Table of contents for February - March 2018 in Facility Management

Australia’s single most important facilities management event and marketplace for FM buyers and suppliers is back for 2018. Featuring an impressive line-up of speakers, partners and exhibitors, the event will bring together professional and innovative business over two days, with a focus on exploring strategies to optimise facility and workplace performance and improve the place in which we work and live. Renowned experts, academics and thought leaders will share practical insight into the industry’s top challenges and opportunities, and more than 150 brands including Dyson, Schindler Lifts Australia, ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems and CMS Electracom will unveil the latest and most innovative FM products and services on the exhibition floor. Attendees at this year’s event should expect to see exciting innovations and product launches that will help FMs save and…

Wall began in hospitality straight from high school. An alumnus of Parade College in the outer Melbourne suburb of Bundoora, he says his school had a strong sports culture. Wall leaned towards a different kind of outdoor activity. “I’ve always loved getting outdoors and something like a National Park ranger would have been a nice career. I was also interested in fire-fighting but I wasn’t ever fit enough to do that! “But given I love motorbikes, I grew up really wanting to be a motorcycle racer and my idols were Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan. I come from a family of petrol heads. My dad and I loved watching the Formula One together, especially the great rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Wall still gets out on his motorcycle…

Workplace design and practices in Australia have evolved rapidly over the last decade or so. Businesses have taken note of trends in the creation of innovative workplaces when it comes to considerations such as aesthetics, functionality and, certainly, technology. Perhaps led by start-ups aware of the strides made in these areas by such global successes as Google and Apple, companies are now much more likely to feature people-friendly workplaces, with breakout zones, flexible design and activity-based working. It’s no longer a surprise to visit a graphic design studio or tech start-up in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, for example, and see a foosball table in the corner or a series of hot desks that can be utilised by various staff members according to need. Wellness programs too are increasingly…

Artificial Intelligence: AI will soon touch every industry. Some 98 percent of corporate leaders see AI as essential for their businesses, according to the recent book, AI Transforming Business: Corporate CxO Perspectives. The book was written by executives at companies such a GE, BNY Mellon and Samsung. Statistics portal Statista claims that the size of the AI market worldwide is expected to be worth approximately US$59.7 billion by 2025. Advanced transport – driverless everything: Well-funded firms around the globe are creating new forms of urban transport. Not only roads, but skies, oceans and railroads will be filled with autonomous vehicles, ships, aeroplanes, trams and trains. Victoria Transport Institute predicts that by 2040 autonomous vehicles will account for up to half of all road travel. Driverless cars could make the 800…

Hearing Augmentation Systems are a legal requirement in many public spaces as defined in the Building Code of Australia (BCA). They are also a vital public service. The purpose of these systems is to assist those with hearing difficulties to both comprehend and enjoy material that is being amplified through an installed PA (public address) system. They are mandatory in facilities like major educational institutions, places of business, auditoria, rooms used for legal proceedings and some reception areas. Three differing technologies can be used to provide hearing augmentation, and each has its own advantages and drawbacks that need to be taken into account in the design stage. The most common is the Audio Frequency Induction Loop (AFIL), where wiring is laid into the floor or ceiling that broadcasts a feed…

Recently I saw an interesting initiative from Sustainability Victoria, looking for someone to head up energy efficiency within the built environment. With a remit to lead programs that target business, and develop technologies to lower emissions and reduce waste, this proposed role brought home to me just how big the energy issue has become. Melbourne-based energy writer David Cardozo has been a tireless advocate within the pages of FM in helping facilities managers take control of energy consumption. And, as he points out, there is a way to make sense – and save real dollars – from what’s already available in the market. Hint: it’s not just about negotiating a better tariff. David is one of the many expert writers that FM is privileged to bring you each issue. While…

The Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA) has announced its latest technical seminars and training courses, which cover the fundamentals of corrosion control, through to more advanced techniques and procedures. In conjunction with the Australasian Concrete Repair Association (ACRA), the ACA will be running Corrosion and Protection of Concrete Structures and Buildings training at various venues around Australia. Dates are 19 to 20 March in Melbourne; 4 to 5 June in Sydney and 6 to 7 September in Brisbane. The ACA’s delivery of the NACE Cathodic Protection (CP) 1 and 2 courses are being held this year in Sydney and Brisbane. The NACE CP courses are the world’s most recognised and specified cathodic protection training. The NACE CP Program is a comprehensive program for professionals in any industry including pipelines and bridges,…

The University of Sydney’s Dr Martin Tomitsch, co-author of the book Design. Think. Make. Break. Repeat. says a helpful exercise for facility managers is the five whys method, which came out of the auto industry to identify the root cause of problems. “Say the car won’t start. The process starts by asking, ‘why doesn’t it start?’. The answer, for example, is the battery wasn’t charged, so ‘why wasn’t the battery charged?’ and then find that solution. This is essentially a problem-solving method that takes you through the required stages. “It’s a validated instrument to use because it provides evidencebased reasoning. Because it’s structured, it’s not just about evaluating issues based on an opinion. You follow a process and see the findings.” AN EXERCISE Using this format takes around 25 minutes.…

Not to be too alarmist, but you may have been reading recently of the earth’s imminent pole reversal. This isn’t the time or place to go into great detail about what it actually means when the planet’s north and south poles gradually swap places and the magnetic field decreases accordingly. Suffice to say, it is happening and that process is accelerating, with statistics pointing to a 10 percent drop since it was first measured by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1832. There is a lot more to learn about pole reversal and why and how it happens. But what is of greater interest to most people are the ramifications of this process. What will it actually mean, considering previous pole reversals have been linked with mass extinction events? Well, what we…

The following pages feature the best and most relevant software products designed to improve the built environment, facilitate work and streamline processes. The guide is also an opportunity for software providers to present their corporate vision and custom services. Software solutions assist facilities managers in operating and maintaining their facilities more efficiently and cost-effectively. The use of software in the fields of facilities management is now well-established and the benefits of using software are clear to all stakeholders. There remain few routine facilities management tasks that cannot be streamlined with the aid of software solutions. The challenge, however, is choosing the right software for facilities with specific needs. Successfully incorporating and integrating software into day-to-day processes is also crucial. Hence, it is important to understand your provider’s vision and mission…

The degradation of private and public assets and infrastructure continues to have a major economic impact on industry and the wider community. In Australia, the yearly cost of asset maintenance is estimated to be approximately $32 billion, with $8 billion attributed to avoidable corrosion damage, according to a report commissioned by NACE (formerly known as the National Association of Corrosion Engineers), the international body for professional corrosion engineers. An infrastructure asset base should be designed to be safe and reliable, while maintaining acceptable levels of service for the duration of the expected life of the asset. This requires asset owners and managers to develop and implement optimised approaches often with limited budgets. The balance of all these factors is even more important if the service life of an asset needs…

Figures released by Safe Work Australia estimate that work-related injury and disease have a significant impact on the national economy. Its most recent figures, from 2012-13, estimate the cost for that financial year was $61.8 billion, or 4.1 percent of GDP. It also found workers bore 77 percent of the cost, the community 18 percent and employers five percent. Injuries accounted for 45 percent of the total cost, or $28 billion. The report identified direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include workers’ compensation premiums or payments to injured workers from these schemes, while indirect costs look at lost productivity, loss of earnings and social welfare programs for injured or incapacitated workers. The table right details the number of serious claims by industry for the period 2000-01 to 2014-15, showing considerable…

A Facility Management content partner is an organisation with which we’ve entered into a partnership to collaborate on content for the magazine. In this issue, thought leaders from their respective organisations are: ASSA ABLOY’S DAVID WARD David Ward is business development manager for wireless access control at ASSA ABLOY Australia. BILLI’S ADRIAN CUGNETTO Adrian Cugnetto is the marketing manager for Billi Pty Ltd. HUMANSCALE’S KIRSTY ANGERER Kirsty Angerer is an associate ergonomist with Humanscale (Australia and New Zealand).…

Improved grease separation from trade waste Management of wastewater from hospitality applications takes a step forward with the extension of ACO’s range of in-ground gravity grease separators. Wastewater containing fats, oils and grease (FOGs) and food solids enter the grease separator from the kitchen or food processing plant. Food solids sink to the bottom of the unit under gravity, while FOGs, which are less dense, float to the top and the treated wastewater flows into the sewer system. The range of below ground grease traps from ACO is now available in 3000-litre, 4000-litre and 5000-litre capacities for in-ground applications to complement the 1000-litre, 1500-litre and 2000-litre below and above ground units. Larger commercial kitchens such as hospitals, cafeterias, cafés and small food processors can now have greater control over FOGs…

Having started out working in five-star hotels, Matt Wall knows a thing or two about customer service. But unlike hotels, where the guests generally prefer not to engage with what happens behind the scenes, tenants in major office buildings often come to his concierge desk with specific questions about the functional aspects of where they work. “We are definitely the conduit on feedback from our tenants and that means we need to work closely with the facility management (FM) and engineering teams,” Wall says. “It’s been a real bonus for me and my professional development that they’re open and forthcoming about how the building works.” Wall works for executive hospitality company First Contact, which is contracted to provide the concierge service at Melbourne’s 171 Collins Street tower. The building claims…

Have you ever visited an Australian National Trust property? One that perhaps still has an extant kitchen from the Victorian era or perhaps even the Old Colonial period? Somewhere like Como House (built in 1847) or Ripponlea (1868) if you’re in Melbourne. Or even the Commandant’s house at Port Arthur in Tasmania, which was originally built in 1833, but evolved and grew from a simple four-room cottage to a much larger residence overseeing the whole settlement with a then brand new kitchen by 1837. If you have visited any of these kitchens and been fascinated by them, one thing you will have noticed is that, whether the room itself is small or, indeed, one of the largest in the property, the fixtures and fittings in there tend to be considerable.…

Reducing electricity costs in the current climate is a high priority for many organisations. The low-hanging fruit of negotiating better tariffs, and obvious energy saving measures such as high efficiency lighting, movement detectors and insulation is therefore assumed to have already been taken care of. In this third article in the series on managing electricity costs, hardware solutions get a guernsey. These usually fly under the radar of general business management, being the province of technical publications, but there’s every reason to understand their significant saving potentials. Return on investment (ROI) is a guiding measure in the evaluation of available savings. We look at switchboard monitoring, harmonic reduction and power factor control. The latter was examined in an earlier article, but the technology deserves more attention. You do not need…

ACCESS HARDWARE COMPANY: Access Hardware 74-92 Gracie Street, North Melbourne, VIC, 3051 PHONE: Customer Service – 1800 555 600 Locksmith Services – 1800 555 700 EMAIL: online@accesshardware.com.au Access Hardware has been supplying the construction industry for over 40 years. Starting in North Melbourne as an architectural hardware and locksmith business, it has grown in size and diversity to become one of the leading suppliers of security products, architectural and sanitary hardware, locksmith services and security solutions in the Australian market. With branches in most capital cities, Access Hardware has built strategic relationships with Australia’s best security product manufacturers and suppliers to offer a comprehensive product and services range. The company employs over 250 people in nine locations around the country and is still an Australian owned and operated family business.…