Recently, numerous developments have done within maintenance management in terms of corrective, preventive, risk-based and condition-based maintenance practices. These days we add standard IoT sensing inputs to existing assets including fire, smoke detection and alarms, motion detectors, CCTV, security and access control, lifts and so on. AI is easily integrated with IoT sensors and devices.
These sensing inputs help FMs to capture real time diagnostics which can be aggregated and mined for advanced analysis and fault detection. Early fault detection is critical for cost saving and customers business continuity. There was recently a case, where a company retrofitted predictive detection modules in the HVAC assets which exposed components within the assets near critical failure.
AI and IoT enabled asset management system will pick up on abnormalities in asset functioning and report. And also predicts upcoming maintenance and even reviews and approves work orders with minimal human intervention. Drone technology offers a host of potential benefits. Drones typically carry cameras and allow operators to gather data from areas that are difficult, dangerous, or expensive for our technicians to get to.
It is true that BIM-enabled facilities management is still fairly rare, especially when compared to BIM adoption levels during a buildings’ planning, design and construction phases. However, it’s a highly practical resource for both facility maintenance and ongoing use. It allows access to real-time asset profiles as well as improved awareness of asset locations (like where exactly a certain electrical circuit or piece of machinery is placed behind a wall).
AR technology is especially useful when used in conjunction with BIM. For instance, when examining a plant room full of various unfamiliar electrical and mechanical equipment. Programmed with existing BIM models, allow to view digital representations over each piece of equipment, providing identification and added detail. This information might include written instructions, warnings, dates of installation, and troubleshooting for problems. Virtual reality and augmented reality are still far from widespread within the facilities management industry. We can witness a breakthrough in these technologies in the days to come.