Facility management and IoT

For many of us, we do not spend a lot of time thinking about facility management. It’s not the sexiest of industries and we take most of their services for granted. We walk into our offices and places of business and we expect it to be clean and well-maintained. The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance and services of facility management especially the sanitation services.
Facility managers are challenged with ever-increasing wages and a drastic increase in expectations. The industry has been reliant on low-cost labor, but the pandemic is changing the cost structure of employees. How do you continue to deliver value to your customer while reining in your operational costs?
Can you take advantage of new technologies while preserving the investments already made in existing BMS systems? Vectolabs’ introduction to this industry was developing an IoT system to manage toilets. I can imagine your first reaction but consider this – brands must manage their reputation. A lot of their reputation hinges on the cleanliness of their facility. If your product is not very differentiated (e.g. fuel), a consumer’s choice is largely driven by the quality of your facilities (e.g. toilets, convenience store). How do brands ensure compliance with operational guidelines or SLA when you have more than 1,000 outlets throughout the country and managed by different operators who might have different ideas on what is clean?
We’re planning to write a series of articles on some available and mature technology today that can be applied to your facilities. We will discuss:
• Environmental sensor technologies to monitor performance & automate some of your tasks (e.g. IAQ sensors, comfort sensors, etc)
• Energy monitoring & management
• Integration of new IoT technologies to your existing system
• Our own experience developing an IoT system to change how one of the most recognizable brands are re-visiting how to manage sanitation for their facilities.