Table of contents for June - July 2019 in Facility Management

The age-old streetlight By moving beyond the simple feature of lighting public spaces, communities are able to reduce energy consumption while increasing the list of available services. In the US, the city of Los Angeles is in the midst of testing smart city technologies. Having recently implemented 30,000 Philips CityTouch units, the council’s lights possess monitoring capabilities and the ability to remotely dim and increase illumination levels. Kerney R Marine, assistant director of the Bureau of Street Lighting in Los Angeles, will speak about the city’s advancements at the Australian Smart Lighting Summit later this year. Dissecting the realised benefits of HID (high density discharge) to LED (light emitting diode) conversion, Marine will explore the past, present and future smart city infrastructure of Los Angeles. With the application of such…

What types of cladding are there on my building? Is it flammable? How much is there? Is it safe to leave? What are my legal obligations? Are there any options other than having to remove it? Will the replacement look and perform the same? These and many other questions have been confronting property owners and facility managers over the past couple of years, with the Grenfell fire bringing the issue into particularly stark focus. Without a technical background, understanding even where to start can be daunting, especially when the outcome of such a process could potentially be an expensive burden on the asset owner. YOUR RESPONSIBILITY The presence of flammable cladding on your building is not just an abstract concept. More than 90 deaths have been directly attributed to external…

Sustainability – it’s one of the biggest buzzwords bouncing around the global collective consciousness these days. And for good reason, because the health of the natural and built environments and a sustainable future for our surroundings affects us all – every generation, every social class and every cultural group. The facility management industry is no exception, and it equally both affects and is affected by the sustainable movement. Haris Moraitis is a not only a prominent figure in the facility management community, he’s also a champion of sustainable FM. His expertise lies in the built environment and his passion rests in sustainability. Moraitis is an associate director of Social Infrastructure at HKA Global, a company that provides expert and advisory services for the development of major projects, programs and assets…

With effective planning, the inclusion of correct systems and technology in contemporary space, such as museums, music venues and meeting rooms will ensure hearing impaired visitors and staff receive the best possible audio coverage, improving communication and the overall experience. ASSISTIVE LISTENING SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY (ALS) There are three types of listening technologies that can be installed into commercial buildings for hearing impaired visitors and staff: FM systems, infrared systems and Audio Frequency Induction Loop Systems (AFILS). Each system will have advantages and disadvantages, however the most attractive system for AV consultants or specifiers to install is the AFILS. The advantage of installing this system in a commercial building is due to the AFILS ability to transmit directly to the telecoils in hearing aids and cochlear implants, meaning no additional equipment…

NFPA (NATIONAL FIRE AND PROTECTION ASSOCIATION) CONFERENCE AND EXPO – FIRE AND SAFETY WHERE: San Antonio, US WHEN: 17 to 20 June 2019 https://www.nfpa.org/conference/ FM SUMMIT (FMANZ) WHERE: Wellington, NZ WHEN: 26 and 27 June 2019 https://www.fmanz.org/Events/FM+SUMMIT+2019.html RICS (ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CHARTERED SURVEYORS) INTEGRATED PROPERTY SERVICES CONFERENCE WHERE: London, UK WHEN: 1 July 2019 https://www.rics.org/uk/events/conferences-seminars/integrated-property-services/ APPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION: LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES WHERE: Denver, US WHEN: 15 to 17 July 2019 http://annualmeeting.appa.org/ NATIONAL ERGONOMICS CONFERENCE AND ERGOEXPO WHERE: Las Vegas, US WHEN: 20 to 23 August 2019 https://www.ergoexpo.com/ ISSA CLEANING AND HYGIENE EXPO WHERE: Melbourne, VIC WHEN: 23 and 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/leadinginfrastructure/home/…

First buildings open at Sydney’s revitalised technology precinct, South Eveleigh The Mirvac Group and its consortium partners, AMP Capital, Sunsuper and Centuria Property Funds recently celebrated the official opening of the first two buildings completed at Sydney’s revitalised technology and innovation hub, South Eveleigh. The precinct will be home to Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s 10,000 workers in the first building, Axle. The second complete building, Yerrabingin House, has a community centre, gym, childcare facility and an Australian-first Indigenous rooftop farm. The opening of the buildings is a significant milestone in the development of the South Eveleigh precinct, which is on track to be complete by 2020 and will be home to 18,000 workers. Once complete, the South Eveleigh precinct will consist of nine commercial buildings surrounded by shared public spaces…

THE CHALLENGE One of the FM industry’s largest and longest running challenges is its aspiration to be perceived by organisations as a strategic resource rather than a cost burden. This is amplified in local councils where FM is faced with a perfect storm of constrained budgets, a high degree of scrutiny and a wide range of stakeholders, including members of the public, councillors and colleagues – several of whom hold mutually contradictory views and are adept at criticising effectively and lobbying proactively. Anyone who has worked in this type of environment knows the tightrope that the FM team can find themselves walking between meeting conflicting demands and the high level of accountability that comes with the management and delivery of publicly funded services across a transparent, disaggregated portfolio. What’s more,…

HEARING WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR… Dr Nigel Oseland, an environmental psychologist and director at Workplace Unlimited, says creating optimised office environments is increasingly challenging. “As more companies are adopting open plan design and agile working, the core challenge to the workplace community, designers and suppliers is to resolve office noise distraction and enhance focussed work, while maintaining collaborative and creative environments,” says Oseland. A survey recently undertaken by the Remark Group and Oseland in the UK has shown that out of 1000 workers, 65 percent say noise impacts their ability to complete work accurately and 58 percent say that noise has a high impact on their stress levels. It seems that what sounds good in theory is often different in practice. In theory, reducing literal walls as a…

The short-term rental accommodation concept, through companies such as Airbnb, has made its way into the facility management area recently, leaving building managers with a new challenge. Short-stay rental properties are expanding their shares in residential apartment buildings every day. While it can be scary in some owners’ eyes, others may see short-term letting as an opportunity. Here are the current best practices to deal with shortterm visitors to residential buildings. WHEN SHORT-STAYS ARE WELCOME In some apartments, facility managers and residents’ committees have concluded that they have no issue with opening the building doors to host short-term rentals. This could present a challenge to the managers of these properties. Building managers can be proactive and consider implementing procedures to ensure smooth management of their short-stay apartment building. They can…

“Workspace has nothing to do with talent retention.” Attracting and retaining talent has always been a big issue for Australian business owners, and steady economic growth has aggravated skills shortages – especially in high-demand industries such as IT, engineering, financial and professional services. No one wants to lose the talented staff they’ve invested in training. And when they do, recruiting new staff is harder than ever. Having a reputation as an up-to-date company with a great working environment can make all the difference. “Productivity isn’t directly impacted by the working environment.” This couldn’t be less true – and it’s also bound with the issue of wellbeing. Workers who can’t find a comfortable space to work, or a suitable place to collaborate on a project, or the technology they need are…

Covaris Digitisation of data in isolation or using a single point maintenance methodology is not sufficient enough to reduce an organisation’s operating costs. When aiming to improve business outcomes, there are six elements to consider when transitioning to a digitised data platform: • Objectives – data must support decision-making • Data quality – inputs must drive outputs • People – teams must believe in the data • Operational context – appropriate for the industry and asset under review • Data rationalisation – analysis by a suitably qualified and experienced professional • Continuous improvement plan – focused improvement streams guided by measurement For more information on how your data can improve your business decisions, contact Covaris on +61 2 9002 6410. www.covaris.com Kärcher The Kärcher BR 30/4 compact scrubber drier is…

FM: How did you get into the FM industry? What did you want to be or what did you see yourself doing for a career when you were a child? Ramachandran: I have always had a passion for solving problems. Back in 2017, me and my ex-Zoho colleagues Rajavel Subramanian and Yogendra Babu felt the need to leverage technology to offer a solution to a global challenge. At that time, the IoT and AI trend had just started, but we had great faith in the capabilities and applications of these technologies. Alongside this trend, we were observing the evolution of customer expectations, from transactional towards experience, in nearly every industry. Coming from a technology background, we knew the power of tech-led and software-led efficiencies to enable superior service-led customer experiences.…

One of the biggest roadblocks to sustainability in built environments is the flawed, piecemeal approach. When sustainability initiatives are performed in isolated pockets, the big picture gets lost. And in many companies, sustainability becomes more of an audit activity, failing to make any kind of meaningful impact. MAKE THE SHIFT TO EVERYDAY SUSTAINABILITY In many organisations, sustainability efforts are limited to activities such as lighting retrofits, addressing glass materials, using well designed HVACs, pumps and fans. Though these things do help in improving sustainability metrics, they fall short in creating tangible results. For more meaningful and continued results, sustainability needs to find its place in day-to-day operations. This can be achieved through efficient technology solutions. If you take a vigilant look at buildings, you will find that everyday routine tasks…

If you work in the facility management industry, you know it’s complicated. Managing a property can involve minimising safety risks, boosting efficiency, ensuring occupant comfort, and plenty of other tasks such as reducing risk through policies like ensuring tenants are covered by renters insurance before they move in. This doesn’t need to be as overwhelming as it sounds. ONLINE RENT PAY Collecting rent from tenants used to be a hassle. However, it’s now possible for renters to pay online. The time you would otherwise spend processing rent payments can now be devoted to more productive work. This makes the rent payment process far more convenient for everyone involved. Instead of remembering to submit a rent check every month, tenants can often set up recurring payments. As a result, late payments…

When walking side by side, our brains don’t determine hierarchy, so your conversation will be on a more level playing field. Studies show that on average it takes about 25 minutes (precisely 23 minutes and 15 seconds) to refocus on what you were doing after being interrupted. Multiply that by 50 (the average number of interruptions per day) and then multiply that by your hourly rate – the cost is significant. Neurologically, our brains aren’t designed to focus on more than one thing at a time, and anyone who tells you they are a great multi tasker probably isn’t. Further studies have shown that while you are multitasking, your IQ is reduced by up to 15 points, which, for some, is within the range of the average eight year old.…