According to ASHRAE, facility operations accounts for nearly half of the lifecycle costs of a building, while initial construction costs weighs in at only 11% - so why is it that initial costs drive most projects? Seems like the tail is wagging the dog. Thankfully concepts such as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) are catching on, as they look beyond initial costs to drive better design, construction, and operations decisions; but initial costs, construction schedule, and misnomers, such as "value engineering", are still the short-sighted drivers of many projects. So how do we, as facility managers, get management and others to look beyond the trees (or should we say "fees") to see the forest?
First, we should promote the Total Cost of Ownership and Life Cycle Costing concepts. As their names infer, these analyses take into account initial construction, operational, replacement, and salvage costs of various options - essentially from cradle to grave. Many design firms are already including such comparisons in their design choices and discussions. Lean on your design professionals to perform these analyses and double-check their numbers to make sure they are in-line with your operational experience. Additionally, make sure parameters other than costs are considered in the comparison. For example, performance of systems, availability of parts & service, and flexibility to accommodate future changes should be included.
Second, I strongly encourage any organization that is embarking on new construction or a major renovation to focus on outcomes not just the inputs or parameters, such as budget and schedule. This, of course, means that you have to know what you want; so, do your homework. Clearly define the project intent and performance requirements with the stakeholders. Then cater the specifications and ultimately the contract to guarantee such requirements are met. To accomplish this you may want to consider a design-build approach where the D/B contractor is the one that is held accountable for meeting performance, costs, and schedule requirements - make them guarantee it.
Third, a commissioning agent (CxA) should be hired by the Owner to ensure that project outcomes do align with project intent. The CxA should be contracted directly to the Owner, as they are acting on the Owner's behalf. There is far more to commissioning (Cx) than I can succinctly express in this article (a topic for another article... ), but here are a few tips. The CxA should be a full-time CxA with depth of staff and expertise. They should be brought on during the pre-design phase and stay through post-construction and first-year of operations. In fact, I highly recommend that you solicit the assistance of the CxA to assist with the development of emergency, maintenance, and standard operating procedures, as they are very familiar with the sequence of operations and failover scenarios. Either way, your investment in a good CxA will payoff abundantly.
Lastly, make sure you watch out for your O&M team. Getting accurate as-builts, manuals, etc. should be a given, but rarely happens; put the requirements of such in the contract ทาวน์โฮมมือสอง ราคาถูก with payment/penalty implications (have the contractor put their money where their mouth is... ). Also don't forget to include the development of procedures, setup of equipment records and maintenance schedules in your CMMS / CAFM, establishment of service contracts, and staff training in the construction documents and costs. These items should be setup prior to acceptance and ownership of the building/system, because once the occupants move-in you will be too busy hanging whiteboards, dealing with creature comforts, and finding lost moving boxes to focus on these key O&M functions.
I know you are thinking this all sounds good (he must be an engineer - looks good on paper... ), but this never happens... And you would be right on both accounts - or least mostly right; however, we can get the dog to wag the tail, but it requires us to get way ahead of the game and be forward thinking. We must work with our management and stakeholders to prove the value of the above concepts and to clearly define performance requirements and expectations. We must be our own advocates in a way that fosters partnering relationships. In short, it requires us to lead...
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