will support e icient
management of stock, giving real-time
analysis and full details of stock, and
supplier information and levels for
automatically triggering restocking. For
example, ensuring your business has
optimum supplies of hand sanitiser,
face masks and other PPE. It integrates
with your help desk to allocate stock to
both reactive and planned work orders,
improving your e iciency and preventing
overspend.
Reporting and oversight
Recording data in a CAFM system enables
facilities managers to plan, make better
strategic decisions, reduce costs, and track
all aspects of their estates in one platform.
In the current environment, it’s even more
important to capture and create specific
reports on essential risk assessment and
checklist responses. It’s also important to see
where sta have booked into and checked
out of workspaces and who they have been
in proximity to. A CAFM tool which allows
you to design your own reports and
dashboards, tailored to specific
business requirements, o ers a
lot of value and supports these
increased reporting requirements.
GARY WATKINS
CEO OF SERVICE WORKS GLOBAL
CAFM brings a degree of certainty
to the disorder caused by the
Coronavirus pandemic. The pressure
to maintain a safe, hygienic and fully
functional workspace is at a peak and CAFM
can relieve some of the stress by providing
greater e iciency, insight and automation.
E iciency
Many businesses may be operating with a
reduced FM team, meaning each member
must be resourced as e iciently as possible.
Time-consuming visits to base for job sheets
can be eliminated by managing jobs with
a CAFM system and communicating with
operatives via email or mobile app; which
also helps to maintain social distancing. As
well as receiving the details of the work that
needs to be done, the operative can access
a map showing the job location, COVID-safe
entry and exit routes through a building, see
being made.
But in the short-term for tackling COVID
and the longer term in managing real estate
and assets the latest CAFM systems are being
honed to allow you to monitor not only the
health of your occupants but the building.
OLIVER SPIRES
PRODUCT MANAGER FOR IDOX’S CAFM
EXPLORER
There are a host of ways that CAFM can be
utilised to help us through the current crisis.
Where employers are encouraging sta
back to the workplace, social distancing
is a key priority to make people feel safe.
Working with a ‘return to work policy’, CAFM
so ware can be configured to allow sta to
book resources, desks, or meeting spaces
before travelling to the o ice. Systems
administrators can easily turn on or o
spaces available to book, o ering piece of
mind, ensuring su icient space is maintained
and supporting other policies such as
staggered start and finish times. Crucially,
‘check-in and check-out’ capability can
provide details on where and when sta have
been within facilities, supporting government
guidance : “…if someone develops
symptoms, they will be encouraged to alert
the people they have had close contact with
in the 48 hours before symptom onset. If any
of those close contacts are co-workers, the
person who has developed symptoms should
consider asking their employer to alert those
co-workers”.
Planned preventative and reactive
maintenance
As o ices, campuses, retail outlets and
leisure industry facilities reopen, welcoming
back sta and clients, FMs are being
challenged with additional planned and
reactive maintenance tasks. With the help
of CAFM so ware, planned maintenance
ensures routine work orders are scheduled,
automatically triggering work orders.
Systems o ering self-service functionality
allows end users to log issues that the
facilities team can monitor and allocate
to their mobile workforce. Engineers,
tradespeople, and service providers can work
‘on-the-go’, with the option to record travel
time between jobs.
Risk assessments and action checklists
can be set up for teams carrying out work to
answer a defined list of questions, capturing
essential and auditable data for reporting
adherence to government guidelines.
Adherence to government guidance
and regulations
Regulation has always been integral to an FM
role but with increased compliance and more
rigorous provisions needed within planned
work schedules, CAFM so ware can help
As offi ces, campuses, retail
outlets and leisure industry
facilities reopen, welcoming back staff
and clients, FMs are being challenged
with additional planned and reactive
maintenance tasks.”
– Oliver Spires