FOCUS MAINTENANCE
far more fluid if these changes take place,
thus impacting the demand on facilities, their
assets, and the services that support them.
Traditional frequency-based maintenance
service followed the manufacturer’s
recommendations for planned works. But
these recommendations are less accurate in
a hybrid environment. For example, the load
on an air-handling unit will be much higher in
a full-capacity or city centre building than it
would be in a hybrid or regional site. In these
instances, smart engineering can provide a
more e icient maintenance service by using
IoT sensors to read the air handling unit’s
condition in real time. This data then enables
engineering teams to spot trends, accurately
project when the asset will fail and develop
a more e icient long-term preventative
maintenance schedule based on genuine
insights rather than averages or guesswork.
NET ZERO OBJECTIVES
The stark warning at last year’s COP26 that
climate change emergency has become a
‘code red’ emergency has also re-energised
environmental e orts, mounting corporate
and legislative pressure on organisations to
commit to net zero.
It’s a well-known fact but one that bears
repeating: the built environment contributes
40 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.
Recent JLL research suggests that this statistic
is at least widely understood, with 56 per cent
of occupiers reporting that they are addressing
carbon reduction as part of their CRE strategy
and a further 29 per cent looking to address
36 MAY 2022
Tracking energy
consumption data from
equipment, lighting and energy
meters within a single system gives
organisations a clear sustainability
baseline for active process
it by 2025.
The study
also revealed
that many
occupiers
view data
capabilities, including
smart buildings and
energy monitoring, as a way of
improving their reporting and measurement
capabilities.
That’s where smart engineering comes
in. Tracking energy consumption data from
equipment, lighting and energy meters
within a single system gives organisations
a clear sustainability baseline for active
process improvement. In the short term,
organisations can use this data to inform
current OPEX based on optimising,
recommissioning, and managing the existing
infrastructure. Over the long term, it can be
used as the basis for future strategic asset
management plans and investments that
lead to more significant carbon reduction.
Digitising maintenance also produces
sustainability benefits through changes in
the way engineers work. Fewer resources
are consumed by engineering teams due to
the eradication of labour-intensive manual
tasks, such as Legionella testing, and the
reduction in waste water, heating energy
use, and unnecessary trips.
improvement...”
SMART ENGINEERING IN ACTION
In 2019, Integral transitioned a leading UK
asset management firm to smart engineering
with a focus on carbon footprint reduction,
energy optimisation, labour optimisation,
asset optimisation and customer experience.
During 2020, we were also tasked with aligning
these e orts with the company’s COVID-19
closure and re-entry protocols.
To make this happen, we initiated a
three-stage approach to connect, control
and optimise. Firstly, we digitised the entire
infrastructure and integrated predictive
maintenance to the client’s BMS across eight
sites. Doing this enabled us to view realtime
and historical data for any equipment,
device or sensor across all zones, floors, and
buildings. We can save the data the customer
wants to see in widgets for easy retrieval and
download reports on Legionella, equipment
operations, utilities and health and comfort
factors.
We also utilise dynamic and
occupancy-based schedules
rather than rigid
schedules to maximise
energy savings and
maintain optimal
performance.
By creating
customised
alerts and point
actions based
on conditions,
we can automate
repetitive tasks
and reduce labour
input, detect outliers,
minimise via operational
optimisations, and reduce
equipment costs by extending assets’
operational life.
Since deploying smart engineering with the
asset management company, we increased
asset performance by 24 per cent between
March and September 2020, helped maintain
an average employee health and comfort
score of 71 per cent, reduced equipment
runtime and maintenance requirements in
all buildings, and made electrical savings of
£183,331 across seven of the eight sites.
A GAME CHANGER
For facilities managers, maintenance has
always been crucial to ensuring compliance,
high health & safety standards, and business
continuity. Now, however, smart technologies
are transforming maintenance into a more
complex and strategic service. By collecting
more accurate data on asset condition and
performance, facilities managers can play
a more pivotal role in their organisation’s
decision-making and strategy by supporting
real estate and workplace transformations,
net zero targets, employee experience or
wellbeing initiatives, and more. That can
only be a good thing for the reputation and
continual evolution of the FM profession.