| Facilities management comprises managing a property and providing an environment that enables facility users to operate at optimum efficiency. Terms and conditions vary tremendously— from very basic to highly complex with built-in payment mechanisms, such as is the case with Government Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
The general approach to facilities management in the past has been to let contracts for three to five years; usually with a mandatory re-tender at that time and frequently with a change in service contractor. The problem that resulted was that short-term approaches were taken to the management of facilities, with limited ownership of the facility’s stewardship and almost no regard for prudent consideration of lifecycle replacement. In the UK, the advent of the Government PFI in the mid 1990s is rectifying this problem.
Government Private Finance Initiative
Government PFI is an important procurement process followed in the UK for the bulk of public projects now and into the foreseeable future. A Government PFI facility is usually provided by a consortium of companies that designs, builds, operates and finances the facility according to the client’s requirements, and leases the serviced facility back to the client for a period of 30 years. This method basically transfers the risk of the capital investment and operational/life cycle costs from the public sector to the private sector.
Because Government PFI requires those who built the facility to maintain it, contractors are adopting much wider and more holistic approaches to facility construction and management, taking into account not just construction costs, but whole life costs, comprehensive planned preventative maintenance and energy efficiency and optimisation. As a result, in general, a superior quality of building is achieved for long-term sustainability.
All parties involved in a Government PFI project realize benefits.
• Clients obtain for the next 30 years high standard modern facilities that have been designed and built to their requirements.
• The public has the use of facilities that provide needed services to the community.
• Consortiums have long-term leased facilities that provide stable income and protect their capital investment.
Furthermore, the client and consortium of contractors are free to concentrate on their core businesses, knowing that no tendering time or cost is required for the next 30 years. The consortium partners work together closely over many years to enhance the end users’ satisfaction, gaining experience together and fostering close collaboration. Generally, if the consortium can save costs, such savings would be shared with the client, resulting ultimately in a higher standard service provision at a reduced cost.
The PFI arrangement not only promotes closer working relationships, it allows both technology and ideas to be instigated for everybody’s benefit. While PFI might sound like an ideal situation, it requires a great deal of knowledge and expertise in the areas of partnering, managing life-cycle issues, and preventative maintenance management. Our buildings group in the UK has had considerable experience in these areas on PFI projects and other projects. A discussion of the approaches we take is offered with hope that it may be of value to others involved in or considering long-term facilities management.
Partnering
The philosophy that we adopt and that underlines partnering is based on the concept that any problem that could affect the contract is everyone’s problem. The best way to mitigate the cost of such a problem is to assist in solving the problem, irrespective of whether an individual member or organisation was involved directly or indirectly. Essentially this is a “high ownership, no blame” culture that requires trust, openness and a “can do” attitude to succeed.
The improved communication this approach facilitates means that when we plan our own inputs in terms of service delivery, we take into account a more integrated understanding of constraints and risks and how they affect all parties. This improved planning and teamwork leads to improved definition of the roles of each party and their interfaces, and more reliable risk identification assessment and management. For example the consortium will usually hold the funds for the lifecycle and is responsible for their adequacy, but PB will be providing day to day maintenance. There are often disputes about what is maintenance and what is lifecycle, but by pre-agreeing the protocols and risk allocation much of this type of dispute is avoided.
This philosophy of partnering also embraces the supply chain, especially existing personnel or contractors who will have a profound knowledge of the existing site and its systems and services. Building on the very significant knowledge and know-how of our advisers, specialist suppliers, and contractors leads to a thorough understanding of client needs and a very high standard of service and operability
Very few drawbacks to partnering exist, providing all parties have the vision of the process and commitment to work with each other over a prolonged period, which is up to 30 years in the case of a PFI scheme.
Managing for the Life Cycle
Within a long-term facilities management project, such as a PFI project, the approach to life cycle replacement of components is crucial for developing a winning bid and for operating the facility in an efficient and effective manner.
Risk Management. The fundamental issue in life cycle analysis is identification and management of risk. Risks are comprehensively identified and reviewed at the bid stage and either:
• Avoided (e.g. by changing design aspects we think could cause problems)
• Managed (e.g. making sure we have proper processes and procedures in place, including proper contractual protection and adequate resources)
• Priced to accommodate the risk.
As we develop plans for replacing components, each plan carries a certain level of risk, and the risk management analyses we carry out will help to determine the optimum solutions for those components. Potential problems are designed out as far as is practicable, but we also use risk, availability and maintainability (RAM) analysis to obviate breakdowns of key components so that an appropriate level of redundancy can be incorporated. When redundancy is not feasible, we look for practicable alternative solutions.
Downtime during Component Replacement. Another important issue is the effect of downtime whilst components are being replaced. Access needs to be considered, as do decommissioning and commissioning that may be required. In the case of a lift, for example, some components will need to be changed possibly a number of times during the 30-year life cycle. It is important, therefore, to take account of how replacement operations will be managed and how the lift’s downtime will affect facility operations.
Whilst replacement forms part of the rolling maintenance programme, we believe it is fundamental to address and mitigate operational issues during the design and value engineering processes because the downtime may have serious consequences. For example, for a hospital environment, there may be a very high degree of dependency on critical systems.
In keeping with our rolling programmes and annual forward maintenance plans, detailed plans, method statements, and risk assessments are undertaken, discussed in close partnership with clients, and agreed upon before any such work is implemented.
Monitoring Component/System Performance. Close co-operation among architects, designers and engineers will ensure that materials and components are selected to offer clients the “best value” life. A number of other factors affect the predicted life of a component, however, such as quality of manufacture, quality of workmanship on site, exposure to wear and tear, and quality of maintenance. We regularly monitor and evaluate component and system performance as a contract progresses, analyse trends, and compare actual performance and assessed potential life with those indicated in the model and by manufacturers.
These tasks are carried out by site teams and by PB’s technical auditors who are trained for this specific role. Some of the systems we use continuous condition monitoring systems, such as the building management systems and alarm systems that contain self diagnostics.
Planned Preventative Maintenance
Even just 20 years ago, if ten different companies maintained a similar type of asset, the chances are that ten different planned preventative maintenance (PPM) strategies would have been undertaken. Over time the industry has used professional bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA), to standardise PPM requirements. This standardization provides a great start for determining the optimum PPM required for a particular asset; however, every building has different operational requirements, geographical variances, environmental or location-specific issues, and user inputs and outputs.
Our group uses standardised PPM schedules, manufacturers’ recommendations, and its experience to produce an initial PPM plan that outlines the type and frequency of expected maintenance tasks. We then apply reliability-centred maintenance techniques and condition-based maintenance techniques to enhance and fine-tune the PPM schedules for a specific site and its equipment over a period of time. By developing a comprehensive asset-specific maintenance programme and a long-term lifecycle programme, we offer clients resilient and robust solutions that will enhance the value of their assets over the long term.
Computer Aided Maintenance Management System
Our group uses Computer Aided Maintenance Management Systems (CAMMS) as essential tools for operating a facility, especially when doing so over a long period of time. CAMMS is a commercially available software product that is essentially a database that enables us to record and interrogate the data in different ways. CAMMS’ orderly and efficient processing and recording of work and reports enables us to provide a high standard of maintenance and greater cost effectiveness.
CAMMS Database. The uses of this database include:
• Storing details, records, and cost on each and every asset in the building fabric and its services (the asset register), from which we develop a maintenance programme for each asset.
• Recording and managing spares and stock control so that we can readily source any component that may be required. • Recording and tracking the maintenance of all assets on the site so we can review and report, analyse trends and provide work performance analysis, key performance indicators (KPIs), etc. KPIs typically include the number of areas of non-availability, complaints, maintenance tasks on/off schedule, breakdowns, and call-outs. Customer satisfaction survey results are also used to assess performance.
• Recording and numbering requests for maintenance/repair service that come in via a telephone helpdesk so they can be addressed and subsequent general/progress enquiries can be answered.
• Recording all data relating to tests and inspections carried out as necessary to meet applicable legislation and client requirements and to issue the records of statutory reports that we may be required to issue.
CAMMS Reporting. With the aid of CAMMS, we can easily provide various reports and forward maintenance programmes, including the monthly maintenance plan, annual maintenance plan, five-year rolling maintenance programme, and life-cycle maintenance programmes. Some CAMMS reports go to the client. On larger projects the client may have direct but restricted access to certain parts of the database. On a PFI, if the reports do not show we are providing what we are contractually obliged to, then we will incur financial deductions and penalty points that ultimately could cause our contract to be terminated.
We also use CAMMS to analyze trends and to identify potential problems before they materialize. This last feature is especially important in a PFI project, where we can be fined for non-performance against our contractual obligations.
PB’s PFI Projects
Our group is active on a number of PFI projects, such as Tiverton Community Hospital in Devon, Salisbury District Hospital in Wiltshire and Lochgilphead Hospital in Glasgow. In our role as facilities management provider, we are working in conjunction with Project Co. Project Co generally holds the sinking fund, which is a sum of money that is set aside on a regular basis over time so that when expenditure is required there is enough money in the fund to cover (in this case) lifecycle/ replacement works. This fund is held for life cycle risk through design, construction and operational phases to optimise the life-cycle benefits.
The Tiverton, Salisbury, and Lochgilphead projects are in the health sector and require a highly integrated approach, as it is not appropriate to disrupt the clients’ clinical operations for maintenance or life-cycle activities. This avoidance of downtime can only be achieved with very close liaison and coordination between Project Co and the health trust concerned to ensure patients’ lives are not put at any risk during necessary works.
PB’s approach has reaped benefits for our clients. For example, our close partnering proved to be beneficial to our client at Tiverton when its heating systems were not working properly due to a construction defect. The rectification work required considerable intrusive work above the ceilings in ward areas. Working very closely with the Trust and the hospital staff, we undertook a series of risk assessments and agreed on procedures. We then managed the rectification work so that clinical functionality was not materially affected. |
