Lower operating costs while increasing efficiencies at facilities

Facility managers in today’s world face a difficult dilemma when it comes to investment choices in their facilities. Increased awareness of climate change, public and legislative pressures is driving a demand for our buildings to be as energy efficient and sustainable as possible. While at the same time, organisations, with the need to drive profits, continually look for areas to increase cost savings and improve their overall operating functionality.

More than ever, decision-makers need solutions for work spaces that are productive, purposeful and efficient. They are looking to drive down costs while also making their buildings greener.

As a facility manager, these two ideals seem like contrasting drains on budget and can often lead to the assumption that it is too expensive to implement the latest and greatest technologies. Contrary to this belief, however, the latest facility management tools are capable of fulfilling the priorities of two agendas with one investment, achieving both increased efficiency and functionality through greater facility insight. Managers are finding that what may have initially seemed like a short-term pain often leads to long-term gains.

The ‘dilemma’: are climate change and regulation at odds with innovation and cost savings?

There is a growing awareness in Australia that innovation is vital for the nation’s future economic growth. From the innovation agenda led by our Prime Minister and the hotbed of disruption coming through Australia’s start-up community, through to the innovative lens through which many established businesses are now viewing their future, it is unquestionable that innovation is changing Australian business.

In order to stay relevant, organisations are competing to develop or obtain the latest technology for increased operational efficiency, improved product offering or greater cost savings. At the same time, there’s no denying that as a society we are becoming more conscious of our environmental footprint. Whether that is in our homes at an individual level, in our workplaces at an organisational level or in our parliament, conscious decisions are being made to lower energy misuse and inefficiencies.

At the top level, new legislation from July 2017 will require commercial spaces that are 1000 m² or greater to meet the NABERS energy efficiency rating and present an energy efficiency certificate on selling or leasing the building.

While such legislation may appear to be a cost burden, this mandated compliance could also be a blessing in disguise for facility managers looking to innovate.

The opportunity: leveraging the data explosion

With the development of the next generation of integrated control and management systems and the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), buildings are producing a substantial amount of data. Such data, if properly used, can give managers greater insight over energy use, such as:

• where is power being used?;
• what are the peak times of energy use?; and
• what is it being used for?

An understanding of the answers to these questions could be the insight needed for managers to make changes in their organisations that help achieve their compliance goals. Unfortunately, immense amounts of data can be overwhelming, and coupled with an increased pressure to deliver results at minimal costs, large amounts of data often go unused and are not properly analysed or actioned.

Fortunately, new tools and services, including Schneider Electric’s Facility Insights, offer smart data capturing and accessible analytics to help building owners increase facility performance, save money and improve operation efficiency.

Building control and management systems: achieving a sustainable and productive future

By investing in smart tools, businesses can improve operations of their buildings, better manage their assets and decrease overall energy costs.

The best in-market tools offer insight in the form of predictive analytics on complex data sets. For example, Schneider Electric’s product is able to use external data, like weather forecasts and travel patterns, to predict temperature drains and employee movements. This, coupled with internal data sets, such as floor usage and movement around the building, can then be leveraged to predict how a workplace will be used on particular days of the week and how best to manage energy usage. Based on these predictions, adjustments can then be made to operations, such as automatically switching off lights or air conditioning in an area that isn’t used all day.

Further to this, through analytics of energy use, facilities will have greater understanding of what equipment uses power, whether it is doing so efficiently and whether it is likely to need maintenance in the near future because it is operating outside of its typical energy readings.

Overall, the innovative tools offer improvements across four interrelated areas that incentivise sustainable action by appealing to financial and sustainable motives.

1. Energy savings

Smart solutions, like Facility Insights, which have oversight over a building’s energy usage, are able to detect abnormal consumptions like wasted energy, over heating/cooling or water leakages. By tracking energy performance, the tools are able to identify trouble areas, allowing the facility manager to make adjustments accordingly. Of course, energy savings result in long-term cost savings, so the benefits for organisations are double here.

2. Operational efficiency

Leveraging this intuitive technology will condition your building to work at optimum efficiency. Even sites with multiple tenants can be improved by allocating a cost per tenant and activities while benchmarking each site’s performance. These technologies are able to recognise regular activities and report on abnormal conditions on equipment that will optimise equipment efficiency and avoid breakdown.

3. Equipment downtime prevention

Aside from the environmental benefits, maintaining functional equipment is paramount to ensuring business operation runs smoothly. If one piece of equipment is down, it can often affect the whole supply chain and ultimately cost the business. Whether through lost revenue, slimmer margins, unhappy customers, lost business hours, food contamination or spoilage, and/or high repair cost, malfunctioning equipment can be a huge burden on an organisation. Smart solutions will therefore not only help reduce environmental burdens through increased efficiency, they can also save an organisation financially by diagnosing equipment faults remotely, saving time with a faster response as well as improved coordination.

4. Maintenance efficiency

Particularly important to facility managers working across multiple sites, today’s facility management tools allow business owners to plan and manage the maintenance of equipment across multiple sites from any location, run maintenance at the right times to minimise impact on operations and track all maintenance events on all equipment for improved historical records.

The growing awareness of sustainable buildings isn’t a trend that will disappear in the near future. Driven by the success of existing organisations reaping the rewards of their investments, the number of facilities using data insights is only set to grow.

Locally, projects that Schneider Electric Australia has worked with prove the benefits this new technology can bring. The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) houses researchers from leading cancer and heart charities and the three top state universities. The iconic building uses an Integrated Control and Management System that incorporates innovative technologies in heating, cooling, hydraulics, lifts, fire monitoring, electrical monitoring, lighting, security and lab controls. This allows the building to maximise energy efficiency and performance, saving money throughout the life cycle of the building.

Society expects more: align your organisation’s future

As increased regulation continues to force businesses to improve their energy efficiency, those who view the change as an opportunity for overall innovation rather than as a burden of forced compliance will stand to benefit the most.

Today, we expect more from our organisations. Whether employees or customers, Australians are more comfortable interacting with organisations that support a sustainable future throughout their daily practice.

In addition, studies have shown that high-performance ventilation, thermal control and lighting make building occupants (including employees) more productive. Interestingly, building occupants report 27% greater satisfaction with ideal conditions, a direct payoff of smart management, achievable through data-optimised operations.

Overall, the challenge for businesses to simultaneously achieve increased efficiency and reduced costs is real. The upfront cost can often place investments with longer term payoff to the back of mind for management, meaning one of the largest challenges is in leadership having the foresight to invest in long-term rewards.

Fortunately, the insights provided by new technology are making it possible to align the previously conflicting interests of improving operational performance and sustainability performance by investing in smarter buildings.

Furthermore, as sustainability targets are increasingly mandated by legislation, as we will see in July, investing in the right technology can become an investment in the future of your organisation, the environment and, in line with popular sentiment towards sustainability, your reputation.

You can learn more about building control and management systems and how they can improve your facility’s performance in sustainability and operational efficiency at: www.schneider-electric.com.au/en/product-range/63092-facility-insights-services/.