Help for high maintenance: IHEs turn to software for campus planning and operations.COLLEGE CAMPUSES ARE often a mix of architectural styles: ivy-covered brick buildings, modern constructions with interiors bathed in natural light, enormous outdoor multiuse facilities. Whatever its style, a building's design and upkeep requires resources of time and money. Today's facilities directors can't maintain, renovate, or build their campuses anew a·new adv. 1. Once more; again. 2. In a new and different way, form, or manner. [Middle English : a, of (from Old English of; see of) + new without help from specialized software systems. Three types of programs have become the mainstays for planning campuses and keeping them operational. Probably the most common is the computerized maintenance management system Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is also known as Enterprise Asset Management. A CMMS software package maintains a computer database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations. (CMMS CMMS Computerized Maintenance Management System CMMS Computerized Maintenance Management Software CMMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMMS Conceptual Model of the Mission Space CMMS Center for Multilingual Multicultural Studies ), which is used to track building inspections and needed repairs. These programs also produce work orders for maintenance staffs and track the costs for the work. The second type of program is a capital planning and asset management system (CPMS CPMS Centre Psycho-Médico-Social (Belgium) CPMS Client Process Monitoring System (Oregon DHS) CPMS Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis CPMS Civilian Personnel Management Services ), a technology used to track "inventory." Databases hold detailed information about buildings, their square footage, and the ways the space is used. Such systems are necessary for capital planning, helping facilities directors make decisions about what buildings to renovate or replace at some future date. These applications assist with facility design and master planning, while also allowing users to compare costs and make spending forecasts. The third type of program--a computer-aided facility management system--gives a visual picture of the buildings and the campus. 3-D models give a clear image of the buildings, their rooms, and the entire campus layout. Computer systems for campus planning started emerging two decades ago, but many major innovations have been put in place during the past five years, says Charles R. Thomas, a senior and IT consultant for the National Center for Higher Education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Management Systems. Some systems have been designed to incorporate elements of all three types of systems, especially the graphic-modeling capabilities. Advanced features allow for a virtual building "walk-through," Thomas notes. "There are programs that allow you to create a 3-D model from a set of blueprints." With no more than a floor plan, facilities directors can virtually move through a cluster of rooms and move elements around. OPEN COMMUNICATION While there may be a convergence in the types of systems, no one program can yet do it all, insists Frank Lucas Frank Lucas may refer to several people or things:
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public, coeducational university located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, known for its programs in History, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Hotel . The programs that specialize in planning and budgeting tend to have very basic computer-assisted design capabilities. Conversely, those that do beautiful 3-D modeling are likely light on the capital planning and cost analysis applications. Like many facilities planners, Lucas relies on a mix of software systems and vendors to get the entire job done. His CMMS, from vendor TMA TMA Turnaround Management Association TMA Texas Medical Association TMA Transportation Management Association TMA Training and Management Assistance (a component of OHRD, which is a component of OWR) TMA Tooling & Manufacturing Association Systems, tracks maintenance and repairs. "They are looking into adding a module that can do capital and condition assessment," he adds. For now, Lucas outsources this part of the maintenance work to an outside firm that produces reports. Eventually some of that data is input into the CMMS on campus. The facilities staff at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, relies on "communication" between an in-house homegrown home·grown adj. 1. Raised or grown at home. 2. Originating in or characteristic of a locality: "Rock is homegrown music in the United States, evolved from blues and country and Tin Pan Alley" database and commercial software to plan its maintenance needs. Recently, the university had to complete a state-ordered life-cycle analysis of all buildings. The university drew data from an in-house database written by a staffer and maintained by the department that linked with applications in VFA's commercial software product, says Jay Klingel, director of Business Management Services. With the power of both technologies--the in-house program and the commercial product--the staff was able to deliver the data on all 532 buildings, showing a replacement value of $2.3 billion. In completing their recent project, and in doing routine analysis, the planners at UVA looked for maintenance deficiencies on a building-by-building basis. They also looked at the inspection history of each building. When was the last time the roof was checked? What is the condition of the interior walls? These are the questions the project aimed to answer. "We used this to create the facilities condition index (FCI (Flux Changes per Inch) The measurement of polarity reversals on a magnetic surface. In MFM, each flux change is equal to one bit. In RLL, a flux change generates more than one bit. ), which gives a ratio of the deferred maintenance to the value of the asset," says Klingel. A building valued at $10 million that needs $1 million in repairs would have an FCI of 10 percent, he explains. All FCIs are compared so that the department can get a picture of the "low-hanging fruit" problems--the ones that should be handled immediately. THE COMPLETE PICTURE "In an ideal world, a facilities department would have all types of software," says Persis Rickes, president and principal of Rickes Associates, a higher education planning consultancy based in Boston. If such a marriage of software systems isn't possible, the next best thing is a system that can share data, adds Rickes, who is also former director of planning at the University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut is the State of Connecticut's land-grant university. It was founded in 1881 and serves more than 27,000 students on its six campuses, including more than 9,000 graduate students in multiple programs. UConn's main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut. . The last thing a facilities director wants is a system that creates "dueling The fighting of two persons, one against the other, at an appointed time and place, due to an earlier quarrel. If death results, the crime is murder. It differs from an affray in this, that the latter occurs on a sudden quarrel, while the former is always the result of design. databases," she cautions. Unfortunately, this happens all too often at a campus. A Facilities department may run a CMMS while a business office keeps track of capital planning with a different type of software. "One of the things we frequently do is come in and match the data," she explains. Historic tensions between the Facilities and Planning departments and the provost and Financial Affairs can hurt the bottom line in the long run, she cautions. Consider a research university that receives federal grant money. "The feds reimburse re·im·burse tr.v. re·im·bursed, re·im·burs·ing, re·im·burs·es 1. To repay (money spent); refund. 2. To pay back or compensate (another party) for money spent or losses incurred. some of the cost for managing and running the research space. An inaccurate accounting of the square footage can shortchange short·change tr.v. short·changed, short·chang·ing, short·chang·es 1. To give (someone) less change than is due in a transaction. 2. a university. I've worked with one campus that underreported square footage by 1 million square feet." That can add up to much unreimbursed funding. KEY INNOVATIONS Those shopping for maintenance systems are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. new applications that make working easier. The trend today is browser-based technology, allowing users to input information and track data from any computer. This can be especially important for facilities managers who may need to troubleshoot problems during off hours. Many CMMS systems for higher ed are accessible through an internet connection, but those shopping for software would want to make sure this is the case. Dashboards are also key. These are smaller windows that appear on a computer desktop and that feed a user bits of pertinent information, avoiding the need to hunt for data in a program. Through dashboards, data can be instantly turned into charts and graphs. "Dashboards have been around for a few years, but they are becoming more flexible," says Lucas. When they were first introduced they could only provide limited data, such as a certain cost history, or workflow. Now users can create their own dashboard applications, selecting the type of data that will appear--an improvement that makes them more useful, he explains. The next step is for CMMS and other systems to go wireless, he adds. "This way you can be at home or on vacation and access your system." There are some vendors that have developed software for handheld devices; there are others who have this technology in the pipeline. PRICING IT OUT Some of the software programs can be had for as little as $1,000, while other systems can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. This software is often sold in modules, with the cost being several hundred per application. Some systems are sold "per seat," charging several hundred or several thousand dollars for each registered system user. Prices and policies vary. Ten years ago there were just a few programs on the market. Now there are one dozen or more used in higher education. The emergence of these systems has helped facilities contribute more to the bottom line of the campus operation, says Lucas. "The end goal is to see maintenance as a business." Systems that help schedule repairs, analyze costs, and help plan for the future are now necessary for getting the job done right. He adds, "It is important that we be able to collect data reliably and accurately so that upper management can make proper decisions." Resources Archibus, www.archibus.com Applied Management Engineering, www.ameinc.biz biz n. Informal Business. biz Noun Informal business Noun 1. Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, www.appa.org Avatech Solutions, http://avatechsotutions.com CWORKS, www.cworks.com.my FAMIS FAMIS Financial Accounting and Management Information System FAMIS Family Assistance Management Information Systems FAMIS Financial and Management Information System FAMIS Facilities Asset Management Information System FAMIS Foreign Affairs Management Information System Software, www.famis.com ISES ISES International Solar Energy Society ISES International Special Events Society ISES International Space Environment Service ISES International Society of Endovascular Specialists ISES Intrinsic Stark-Effect Superlattice Corporation, www.isescorp.com MRO Software MRO Software, Inc. - formerly known as PSDI, was a software firm based in Bedford, Massachusetts, which published Maximo, the top-selling Enterprise Asset Management system in the market. , www.mro MRO In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Mauritanian Ouguiya. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. .com MAXIMUS, www.maximus.com National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, www.nchems.org Physical Planning Technologies, www.recapp.com SchootDude.com, www.schooldude.com TMA Systems, www.tmasystems.com VFA VFA volatile fatty acids. , www.vfa.com |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion