Technology for Building Services

Integrated Facility Management – Digitalisation: Challenges and Opportunities

The evolution of technology from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 has been fuelled by the evolving needs of stakeholders, the environmental ecosystem, infrastructure lifespan enhancement, and the pressing need to optimise available resources. The building services industry has embraced technological advancements with enthusiasm. Technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Building Management System (BMS) and Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) have played a vital role in promoting sustainability through advanced construction design development process, information management, predictive maintenance, real-time controls of building systems and sub-systems, communication, waste reduction, recycling, and reuse. Each technology has presented its unique complexities, challenges, and opportunities for Facility Management Services, paving the way for continual improvement and innovation.

Industry 4.0 and opportunities for sustainability in Building and Manufacturing Plant services

• Challenges
  • Unfamiliar Territory: The ESG Ecosystem in the IFM services domain. The knowledge and understanding of the application of technology into ESG-centric operations is crucial for sustainable Integrated Facility Management Services.
  • Resistance to change management: Mindset rooted in a conventional cost-controlled labour-intensive service regime.
  • Absence of Regulatory Framework and Standards: The absence of relevant standards, cogent regulatory framework, and poor enforcement of environment-related rules and guidelines has diminished digital-transitive efforts.
  • Poor sustainable work culture: Poor or no focus on data, information monitoring, recording, traceability, credibility, and analytics-based decision-making culture.
  • Privacy and Data Analytics
    • Privacy and data analytics challenges pervade all three key stakeholders – IoT device manufacturers, IoT cloud service providers, and platform providers.
    • Interoperability among multiple service solutions, vertical and horizontal communication barriers, and legacy devices in old buildings with outdated controls contribute to resistance to digital transformation.
• Opportunities
  • Digitalisation transformation with due consideration of privacy, security, transparency, traceability, the authenticity of data, system resiliency and availability, health and safety, and resource optimisation.
  • General applications in commercial building
    • Construction design development
    • Project Management
    • Fire and Life Safety
    • Lighting and Energy Management
    • Plumbing and Water Management
    • Heating, Ventilation, and air-conditioning applications
    • Vertical transport (Lifts, Escalators)
    • Transport Management
    • Waste Management
    • Facility Services
      • Employee training
      • Communications, Compliance reporting
      • Resource planning, utilisation, optimisation
      • Forecasting utilities’ demand
      • Risk management – Fault diagnosis and automated system response.
      • Efficiency improvements
      • Develop sustainable, reliable, available, maintainable, and operational architecture.
    • Digital system maintenance—It is crucial to Implement a maintenance regime with the necessary skill set to calibrate and maintain field sensors and meters as part of a preventive maintenance program. Furthermore, it is imperative to ensure that software upgrades are synchronised with hardware upgrades to meet the specific data and application requirements.

• • • Selection of Technology for Building Services

The adoption of technology through conventional methods prioritizes enhancing workflow efficiency and the overall profitability of businesses. The evolution of technology now emphasizes improving user experience, minimizing environmental impact, adhering to governance standards, and promoting sustainability. Development in sensors, actuators, meters, communication protocols, IoT platforms, and analytics aims to bolster safety, security, and sustainability.

Embracing technology is crucial for improving property management and enhancing the overall user experience in multifaceted ways. It is essential to select technology that aligns with the specific needs of property owners and prioritises sustainability principles. The continuous evolution of technology presents abundant opportunities for advancing engineering services and streamlining sustainable practices. Thus, it is imperative for the Facility Management team to thoughtfully evaluate and select IoT architecture at each level within a layered architectural framework to support business and sustainability objectives effectively.