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Is commissioning worth it? With paybacks of 12 to 18 months and sometimes less, I would answer a resounding “Yes!” However, in spite of commissioning and retro-commissioning proving their value time and again, the adoption of these practices is still slow. I believe the main causes for such hesitancy are lack of knowledge and misconceptions, which I hope to clear up to some extent in this article.
First, let’s define commissioning. Sometimes in defining terms it is better to start with what it is not. Commissioning is NOT contractor start-up, testing & balancing (TAB), nor just a prerequisite for LEED. Commissioning is comprehensive testing of a building’s systems to verify that the systems are independently and interdependently operating as specified or required by the owner. Commissioning (Cx) is performed on new construction or projects. Retro-Commissioning (RCx) is the commissioning of an existing building/system that has never been commissioned. Re-Commissioning is commissioning of an existing building/system that has already been commissioned. Typically, a building should be re-commissioned every 3 to 5 years.
In 2009, Dr. Evan Mills with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a report titled “Building Commissioning: A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. In the report, Dr. Mills stated that “Commissioning is arguably the single-most cost-effective strategy for reducing energy, costs, and greenhouse gas emissions in buildings today.” In the study of more than 600 buildings, Dr. Mills found that the median energy savings for new construction and existing buildings was 13% and 16%, respectively; where the payback on energy savings alone was 4.2 years for new construction and 1.2 years for existing buildings. Additionally, the median non-energy benefits offset 49% of the commissioning costs, improving the payback period. In my experience, Cx on new construction generally pays for itself through misses caught by the Commissioning Agent (CxA) during a design review or site walk-thru – the improved performance and efficiency of the facility and their associated savings are icing on the cake. As for RCx, I have generally seen energy savings of at least 15% to 20+% with paybacks of a year and a half or less. In September’s Building Operating Management magazine, Microsoft stated they would “see energy savings of up to 20% each time” they re-commissioned a building. Sadly, neither of these studies tabulated the savings or revenues generated by commissioning due to increased building performance, occupant comfort, and worker productivity (such findings will be discussed in another FM360 article). However, based on energy savings alone, Cx and RCx should clearly earn themselves recognition and adoption into facility management programs and construction projects.
For new construction, a Commissioning Agent (CxA) should be brought on board by the Owner during the pre-design stage and stay as an intricate part of the team through at least the first year of operations. In doing such, the CxA can act as the bridge through the various project phases ensuring that the output, as realized during operations, aligns with the Owner’s original project intent and expectations. As a key team member, the CxA can leverage their field experience to aid in design decisions and to identify costly misses during design review – it is much cheaper to change things on paper (or in CAD / BIM) than in concrete… Additionally, since the CxA is intimate with the systems and their respective sequence of operations, they are also a good resource for training facility staff and developing operating procedures.
For existing buildings,
commissioning can be performed... Click here
to read the rest of this article or to get a copy of the LBNL
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CMMS - Not a Four-Letter Word
John Rimer, CFM - FM360
With implementation failure rates ranging from 50% to 80%, it is no wonder that many may consider “CMMS” a four-letter word. In my experience, I have seen numerous failed Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) implementations or very slow implementations (some of you are nodding in agreement…). Additionally, I have rarely seen an organization robustly using their CMMS; most are using just a feature or two of these powerful systems. It is like using just the bottle opener on your Leatherman – it can do so much more; couple that with duct tape and you are unstoppable…
There are many reasons for failed implementations or under-utilized CMMS. Below are a few of the most common that I have seen, of which I am sure you can relate.
Wrong System for the Job
How many of you are currently using your IT department’s work ticket system to manage your work orders? Okay, put your hands down. That is all too common. IT Systems and the like are good for managing service requests, but they fall way short on providing the business tool that you need in a CMMS.
Money to Buy It, but No Time or Help to Implement It
How many of you are in your ump-teen month of implementing your CMMS? Going on years, perhaps… Still working to get your equipment and/or maintenance schedules loaded into the system – in your spare time… Don’t worry, you are not alone. Unfortunately, this is a common state of most CMMS implementations. You finally get your manager’s approval to buy a CMMS and maybe even some training, but you don’t get any help with setup or additional administrative support needed to implement and maintain a CMMS. The truth of it is, the delayed or failed start of your CMMS will make it all the more difficult for you to request additional funding because you didn’t do well with what they already invested – a double whammy… You can’t do it alone; you need help!
Old, Slow System
There are some that implemented a CMMS years ago, but have not been able to upgrade it over time (possibly because they customized it too much making upgrades costly) or the software is no longer supported (eventually that Windows 95 machine will die…). It is also tough to upgrade because so much has been invested in the old system and you do not want to lose the data – plus change is hard. But you and your organization must advance with the times – there is better out there.
Homegrown
How many of you couldn’t get management’s approval to buy a CMMS so you built one yourself? How flat is your forehead from beating it against the wall trying to become an Excel or Access guru? Yep, I’ve been there too… I have seen some pretty good ones, I might add. However, as facility managers, our jobs are not to be database administrators or IT gurus (albeit that hat does get thrown at us often). We have to pull ourselves out of those weeds so that we can focus on the strategic, business initiatives of our facility organization. I’m all for organic, but now with a CMMS…
Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Lastly, lack of knowing any better is probably the most common reason for failed or under-utilized CMMS installations. Most don’t know how powerful a CMMS is or how it could be used to manage day-to-day operations and provide key business information for managing your facilities and upper management. Resolving this particular problem is the reason I am such a proponent for our conferences and IFMA’s training courses.
The Good News (Two more four-letter words…)
The above mentioned reasons for failed or under-utilized CMMS are common and thus could be easily remedied through knowledge sharing and education from each other. That is why at this year’s annual conference in Coeur D’Alene we are holding a CMMS Workshop where we will work through these common issues and discuss how we can overcome these hurdles learning from each other’s collective experience and regional experts. Additionally, our upcoming Operations & Maintenance training courses in Coeur D’Alene and Boise will spend considerable time reviewing and discussing the value of a CMMS and how to implement and operate one.
John Rimer, CFM
President, FM360
No More Firefighting
John Rimer, CFM - FM360
I have joked for years that I am going to write a book for facility management called No More Firefighting. While it is unrealistic and not necessary to eliminate all “firefighting”, the sad truth is that most facility organizations operate in a very reactive mode with reports citing ranges of 50% to 90+% - many of you are nodding right now (it’s okay, you’re not alone…)
The cost of reactive maintenance can be staggering – not just to your operations budget but to the triple bottom line. For example, studies have shown that reactive maintenance costs 5 to 8 times more than it would have cost to perform the prescribed preventive maintenance. Additionally, poor maintenance can increase energy costs by 15% to 20+%. Let’s not forget the impact on production, revenue, and market presence.
Conversely, a robust program can reduce O&M costs by as much as 50%, increase production by 28%, and double productivity of staff (IFMA) – so, for most of us, there is a large opportunity for us to turn a negative situation into a very positive one with results that speak well to the executives.
Such changes are possible - we can right the ship. However, it requires us as facility managers to have a clear vision of where we want to go and to start putting the necessary pieces in place. Some of these building blocks include emergency response management/preparedness, defining a maintenance strategy, establishing a PM/PdM program, leveraging a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), capital planning and budgeting, and a facility marketing plan.
All of these key building blocks and more will be discussed at our next conference in Bozeman, along with how we can leverage predictive maintenance technologies, such as infrared thermography and vibration analysis, to streamline our maintenance. So come learn and share with us in Bozeman on April 25th-26th as we address these and other O&M program topics.
These topics are reviewed more in depth in the upcoming IFMA FMP Operations & Maintenance courses this June in Coeur D’Alene and Boise. See our Events page to learn more about these courses and IFMA’s Facility Management Professional (FMP) courses.
Be Bold!
John Rimer, CFM - FM360
Last month, Moody, the credit-rating agency, downgraded the entire higher education sector to “negative”, citing many factors including high tuition, reduced state funding, and soaring levels of debt amongst struggling graduates. Moody’s admonishment to university leaders was to take “bolder actions…to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency.”
An article in this month’s Health Facilities Management magazine indicates that the healthcare industry is doing a “market reset” in preparation for the upcoming healthcare changes. “Health care organizations are investing less in mega-projects involving traditional hospitals and more in upgrades or additions to help them thrive under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)”, with a “greater emphasis on energy conservation and cost-reduction in lieu of construction”.
These articles re-iterate a growing trend in our economy of an increased focus on operational efficiency and improvements to the built environment. The question for us as facility management professionals is “Do we see this news as a roadblock or an opportunity?” I see this as an opportunity – allow me to explain.
Facility Managers continue to amaze me with their creativity on how they can rub two pennies together to make a nickel. We have a long lineage of “doing more with less”. However, I think the pendulum is swinging in our favor creating an opportunity for us to “do more with MORE”. But this requires us, as Moody charged, to take “bolder actions”.
We must understand the business of our respective organizations and market conditions. We must know the current state of our facilities and O&M program – prioritizing those needs in accordance with our organization’s goals and business drivers. We must then develop solid business cases that justify upgrades and improvements to our program and facilities and sell them to our various stakeholders. Last, but not least, we must deliver on what we sold. These actions require a “bold”, knowledgeable facility management professional to lead the way. Are you up for the challenge?
The Northern Rockies Chapter of IFMA’s meeting in Rexburg, Idaho on March 15th will address such topics with a theme of “Building Your Case for Building Improvements”. These skill sets are further addressed in our upcoming Facility Management Professional (FMP) training courses: Leadership & Strategy Essentials this February in Boise and Finance & Business Essentials next month in Rexburg. I encourage you to come join us at our chapter meetings and training sessions.
Let’s learn from each other and lead this charge together to be “bold”!
Getting an "A" Grade at the C-Level
John Rimer, CFM - FM360
As facility professionals, we are pretty good at reacting in an emergency, dealing with difficult people, figuring out how to get a square peg into a round hole, doing more with less, and many other challenges that fly at us daily. However, the one key area where I have seen programs fail or struggle time and time again is in how they perceive, manage, and communicate the value of their facility program to their clients/occupants and, especially, to the executive level. For our facility organizations to be successful we have to manage them as a key business unit and translate the value of our program into terms that resonate with those that control the purse strings and direction of our overall company/organization – We must strive to get an “A” at the C-level!
First, we have to see our facility programs as key business units that are critical to the success of our overall organization. Too often we fail to realize the impact we truly have on our organization’s ability to conduct business and ultimately, the bottom line. As we discussed at the Fall Conference, an organization’s number one asset is typically people; if the people are not able to work or they are not doing so efficiently due to “creature comfort” or safety issues, then the company will realize that in revenue loss , reduced profit, etc.. The second most valuable asset for most organizations is their facilities with the third largest expense being energy. An organization has to have functioning facilities to be able to produce or provide their service and thus generate revenue. As facility professionals, we have significant effect on all three of these areas and ultimately our organization’s bottom line. We have to see our job and our facility program in this light.
Second, we have to learn a new language. Our organizations do not typically exist to operate & maintain buildings; rather the buildings are necessary in the production of whatever goods or services our organization provides. Thus, we must identify and understand our organization’s business drivers and how they’re measured. What is the cost of downtime or production loss? What’s the average revenue generated per employee? What’s your organization’s average profit margin? These are just a few of the questions that we, as facility managers, should understand and use when making our business case to purchase new equipment, hire a new engineer, or implement a new software. We cannot expect our clients or C-level executives to speak our language; we must learn to speak theirs. We must translate our successes and failures into bean counter language that resonates and aligns with the C-level. For example:
- A $10,000 reduction in utility expenses equals $200,000 in revenue.
- A sprinkler line failure closes school for a partial day, resulting in a make-up day that adds cost due to an additional day of transportation, teachers, utilities, etc., not to mention frustrated parents.
- An HVAC failure on a warm summer day causes people to quit work early or reduces their productivity (# hours impacted * avg cost revenue generated per employee)
- Installing a bypass loop reduces production downtime caused by scheduled maintenance, thus increasing the organization’s revenue and profit (# hours * avg revenue generated per hour)
Also don’t overlook the impact that facility failures and successes have on public relations/press and marketability. Your financial folks know how much it costs in marketing to sell business and manage image – ask them.
Lastly, you must align your department’s vision and goals with that of the overall organization’s. Now this seems like a no-brainer, but how many of you set clear, measurable goals that translate to those set by the C-level? For example, your organization wants to increase revenue by 15%; thus you set goals to reduce downtime by X% which would increase revenue by Y%. Or you could reduce your utility costs by 7%, which translates into Z% revenue increase. This means, of course, that you have to capture, trend, report, and manage this data, which we will talk about in the next Newsletter article. But you can capture all the data possible and still get a failing grade, if you cannot translate that data into value terms the C-level understands or cares about. We must think and speak like business professionals, because we are in the business of facilities…
For further reading and training on this subject, I strongly recommend you plan on attending our FMP Finance & Business Essentials course this next year; watch the events listing on the Chapter website and for future e-mails regarding class dates. You can also purchase The Business of FM from the IFMA website.
John Rimer, CFM
President, Northern Rockies Chapter of IFMA
Consulting Services Manager, McKinstry
The Forecast
Baby boomers are retiring at a pace of 10,000 per day; they make-up nearly half of America's workforce. There are currently 600,000 open positions for skilled labor in the U.S. that are going unfilled with an estimated 2 to 3 million more manufacturing jobs hitting our shores by 2015. This growing demand for skilled labor gives us the makings for a perfect storm that will significantly impact our facilities and how we do business as managers. What are we doing to prepare?
Regardless if you are in manufacturing, which will add 2 to 3 million jobs by 2015, or healthcare, growing at approximately 40% per year, or any other industry in the United States, as facility professionals, we will all be affected by and challenged with the demand for and scarcity of skilled labor. Couple this with the fact that most U.S. facility organizations operate in a firefighting mode and operate at 25% to 40% efficiency. It is imperative that we change how we operate our facilities and our organizations as this storm approaches.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to be doom and gloom. To the contrary, I see this as an opportunity for us facility managers to step up and shine. Next to “people”, facilities are generally the second largest asset an organization has. As facility managers, we have a direct effect on both; thus how we manage our facilities and support the “people” that occupy them have significant impact on the bottom line.
Preparing for the Storm
Given the forecast, the question regarding how we prepare must be considered and addressed. I see four key ways we can prepare now.
First, set a vision. This is no shock to those of you who have heard me present before. In my experience, setting a vision is the first hurdle, as most organizations have not seen a robust program and do not know what one looks like or how to achieve it; thus I generally start by working with the facility manager and upper management to assemble the vision. I cannot overstate the importance of this step because as Proverbs says, “without vision, the people perish”; this is true in life and in business. As a manager you have to set a clear vision for you, your staff, and management – and the vision should not involve a fireman’s hat and coat... We must pull our heads up out of the weeds, so that we can see where we are heading and correct our course as necessary. Keep in mind, your vision should ultimately support that of your organization and the upper management because you will need their support to successfully implement the vision for your program.
Second, build a plan to achieve your vision. You have to take a hard look at your current program and staffing to assess where you are versus where you want to go. Perform a gap analysis; identify strengths and weaknesses of your program, organization, and program. Be honest with yourself and your team. It may be useful to get an independent third-party in to assist with such an assessment; someone that can put emotion, politics, etc. aside and more clearly assess your organization.
Third, measure and manage. As the saying goes, if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. You need to know how you are doing with respect to plan. Leverage technology – our buildings and systems are getting smarter, we should be operating smarter too… I strongly suggest using a robust Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), Enterprise Asset Management software (EAM), or Computer-Aided Facility Management application (CAFM) to aid in your measuring & managing – a system such as this should be the backbone and nervous system of your facility program and are invaluable to your overall success. But don’t just use the CMMS/EAM/CAFM to schedule work orders or input data; you need to extract and analyze the data to measure how you are doing and to look for other opportunities for improvement.
Lastly, be a champion. Communicate your vision and plan to your staff, management, and clients/occupants. Share your successes. Get as many to hop on your bandwagon as you can. I know many facility managers and chief engineers do not like playing this game – but if you “wanna win”, you” gotta play”. Remember to speak “bean” – put your successes in terms that a bean counter understands because what we do or don’t do has a significant impact on your organization’s bottom line. It’s up to you to determine if it will be a positive or negative impact.
I just skimmed the surface on the above items, and I could write a book unpacking them but I must bring this article to a close. I encourage you to join our new IFMA Northern Rockies Chapter and to attend our first meeting this September in Idaho Falls. This will give you and others the opportunity to discuss these issues, to bounce ideas off each other, and to learn. I hope to see you there. To learn more about our upcoming meeting, check the Events section on the website (www.ifmanorthernrockies.com).
Setting a Vision,
John Rimer, CFM
President, Northern Rockies Chapter of IFMA
Consulting Services Manager, McKinstry
Upcoming Events
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