I keep hearing about Smart Buildings. The notion being that a building can be smart enough to fix itself, manage its own energy, or somehow optimize itself. Why don't we talk about smart people?
The reality in life is that people are smart, buildings are dumb. Buildings will always be dumb (sorry to the coalition of under achieving buildings). In the late 90's corporations realized that computers were not going to make companies more competitive. Competition and efficiency comes from smart people using computers to make better decisions. And the people running buildings are smart!
So what is missing? Why do we still talk about building inefficiency? Why do we talk about the notion of a smart building? Because......
We are not effectively addressing the need to deliver information (rather than data) to our smart facilities folks. Rather than leading our team, building a business case, or developing a strategy for change, we buy the latest control system believing somehow that it will make up for our lack of leadership. We outsource performance improvement to an ESCO. We suffer proprietary solutions because somehow we think a magic bullet will make our building smart.
Does your team have the tools that let them understand the enterprise objectives and determine how the facility operations help deliver a better product or reduce cost? We think about square feet in terms of rent, energy on maintenance. Do we think about the fact that for every 200sq feet in our facility there is a person, who is helping make money for the firm, defend the country, or educate our children. What we do every day running our facility also impacts how that person performs. An what that person does every day effects how our facility performs.
So I ask again, does your team have the tools that let them understand the enterprise objectives and determine how the facility operations help deliver a better product or reduce cost?
