KNOW YOUR BUILDING (KYB)

I will like to share with you some of the key reasons why we need to know our buildings in terms of the available critical systems that underpins the provision of world class Facilities Management services in the built environment . The phrase "Know Your Building" (KYB) is analogous to the popular phrase "Know Your Customer" (KYC) which is mainly used in the service industry such as Facilities Management/Building Maintenance services to ensure that we have full knowledge of these systems we are managing. Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) can help Facilities Managers  know about their building systems as well as its performance relative to their expected use. This can be achieved with the use of appropriate technologies such as BIM, BMS, RFID, CMMS, CAFM, etc.

Based on this premise, and identification of some of the critical systems in a building such as; Lifts, Escalators, Power Generators, Water Treatment Plant, lighting Systems, HVAC-R, Pumps,etc and the need to ensure they live their useful service life; FMs should focus on this with respect to adding value and reducing operational cost. According to the National Research Council of National Academies (2004), in the life cycle of building, only about 5 to 10% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) relates to planning, design and construction. The remaining cost is attributed to operations, maintenance and on-going renovations and capital improvements. This means that 90 to 95% cost is expended on maintenance (preventive, corrective, predictive,etc) of the building and its systems. Following these revelation and reality, we have a major role to play in order to ensure that the 90 to 95% of cost used in running our buildings is well managed and possibly reduced to about 45 to 45% (This is subject to variables such as micro & macro-economic factors, operational strategies, human capital development, etc) thereby making a huge savings for the customers and also creating value for money while ensuring the FM organisation meet its bottom-line.

The question that arise from this argument is "how do we achieve this?" We can achieve the aforementioned target by thinking sustainability, carrying out daily work around inspection, adhering to a concise Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) schedule of all the components of a building system, train & re-train our people in rare and unique skills as related to the built environment and providing necessary feedback for continuous improvements. This also includes the sub-structures (Foundation) and super-structures (Doors, Frames, Locks Building envelopes and membranes, ramps, etc). When all the two main structures of the building are well maintained, it can save the building owners a lot of operational cost. This is because all possible defects may have been identified during programmed activities such as; Building condition survey, Building Energy Audit, Facilities Condition Assessment, Facilities Inspection, etc and possibly reduce or eliminate breakdown of such key systems which has serious cost implication. I quite agree with Withaker & Shouse (2014) that maintenance do not necessarily extend the useful life of an equipment/asset, but it can preserve the equipment to meet its purchase purpose and in turn a reasonable ROI. This is because every building components has a useful life which is the duration (in years) an item will be useful to the building not really how long the entire building will last.

Following these thoughts, there is need to critically consider how our activities affects the triple bottom-line; Economy (Profit), Environment (Planet) and our social lives (People). The reality about this is that our daily activities in the built environment affects the organisations economy in terms of demand and supply principles based on its value offerings and return on investment (ROI). In addition to this, the impact of our daily activities also affects the environment through running of Power Generators, effluents from liquid & solid waste from our buildings and our ability to manage other building waste effectively and efficiently. The third factor is our social lives which if properly managed can improve the way our customers live, work and play and thus increase their level of satisfaction in order to promote the FM profession.

References
Jim Whitteker & Teena Shouse (2014), ‘High Performance as a Goal: Achieving Excellence in Facilities Management" Facilities Engineering Associates, USA.