Five Steps to Safer Water in Your Building
by Jennifer A. Caldwell
Creating a comfortable, safe, and functional physical environment for building occupants is imperative for facility management teams. Oversight of water systems like HVAC heating and cooling systems and potable (drinking) water is just one of many responsibilities facility managers own within a building. Facility engineers are tasked with managing multiple water systems with limited manpower.
Here are five things facility managers can do to help oversee and operate water systems in a safe, sustainable, and cost-effective way. This approach allows you to manage assets efficiently while empowering your teams to produce better outcomes.
1. Develop and document a facility management plan with policies, procedures, regulatory & compliance information, budgets, etc. It is important to follow recommended maintenance practices to realize the full lifecycle of your assets.
2. Define what is considered a healthy operating water system through benchmarks and performance metrics. Yes, even your system assets need objectives and KPIs to keep your team focused on a successful operation.
3. Designate a team leader in your organization to own oversight of the system. Unless a single person is responsible for the system’s success, it may not be properly monitored and maintained.
4. Utilize technology to monitor your system’s performance in real-time to address precursors to larger issues. Water system assets are a significant capital investment. Technology allows you to be proactive, utilizing reliability-centered maintenance to free up time to focus on what’s important, not react to what is happening.
5. Have a process in place to handle operating issues immediately, minimizing system disruptions. Downtime can result in significant profit loss and depending on the type of facility, may threaten the lives of its occupants. A solid process to handle issues from the moment they are recognized until they are resolved is critical.
It is important now more than ever to have a safe environment to live, work, and play. Making a commitment to smarter water and energy use in your building through a reliability-centered maintenance plan not only provides a safe and cost-effective solution today but also paves the way for a safer and greener tomorrow.