Understanding your assets
An up-to-date asset register is an invaluable tool in planning for the maintenance requirements of building-services systems. BSRIA’s Ralph Bell shares his experience.
Buildings have to be maintained but you must know what needs to be maintained. Maintenance delivery is, unfortunately, still viewed as a service by the occupants of the buildings and as such deemed merely an overhead. This is far from the truth.
Maintenance of building services is an integral and invaluable partner to any organisation; in respect to the success of the ‘core’ functions they rely on the good operation of the building and its services. Well run and managed buildings ensure that both staff and equipment can work effectively and efficiently. This must be considered when looking to increase and/or modify the business use of the building. Too often the business use is not compatible with the services that support the function, and the business suffers for it.
Understanding your assets
A huge ‘comfort factor’ can be achieved by having concise accurate knowledge of the assets installed in a building, along with an asset’s age and its future operational effective life. The knowledge that brings this comfort is attained through knowing what is there, where it is and if you can determine the state of maintenance and the operational parameters (how close are they to the design) of each individual asset and its associated systems.
This can only be achieved by the regular updating of the asset register on each site and having each asset accurately identifiable. This information needs to be marked on each asset and the asset list, not only for the technician to find the asset but also it should also let the technician know where he is when he has found it.
Within the BSRIA Guide BG 35/2012 we have brought together processes for asset data collection and condition surveys that will help those responsible for the operation and maintenance of building services determine what needs maintaining. In the guide we have outlined a couple of ways of identifying assets; they work — I’ve used them. Any clear unambiguous ‘alpha or numeric’, or both, labelling system can be used; it just needs to be clearly understood by everyone who will use it.
Surveying the assets
Once we know what’s there, we can carry out a survey of the installed plant and systems and ascertain its ability to fulfil the design function. The various ways of undertaking a survey are indicative of the level/depth of information that is required. They can vary from a broad-brush survey which is marginally deeper than a simple visual survey of the external state of the machinery up to, and including, a full building-services condition survey that may incorporate non-destructive testing techniques as well as other invasive testing and inspections.
Whichever is undertaken, there needs to be a clear understanding of what information is expected from the survey and what the information will be used for. Fundamentally, there can be an examination of functional suitability, operational ability, the physical condition affecting operation and maintenance, compliance and economic life and/or obsolescence. An item of plant or system can become obsolescent (not necessarily obsolete) because of financial pressures, functional ability, technology, physical size and, finally but by no means least, environmentally or legally. These are explained in the guide.
We can use non-destructive testing as an element of the survey where there is a likelihood of hidden failure and there is little or no external evidence that there is a fault or a problem. We can bring into play tried-and-tested technologies to obtain a clearer view of what is happening without dismantling the system or asset, allowing us to recommend what needs to be done.
Whatever, methodology we use to survey the assets, there has to be a simple way of imparting that information without using reams of paper in producing a report. At the asset-capture stage there has to be an agreement on a grading structure that gives a clear uncomplicated guide on the state of each asset. We have put forward a system that we have used successfully (chapter five of the guide). However, it is important to remember that any grade can only give an indication; written or photographic evidence to support that grade is good practice.
Successful maintenance delivery
A condition survey and the assurance of an accurate asset register will allow building-services managers to have their maintenance undertaken by technicians who can be fully briefed and aware of the tasks required. It can also ensure that safe access and relevant method statements and risk assessments can be produced. This can happen because the manager knows exactly what the technicians are going to do and what they are going to see when they get into the plantroom, as he has an accurate up-to-date asset-register and condition-survey report.
With this accurate knowledge, the building-services manager can help with managing the long term growth and investment with minimal concern of the necessary functional systems letting them down.
It allows the organisation to be better placed to manage the changes required by the business and determine the impact on existing assets. It can assist in obtaining capital funding for the renewal of plant and systems, which can include the upgrading and improvement to building comfort and the introduction of new and environmentally friendly technology to replace the old and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Ralph Bell is senior FM consultant for the sustainable buildings group at BSRIA.
