Table of contents for August - September 2019 in Facility Management

Signal’s goal is to determine trends in the use of IoT, and better align Microsoft’s development strategies with the needs of businesses. What it reveals is that, despite IoT being recognised as critical to the future of work, there are still significant challenges hindering implementation and leaving users exposed. THE FINDINGS The report collates findings from over 3000 interviews with IoT decision-makers in enterprise companies from the US, the UK, Germany, France, China and Japan. Eighty-five percent of respondents say they have an IoT project either in use, or in some stage of development, with 88 percent believing IoT is now critical to the success of their company. Within two years, they expect an average 30 percent return on interest, inclusive of cost savings and efficiencies. Strong numbers to be…

No longer the domain of hobbyists, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles – or drones, as they are more commonly known – is increasing in the workforce, offering new and often novel ways for facility managers to carry out a variety of tasks. FM: From search and rescue to film and TV, drones now play an important role in a variety of sectors. Can you provide some insight into how SureFact Aerial uses drone technology on a day-to-day basis? Nik Popovski: Our bread and butter work is roofing inspections, both residential and commercial. Conducting a residential property roof inspection consists of looking to identify any broken tiles, as well as checking gutters and any other damage that can be seen. If solar panels are installed, we inspect those with a…

Post Facebook, everybody now knows how to use social media to write online, upload and share material and to make comments about items uploaded by others. Our new proficiency in using this form of shared online communication can be described as mass ‘internet social literacy’. When captured on mirroring private internal corporate workplace social technologies, those documented thoughts, ideas, opinions and wishes can be summarised and acted on. Using it, companies can find better ways of doing pretty much anything. As those skills are now found in every employee in every company and, in turn, every customer of each of those businesses, this is especially important in property. People have a closer relationship to the places in which they work and live than with any other product but, in them,…

Electricians get called in for all sorts of electrical, or supposedly electrical, problems. Their bills are paid, yet problems persist. People in the IT department complain about an inexplicable rash of failures with computer power supplies. Lift mechanics are called in to fix control problems, which disappear when they arrive and promptly show up after they have gone. And emergency lighting is mysteriously activated when all else is normal. These events all seem like unavoidable irritations that are just part of life. The word commonly used to describe these events is ‘gremlins’ as in, ‘We have checked the switchboard, checked voltage, checked sub-distribution boards – all good. Guess the problems you have are because of gremlins.’ The implication is that your electrical problems will, in due course, up and leave…

HOW MUCH OF YOUR FACILITY’S ELECTRICITY BILL IS WASTED ENERGY? The question rarely arises with most finance managers and accountants. They more than likely assume that for cases where electricity is a large fraction of operating costs, all the obvious savings measures have been put in place. However, as is pointed out here, there is ‘undetected’ waste in many facilities. For example, there may be: additional energy consumption because of high voltages in the distribution grid excessive demand charges because of low power factor, or losses in the building wiring – just heating up copper. What sorts of savings may be available? Let’s think of a low number like five percent – that’s more than likely a conservative estimate. The question that pops into your mind may be: the electrical…

Technology has integrated itself into every aspect of our lives. We spend more time in front of a screen than we do sleeping. When we wake, the first thing we do is reach for our smartphone. We track our vitals with wearables, check our GPS for traffic notifications on our way to and from the office, then go back to a home installed with digital personal assistants like Amazon Alexa that perpetually await our instruction. Yet when it comes to business, technology can be seen as a drain on resources rather than a viable way to improve efficiency. What facility managers sometimes don’t realise is that technology designed to solve ‘little challenges’ can be magnified throughout a business, meaning the initial time spent on implementation is repaid manifold. BETTER WITH…

FACILITY MANAGEMENT Facility Management (FM) magazine is Australia’s only truly independent industry magazine servicing the needs of facilities managers and allied property management experts. Produced bimonthly as a print and digital magazine, and updated daily online, FM provides managers of all types of facilities with practical advice they can use on a day-to-day basis, as well as industry news and views concerning all aspects of facilities management, building management and property services. visit shop.niche.com.au or free call 1800 804 160 Terms and conditions: Offer expires 15 October 2019 and is valid for print subscribers in Australia only. An email address is mandatory for digital versions through Zinio. Niche Media ABN 13 064 613 529. I understand my subscription will start with the next available issue, or for existing subscribers, will…

Ariana Grande’s sugary pop songs provided a jarring juxtaposition to the brutality of the events that unfolded at Manchester Arena on the night of 22 May 2017. Of the 22 innocent people murdered that night by a suicide bomber in the 21,000-capacity venue, nine were teenagers and one was an eight-year-old girl. The possibility of such tragedies is not something any of us want to think will happen on a night out at a music concert, but, sadly, they are occurring all too often. The Manchester Arena bombing and similar incidents around the world remind us that the public spaces and places we once took for granted as havens for enjoyment now carry an air of danger. Australia is not immune to such threats, as has been made evident by…

One of the great questions in the long-term utilisation and management of physical assets is not one of measurement and tracking, but of how to justify budget requests to executive management who have perspectives and priorities that differ from those of operational supervisors. All too often we hear that budget allocations have been determined based on historical data and real opportunities for improvement are missed. Therefore, any investment that deviates from this determination, and from the perspective of the executive, is seen as a poor investment. Such responses place considerable stress on those who have the responsibility of ensuring infrastructure continues to function in the day-to-day operations of the business. They also tend to be more common in organisations where risk is pushed down the line to operational managers, placing…

Commercial buildings, hotels and shopping centres face particular challenges when it comes to the slip resistance of surfaces because many areas accessible by guests, visitors and staff have high pedestrian traffic, exposing flooring materials to greater wear. Building owners and managers have a legal duty of care and legal compliance obligations with regard to the risk of pedestrians slipping, tripping or falling on floor surfaces. SLIP RESISTANCE STANDARDS FOR DIFFERENT AREAS OF A BUILDING It is important for building owners and managers to understand the minimum requirements for slip resistance in various areas of their premises, according to the applicable Australian Standard. For example, toilet facilities need a minimum P3 rating, whereas office space and conference rooms only need a P2 rating. The P rating of a surface indicates its…

In November of 2018, Charter Hall Office Trust unveiled The Portico, the newly transformed lobby and mezzanine at the historic No.1 Martin Place. The prestigious location of the first General Post Office in Sydney, its presence is credited with turning the area into one of Australia’s most iconic commercial and public spaces. What makes it worthy of note today, however, is not what it represents on the outside, but what it has come to represent inside: an important step forward for tenant-facility manager relations. A NEW BREED OF TENANT Once the heart of Sydney’s legal and finance sectors, the offices along Martin Place are now home to some of the world’s leading technological titans. LinkedIn, Expedia, Macquarie and DLA Piper can be found here, as can Microsoft, which opened its…

Electricity bills comprise two main sections. These outline consumption charges and network charges. Although some believe network charges are not negotiable and nothing can be done about them, this is not always the case. DEMAND CHARGES The demand charge is usually reflected in an electricity bill as part of the network charges. It may be an explicit rate per kW/kVA (kilo watts/kilovolt ampere) or a Contracted Maximum Demand (CMD). The demand charge is normally calculated based on one year rolling maximum measured demand for the building. This means the network will typically reassess the rate every 12 months. If demand increases today, customers won’t see an increase in demand charges until this time next year. In other words, mismanagement of a building’s electricity load can result in a higher rate…

With revolving doors being so ubiquitous, few of us would give a second thought as to how revolutionary the design proved when it was patented back in 1888. As with so many of the inventions we now take for granted, it’s easy to underestimate the creative leap that took Philadelphia native Theophilus Van Kannel from a conventional hinged door to one made from three ‘wings’ revolving around a central column within a circular vestibule. So, if necessity is the mother of invention, why did Van Kannel feel the need to reinvent the door? A quick trawl through some of the less reputable pages of the internet throws up some share-worthy notions. The first supposes the design was intended to stop horses entering buildings. Given the invention predates the automobile, and…

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Sheth was born in 1992 in India’s westernmost state of Gujarat. His childhood was one filled with daily street-cricket sessions, vibrant local festivals, and fierce competition for the top rank in everything from academics to sports. “Education has always been valued highly in my family,” says Sheth, “supported by a lineage of engineers, which often guided where my focus was placed over the early years of my life.” He was halfway through eighth grade when his family made the decision to move to Australia to provide Sheth and his brother with greater opportunities and a better quality of life. In his first year, he was chosen to spend a week in Tasmania as part of a student exchange program. The brief experience made him realise that if he worked hard,…

Do you like a good story or would you rather talk numbers? Do you enjoy grappling with abstract thoughts and ideas or do you prefer to hear about their concrete and practical application? Scientific research may have long since busted the myth of ‘left brain versus right brain thinking’, but when it comes to communicating a message or idea, we all still typically lean toward one of these as our communication style preference. The problem is that our preference won’t always resonate with everyone in the room. If you prefer to focus on detailed analysis, you may disengage the people in the room who want to hear context. If you love telling stories, you may end up losing people who are interested only in the facts. If you spend all…

There’s a famous saying: “May you live in interesting times.” There’s debate as to its origin, but there’s certainly no doubt that it applies today. Leaders are leading in a different environment, where the rules of the game are changing. Having influence is no longer just about your hierarchical position; it’s an essential skill for leaders and team members if they want to make progress and influence outcomes. CHANGE REQUIRES INFLUENCE How we work and live is fundamentally changing. A 2016 report by the CSIRO and Australian Computer Society, titled Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce, predicts that nearly half of the jobs in Australia are at risk of computerisation and automation. At the same time, the working environment is more complex and ambiguous, with leaders expected to deliver outcomes in a…

Waste Expo Australia has announced the 2019 speaker program for its comprehensive, free-to-attend conference and exhibition. The two-day event runs on 23 and 24 October, bringing together more than 100 industry-leading speakers, and showcasing over 120 leading suppliers that specialise in waste management solutions for councils, businesses, venues, facilities and complexes. Featured in the program are the Waste Summit Conference, from Oceania Clean Energy Solutions, and the Wastewater Summit Conference, from EnviroConcepts. Seven targeted streams will be discussed, including resource recovery, waste-toenergy, collections, landfill and transfer stations, construction and demolition waste, commercial and industrial waste, and wastewater treatment. Speakers include: Sam Trowse, project lead (Land Use Planning), Sustainability Victoria. Trowse will present the agency’s ‘Better Practice Guide for Waste Management and Recycling in Multi-Unit Developments’, outling essential points to consider…

CIBSE ANZ 2019 SEMINAR SERIES WHERE: Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Brisbane WHEN: 3 to 19 September 2019 www.cibse.org/cibse-anz-2019-seminar-series IHEA HEALTHCARE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE WHERE: Sydney, NSW WHEN: 9 to 11 October 2019 https://event.icebergevents.com.au/ihea-2019 ALL-ENERGY AUSTRALIA WHERE: Melbourne, VIC WHEN: 23 to 24 October 2019 www.all-energy.com.au ISSA CLEANING AND HYGIENE EXPO WHERE: Melbourne, VIC WHEN: 23 to 24 October 2019 www.issacleaninghygieneexpo.com LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR BUILDING MAINTENANCE AND FACILITY MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE WHERE: Melbourne, VIC WHEN: 28 to 29 October 2019 https://eiseverywhere.com/ehome/facilitymanagement2019/842086…