Computer-aided design seen handling facilities

Electronic News, Sept 19, 1994 by John J. Del Tufo, Michael J. Doyle

How does a major medical facility with more than 20 buildings with 15,000 rooms know how the rooms are being used, where they are and who is in them? How does the facilities manager know at a glance which are occupied and which are empty today, a week from now and next year? How does a regional financial institution decide how much space a department needs, where to put a new group, and how many square feet to charge back to each division?

The headlines and TV news focus on "re-inventing" and "re-engineering" America's corporations from just about every angle - except one. What about the hundreds of millions of square feet of space which house America's companies? How is it being used? Are there more appropriate utilization patterns?

And what about the tens of thousands of company-owned personal computers dotting the desks, homes and cars of tons of thousands employees? Where are they and what's happening to them?

All this may sound rather basic, but the information for many companies ranges from sketchy to outdated to non-existent. It is a lack of specific information that causes the problems.

The key to lean and mean business operations in the 90s depends on sophisticated information systems which give companies far more control over their destiny. For the most part, however, the spotlight has been on financial, management, human resources, and inventory issues. A corporation's physical environment has been largely ignored, at least until now.

Gaining control over facilities, equipment, furnishings and various systems can be a critical component for achieving efficient, effective management. Without accurate information, the planning function cannot be maximized, budgeting is guesswork and the potential for waste and duplication is enormous.

Today's facilities management takes a systems approach. It begins with the basics and builds over a period of time to meet specific organizational requirements.

A company, for example, may occupy a series of buildings, either at one site or at various locations. A remodeling project is proposed for one building. One of the first questions is raised. "Where are the drawings?" The building is old and the difficult, costly search begins.

This problem has been solved in the facilities manager's office at Boston College, where a single computer operator is faced with a similar need, to provide the drawings for a building that is about to be rehabilitated. Within seconds, all the required drawings are reproduced.

The first step in facilities management is to use a computer-aided design (CAD) system to build a database of all relevant documents, including architectural and engineering drawings. In many cases, the information is incomplete and the job is then to field verify the drawings.

Field verification can have an immediate payoff. The office handling university-owned apartment housing units which were spread across the community could only give incoming students approximate,, information on specific units. This was an unsatisfactory solution for the property manager attempting to rent units, as well as for someone in California attempting to plan living space 3,000 miles away.

The property manager realized that increased rentals depended on being able to give the prospective tenants accurate unit layouts. To accomplish the goal, a team of facilities management specialists measured and inventoried each apartment, creating 8 1/2"x 11" floor plans.

In the same way, a department manager may request an additional 2,000 square feet for expansion. Is the request justified? Would it be best to move the entire department? If so, where? And how might the configurations look in terms of a total plan?

If space data is part of a facilities management system, then an operator at a personal computer can develop scenarios for review and evaluation. Before a wall is taken down or a desk moved, management can be satisfied that the most appropriate plan is being implemented.

Beginning with the basic building block off a complete document inventory, the database can grow to include the following:

* Preventative maintenance planning can be developed when the mechanical and electrical systems are included as part of the overall facilities management database, a critical issue for many companies, but particularly medical facilities.

* Emergency responses can be improved. For example, if an emergency occurs in a hospital where patients must be removed quickly, having the means of egress and exit signage locations in the database can provide critical information for the most efficient means for completing an evacuation.

* Systems problems can be identified and diagnosed quickly. An operator sitting at a computer is able to identify and locate a problem in seconds and direct repair personnel to the correct location for taking remedial action, which results in the savings of both time and money.

* All furnishings and equipment can be bar-coded for achieving both maximum utilization and the implementation of proper replacement planning. With the database containing room drawings, the CAD graphics can also show furnishings and equipment.