OPINION
CARE TACTICS
CIBSE is playing a vital role in providing the growing facilities management sector with effective building maintenance strategies, says Geoff Prudence
Over the last few years, the focus on energy use, sustainability and
lean business practices has brought the need for operational excellence in buildings to the fore. Successful businesses are driving out unnecessary costs through effi ciencies across their portfolios and instilling effective workplace practices. This is enhancing their performance, which in turn helps them to attract and retain the best talent in their fi eld. Central to this, of course, is the
role of building engineering services – from concept design through to maintenance and refurbishment. Partly because of collaborative technologies and processes, such as BIM and Soft Landings, there is now far greater awareness of ‘systems-thinking’ in the design process, which is helping to drive ever-greater effi ciencies. However, this largely applies to new-
build developments, and particularly those in the public sector. This leaves a signifi cant amount of existing stock that requires effective building services management to make it work successfully. Against this backdrop, the facilities management (FM) industry has grown signifi cantly as a service sector, and is predicted to increase further in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The exact spectrum of support and operational services that constitute FM is still the subject of some debate, but one fi eld is absolutely central to the sector: the effective management of buildings and portfolios to support organisations’ core business. Through its growing FM section,
CIBSE is involved, alongside other industry bodies, with input into standards, design concepts and operational best practice. CIBSE is already well regarded as the expert for design and energy in the built environment, but the real opportunity now is for it to become the obvious
20 CIBSE Journal September 2013
Where others fear to tread
choice for facilities managers looking to engage with a professional institution. Over the next year, we will see far
more joined-up thinking in the sector. In terms of documentation, there is the updated CIBSE Maintenance Guide M, the Building & Engineering Services Association’s SFG20 Maintenance Specifi cation, the RICS’s New Rules of Measurement for Maintenance and BS 8544 Life Cycle Costing for Maintenance. These are all complementary and will provide a route towards operational best practice. I believe the ‘design-operation gap’
is closing and, while there are still pleas for earlier input into design, this documentation will go some way towards building on the good examples we are already seeing. The updated CIBSE Guide M provides a valuable reference point for determining an appropriate strategy for maintenance. The guide states: ‘The growing importance of the need for building services to operate effectively drives cohesion between the design solution and the operation and maintenance of a building.’ All chapters have been updated
I believe the design- operation gap is closing
and, in a number of cases, rewritten. Information for designers includes more guidance to support systems- thinking in the design process, while later chapters on lifecycle and prediction data are far more comprehensive than before. The legislative guidance has been
brought up to date and is usefully collated in a single section, and the chapter on maintenance strategy brings together best practice examples on risk- free implementation. CIBSE is embracing the opportunity
that FM presents, and is considering a number of initiatives both to expand information on the Knowledge Portal for existing members and to attract new members from the FM arena. For more on accurately predicting energy use, see Mind the Gap on page 34.
If you would like to get involved, contact Geoff Prudence and/or join the CIBSE Facilities Management Group at
www.cibse.org/fm
● GEOFF PRUDENCE is a Fellow of CIBSE and chair of CIBSE Facilities Management Group
www.cibsejournal.com
OLIVER SVED /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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