The facility management industry has seen significant gains occurring in technology in the past few decades. One example is the migration from work orders tracked on a dry erase board to online service request submissions that auto-assign to appropriate craft or contractors while providing fluid feedback to the customer. Or consider the intricate pneumatic control systems that required hands-on monitoring and maintenance versus web-based controls that allow facility staff to remotely troubleshoot and tune building systems from anywhere using complex algorithms. And don’t forget the information recorded on the famed paper logs that can now be captured via mobile device during rounds, with alerts when a data point strays from the acceptable range and automatic work orders to ensure the issue is further investigated.
As much as there is to celebrate with how far facility technology has come, and with the future promising even more excitement, the harsh reality is that many organizations are stuck in a time warp. Much of this technology sits idle at our doorstep beckoning facility departments to embrace its robust capabilities. It is time to open that door.
[Click here to continue reading article as published in the July 2019 edition of Building Operating Management magazine.]
