Facility management teams are responsible for maintaining, inspecting and f ine-tuning a variety of equipment and facility systems, including air handlers, generators, furnaces, elevators and other equipment for safe operation.

Remembering the sizes of different belts, filters and other applicable parts is part of the job, so FM teams rely on O&Ms (also known as equipment manuals) for these kinds of details.

Manuals are an invaluable tool for defining the requirements and procedures for the effective operation and maintenance of equipment, based on manufacturer’s recommendations and warranties.

It is also a critical resource for FM technicians, as it contains wiring details, warranty info, troubleshooting tips, info about replacing and inspecting components like filters, the make and model of parts, when bearings should be lubricated and much more.

When working on an HVAC system, if the air flow and proper temperature is compromised in any way, that could mean major trouble for FMs responsible for health and safety. Buildings might be shut down while expensive repairs are made which inconvenience building occupants.

Further, if these “issues” are introduced into sensitive areas (like an operating room), the problems and fallout are compounded.

It is irresponsible to adjust HVAC systems of multi-story buildings without first consulting the manuals. Unfortunately, manuals are likely buried somewhere in the basement of a building which is at the other end of the campus.

Technicians are forced to rummage through numerous books, folders and boxes until they can find the correct manual. Meanwhile, social distancing directives are limiting the number of occupants in the plan room. When the manual is located, a page might be missing or illegible due to age and fading.

Asking long-time employees for help with equipment has been the standard procedure to deal with equipment questions. Unfortunately, many baby boomers are retiring or on furlough.

How will that institutional information be transferred to the next mechanic or technician responsible for the job? FM knowledge is as much technical as it is physical or industrial. There is always something new to learn about traditional facility equipment as well as server/network skills in some cases.

Veteran employees of one of the electronics companies in the U.S. Pacific Northwest have taken the notion of reverence and respect for equipment documentation and instruction to another level by building a museum which stores decades of documentation.

Located on the company campus, the museum gives tours, does on-line exhibits, has an extensive gallery and sells items such as oscilloscope manuals, TV waveform monitor instructions and various product catalogs from the 1950s to the 1990s.

History is preserved for future generations of technicians. For today’s technician, however, they need information while they are on rooftops or basements and time is of the essence when repairing aging or fragile equipment.

Relying on one resource for institutional knowledge is just not fair to newcomers, which is why one source of truth is mission critical for FM teams.

“I am a firm believer that everyone on the team should have the same access to the same current information from day one. That along with shadowing the tenured folks is invaluable training,” said facility expert David Trask.

At one company, the FM team was responsible for unique and old equipment that was no longer manufactured. When the equipment service technicians started to retire, team members started filming them doing the monthly, quarterly and annual maintenance.

While filming, the technicians talked about where to get parts, and the quirkiness of the machines. They created a shared and easily searchable library so the newer team members could learn. Even taking this additional step, the challenge arose of whose computer information stored on and what is their username/password to log in.

While some maintenance, operations, types of equipment and general day-to-day activities can be very similar at facilities, each building, facility type, physical location, building codes and annual inspection requirements vary depending on location.

Retirement/training

As baby boomers continue to retire or are furloughed, the need for cross-training becomes even more dramatic.

The requirements for FMs with technical skills have never been greater. Equipment is getting ever more sophisticated while the labor pool is becoming shallower by the month.

One technician said, “I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that former retired employees have to either change their phone number or they end up signing back on part-time because they receive so many calls after they leave.”

A lot of knowledge such as annual elevator inspections, building fire inspections, life safety, fire extinguisher and boiler inspections can be cross trained to FM staff by using checklists for tracking, implementing and recording the successful completion of tasks.

In some cases, senior FMs assume greater levels of responsibility and longer hours as a result of early retirements and a less experienced workforce.

Often times the newest staff member receives quick, basic training on and then is assigned to the night shift. That basic training does not help at 2 a.m. when the pipe bursts and they cannot find the shutoff valve. With advances in technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is now possible to extract intelligence from building information like manuals and make that information instantly available on mobile devices, which everyone uses.

It just does not make sense in 2021 to rely on plan room visits, paper documents, digitized data or our memories to keep facility equipment up and running.

When everyone on the team has the same access to the same current information from day one, then everyone benefits.