Information Systems for the maintenance and management

Information systems for building maintenance

1. Basic definitions from slides

Facility management: Integration of processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities. (UNI EN 15221-1: 2011, Facility Management Part 1: Terms and definitions)

Facility management agreement: Written or oral agreement stating the terms and conditions for provision of facility services between a client and an internal or external service provider. (UNI EN 15221-1: 2011, Facility Management Part 1: Terms and definitions)

Facility service: Support provision to the primary activities of an organisation, delivered by an internal or external provider.

Note Facility services are services related to Space & Infrastructure and to People & Organisation. (UNI EN 15221.1)

Integrated facility services: Set of facility services that interact with each other. (UNI EN 15221.1)

Indicator: Measured characteristic (or a set of characteristics) of a phenomenon, according to a given formula, which assess the evolution. Note Indicators are related to objectives. (EN 15341)

These indicators should be used to:

• A) Measure the status;
• B) Compare (internal and external benchmarks);
• C) Diagnose (analysis of strengths and weaknesses);
• D) Identify objectives and define targets to be reached;
• E) Plan improvement actions;
• F) Continuously measure changes over time.

Scorecard: Set of associated, consistent and complementary indicators providing synthetic and global information. Note It is a tool for the development and implementation of a strategy and for monitoring progress towards the goals outlined in the strategy (UNI EN 15341)

Key performance indicator (KPI): Measure that provides essential information about the performance of facility services delivery. (UNI EN 15221-1: 2011, Facility Management Part 1: Terms and definitions)

Service level agreement (SLA): Agreement between the client or customer and the service provider on performance, measurement and conditions of services delivery. A Facility Management agreement consists of general clauses, applicable to the whole agreement, and SLA specific clauses, only applicable to a facility service. In a Facility Management agreement, several SLAs are included. (UNI EN 15221-1: 2011, Facility Management Part 1: Terms and definitions).

Global service Special form of outsourcing contract based on results, through which a client commits a series of activities regarding a property or real estate assets to a single contractor (UNI 11136)

Global service for maintenance: Integrated maintenance service with full responsibility by the contractor on the results in terms of achieving and / or maintaining performance levels established by the client (UNI 11136)

Maintenance The combination of all technical, administrative and managerial actions during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform the required function.

NOTE See also the definitions of improvement and modification. (EN 13306:2001, Maintenance - Maintenance terminology)

Maintenance management All activities of the management that determine the maintenance objectives, strategies, and responsibilities and implementation of them by such means as maintenance planning, maintenance control, and the improvement of maintenance activities and economics.

Scheduled maintenance (planned m.) Maintenance carried out in accordance with an established time schedule or established number of units of use.

NOTE Corrective deferred maintenance may also be scheduled.

Facility services related to space and infrastructure and to people and organization

Facility services are related to Space & Infrastructure and to People & Organization.

Type Description Activities

Space and infrastructure

Accommodation client demand for space (accommodation) is satisfied by services such as programming, design and acquisition of space, but also the administration and management of space and its disposal.

• Strategic space planning and management;
• Programming and briefing;
• Design and construction;
• Lease and occupancy management;
• Building operations and maintenance;
• Renovation and/or refurbishment.

Workplace client demand for a working environment (workplace) is satisfied by services related to internal and external environments, fitting out with furniture, equipment and tenants replacement;

• Workplace design and ergonomics;
• Selection of furniture, machinery and equipment;
• Move management;
• Equip internal and external environment;
• Signage, decorations, partitions and furniture.

Technical infrastructure client demand for utilities (technical infrastructure) is satisfied by services resulting in a comfortable climate, lighting/ shading, electrical power, water and gas.

• Energy/utilities management;
• Environmental sustainability management;
• Technical infrastructure operations and maintenance;
• Building management systems operations and maintenance;
• Lighting maintenance;
• Management of waste (hazardous) disposal.

Cleaning client demand for hygiene and cleanliness (cleaning) is satisfied by services that maintain a proper working environment and help maintain the assets in good condition.

• Hygiene services;
• Workplace cleaning, machinery cleaning;
• Building fabric and glass cleaning;
• Cleaning equipment provision & maintenance;
• Outdoor space cleaning and winter services.

People and organization

Health safety and security client demand for a safe environment (health, safety and security) is satisfied by services that protect from external dangers or internal risks as well as the health and well-being of the people.

• Occupational health services;
• Security management;
• Access control, I.D./smart cards, locks and key holding;
• Disaster planning and recovery;
• Fire safety and protection.

Hospitality client demand for hospitality is satisfied by services providing a hospitable working environment makes people feel welcome and comfortable.

• Secretarial and reception services;
• Help desk services;
• Catering and vending;
• Organisation of conferences, meetings and special events;
• Personal services;
• Provision of work wear.

ICT client demand for information and communication (ICT) is satisfied by services providing information and telecommunication technologies.

• Data and telephone network operations;
• Data centre, server hosting and operations;
• Personal computer support;
• IT security and protection;
• Computer and telephone connections and moves.

Logistics client demand for logistics is satisfied by services concerned with the transport and storage of goods and information and improving the relevant processes.

• Internal mail and courier services;
• Document management and archiving;
• Reprographic systems, copying and printing;
• Office supplies;
• Freight forwarding, storage systems;
• People transport and travel services;
• Car park and vehicle fleet management.

Other support services: client demand for other support services may be satisfied by a range of additional services. These services can be very individual depending on the definition of the primary activities.

• Accounting, auditing and financial reporting;
• Human resource management;
• Marketing and advertising, photographic services;
• Procurement, contract management and legal advice services;
• Project management;
• Quality management.

(UNI EN 15221-1)

1. ITT types of FM contracts

The purpose of competitive tendering PURPOSE:

• It ensures transparency of the operations.
• It is aimed to obtain the desired quality of the services, supplies and works at the best price.

Main Types of FM contracts:

• 1. Traditional contract (not integrated single service) It is rather a mere transfer of support facilities. A single service is entrusted to an external party. The management, planning and monitoring activities are directed to the promoting organization. The payment is a fixed sum regarding to the value of the service which will be provided.
• 2. Integrated single service: It is outsourcing a single service which has to be performed in an integrated way. The provider is responsible not only for the service delivery but also for the planning and management functions. The contractor plans the maintenance interventions, he implements a monitoring system to control the performance. They are based on usually medium to long term time durations. The payment is a form of fixed fee which is periodically delivered.
• 3. Integrated multiservice: The object of the contract is a package of services which the supplier is able design plan and manage in a coordinated way. In this kind of contracts, the promoting organization entrusts to an external supplier several number of core services related to buildings, piece of land or public infrastructure. The aim is to obtain integrated management of all the functions and services and the implementation of an information system and a system of procedures and tools. The payment is a fixed fee periodically paid, some activities can have an extra-fee and for public sector there can be a PPP relationship.
• 4. Global service: It is an outsourcing contract based on an integrated system of maintenance activities to an external provider which has the full responsibility for the outcomes in terms of achieving and maintaining minimum performance levels determined by the client. It is necessary to develop a structured system of SLAs and KPIs for each service and for the overall management in order to monitor the performance.

2. The market of facility management and the needs for information and knowledge in the evolution of the FM services

The market of Facility Management (FM) in Europe has been significantly expanding in the last ten years with a general tendency to more and more integrated services, focusing on strategic initiatives within longer-term contracts. According to ANCE data during the crisis the sector of renovation and maintenance is the only one to mark a positive sign (+ 19.1% between 2008 and 2015) compared to significant declines in all other sectors of activity. In 2015 the investments in residential renovation and maintenance, according to the ANCE observatory, came to account for 36.3% of investments in construction (in 2007 it was 20%). The growth of market of Maintenance and renovation is due not only to the economic crisis but also to long term factors:

• Ageing of the buildings stock;
• Obsolescence of technical parts;
• Demographic factors;
• Requests for energy efficiency.

Within this scenario of market increase, the field of FM services has also been involved with rapid developments, related to various aspects connected with integration of services and strategic planning, such as:

• Enlargement of the areas of interest, of the functions and of the disciplines connected;
• Increasing complexity of the relationships between the functions and of the forms of integration of the services;
• Changing of the role, of the responsibilities and of the skills of the operators;
• Mounting expectations for cost-effectiveness, for the improvement of efficiency in the processes, for the monitoring and control of performances;
• Demand of improvements in the practices of planned maintenance;
• The needs for information and its role in the evolution of the FM services.

Analisi storica e previsioni future dell’information management

Facility Management professionals have to deal with a large amount of information provided by various domains as they are contemporarily engaged with different areas, such as: financial management, change management, health and safety, contract management and building and engineering services maintenance, etc.

Therefore, assumed the variety of domains, data have to be combined, integrated and managed in order to create an accessible knowledge, with particular regard to the information integration, which can be defined as the sharing of essential data or information between the parties involved in the process. From this point of view, in current context, several key factors for improving the effectiveness of FM activities may be identified, such as:

• Knowledge-bases constantly fostered;
• Procedures and tools for managing the information flow;
• Procedures and criteria for orienting and checking the quality of information;
• Shared references and clear schemes for organizing input and output data in the workflow of processes;
• Defined requirements for the information systems.

Knowledge is the most significant organizational source within FM services and it holds the most strategic value in understanding and managing the relationship between the performance of the physical resources and their impact on the customers served by those resources. Furthermore, considering knowledge management in FM services is also fundamental not only for better understanding the most strategic role of facilities management, concerned with resource management, but also for going beyond the idea that facilities management is simply a form of janitorial function and thus for promoting innovation [5].

The subject of knowledge opens to a particular view within FM services, starting from the conceptual chain, that links:

• Data (i.e. numbers, texts, images, etc.), that obtain meaning and value only in relation to a context and processing;
• Information that is data processed according to specific goals, referred to a context and managed to be used, shared and combined;
• Knowledge that is the result of applying, processing, relating, combining information in specific contexts. The process, that leads information to enter in a system able to develop knowledge, creates the actual value and competitive advantage for an organization;
• The role of knowledge in the evolution of the FM services.

Various problems, typical in the information management, can arise, worsening the efficiency of the processes, such as:

• Information cannot flow due to various reasons, such as problems in generation, broken processes, unavailability of a critical process, etc.;
• Information is unable to flow because it cannot be identified or because shared processes are not compatible.

Impacts as results of the poor quality of information in the facility service processes:

• A lot of time wasted in searching due to non-standardized information distribution and wrong quantity of information;
• Time spent on extra work, such as checking and double-processing due to low reliability of information delivery, low validity of information contents and incomplete information.
• Information is delivered late, irrelevant information covers up relevant information and information is ignored.

The FM model strategic, tactical, operational

The standard EN 15221-1:2007, “Facility Management—Part 1: Terms and Definitions” considers Facility Management as the integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities.

The agreed support services (facility management services) are provided in a coordinate way through an integrated management in relation to various levels, characterized by different tasks, competences and responsibilities. According to the standard EN 15221-1:2007, it is possible to list three main levels.

1) Strategic level

The first one is the strategic level, characterized by decision makers whose mission is the achievement of the objectives of the organization in the long term period through actions such as:

• Defining the Facility Management strategy in compliance with the organization strategies;
• Drawing policy guidelines for space, assets, processes and services;
• Maintaining relations with the client and authorities, lessees and tenants, strategic partners, associations etc.;
• Developing risk analysis and providing the direction to adapt changes in the organization, first simulating and then managing the impacts of services on the primary activities;
• Setting the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the monitoring activities.

2) Tactical level

The second level is the tactical level, characterized by the managers’ competences, engaged in the implementation and the monitoring of the strategic objectives for the medium term, whose main tasks are:

• Developing business plans and budgets;
• Managing projects, processes, agreements and Facility Management teams;
• Making Facility Management objectives feasible;
• Defining SLAs and interpreting KPIs (performance, quality, risk and value);
• Managing and optimizing the use of resources;
• Monitoring compliance to laws and regulations;
• Reporting results and changes;
• Communicating with internal or external service providers at a tactical level.

3) Operational level

The third level is the operational level and it is managed by operators that deliver the planned services in accordance with the SLAs to the end users day by day, constantly monitoring and checking the service processes by:

• Monitoring the service providers;
• Carrying out the planned activities;
• Receiving requests for service, i.e. via help desk or service line;
• Collecting data for performance evaluations, feedback and demands from end users;
• Reporting to tactical level;
• Communicating with internal or external service providers at an operational level.

FM processes according to the quality cycle PDCA

These different levels, that should be integrated and coordinated, intersect a broad and open list of functions, can create similar information, according to this we should avoid redundancies also knowing that these information can be useful for other fields. For this reason, the scheme PDCA (the quality cycle) is a useful Taxonomy through which we should be able to manage information.

• P (plan)
• D (do)
• C (Check)
• A (Act)

3. Inventory for the FM

Introduction. Inventory: a system of activities and procedures aiming to provide the knowledge of the dimensional and physical characteristics of a Real Estate. The goal of a Real Estate inventory is to gather the information useful for planning, managing and checking the provision of facility services. This goal is achievable