AFE — January/February 2012
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AFE Focus
AFE in the Global Economy
Facilities maintenance and engineering has become an art of understanding your building or portfolio of buildings. Whether you call your structure a building or facility — from our early years in the late 1940s to the mid-1950s our organization composed of building or facility maintenance and engineering professionals learned to understand what makes the buildings work and keeps them running. As the years passed and technology evolved, so too has our understanding.
From a global perspective, we learned that a climate-toclimate approach in maintaining an increasingly sophisticated structure would not suffice. Our technologies were diff erent, and so were our cultural needs. While here in the United States, we use pre-filters for our air-handling-units, our European counterparts use no pre-filtration, saving large amounts of energy in the process.
Of course, lower static pressure equals less energy. They think we’re (to coin a phrase) eccentric, nearly doubling our energy use for the sake of cleaner air. Aft er all, we’re now a LEED culture. We extend the life of our final filter by using a pre-filter, but at an extremely higher energy cost. Yet the common denominator that both cultures realized: when the architect’s work was done, the facility engineer’s job had just begun. So during the fifties we initiated the development of best practices and industry standards from a committee we would name Professional Development. Today, our Certified Plant Engineer (CPE) certification rivals any state’s Professional Engineer (PE) exam in required skill and complexity. We also learned our practices developed here in the United States fit in quite nicely abroad.
As recently as a few years ago, property management professionals wondered out loud: Why is the building acting this way? What does the building engineer know that I don’t? Why can’t my engineer speak simple language for all to understand?
It appeared as though AFE heard you when we rolled out the Certified Plant Maintenance Manager (CPMM) certification. The CPMM provides an indepth outline of the fundamental and advanced skill sets essential for the maintenance and engineering of complex buildings and facilities. However, it was only by coincidence it became the educational model of choice for a select number of building owners and managers aspiring to level themselves with their maintenance engineering professionals.
What is control of a building? Simply, control can only be obtained when we are aware of our building’s programming, or every response our building is involved in. When we as facility engineers can accurately explain the reason for any and all climate variances within all areas of our building, we can safely proclaim that we are in control of our building. Any unexplained change in our building’s electrical or mechanical operation or climate temperature reveals that the building is in or has control, period.
A good asset manager will not attempt to manage the very entity that controls their building — the engineer — unless they are looking at the same playbook facility engineers’ use. The results are showing building owners and managers worldwide a better understanding of what makes it work and keeps it running. Building owners and managers are finding if they do not have an all around trust in his or her facilities engineer, the building loses its voice, its advocate.
As a consequence, the building also loses its physical and economic health. Starting a new year while experiencing very trying economic times, our global membership will find advanced web portals providing answers to their facility-related questions; while already aware our national office is a phone call away. Of course, that’s the advantage of membership. As an example, try our New England regional website at www.afe8.org , proceed to the left side margin of the screen and click on the “AFE Connections” tab, where you will be linked to our work-in-progress information toolbox.
Soon, every piece of information you’ll need as a facilities engineer or property management professional will be a mere click away. Once completed, you’ll only need your membership number to access the most complete facilities engineering link- library ever compiled.
Later this year, I will be making a personal visit to a number of our overseas members, accompanied by our Executive Director, Dr. Wayne Carley, along with other board members. Our agenda is shaping up to include South Korea, Shanghai, and Japan, and later we will head to Australia and visit our friends in Dubai.
I encourage our overseas members along with our North and South American member to take the new office tour of your AFE, linked at the top of www.afe.org. Please join me in gearing up for what promises to be an exciting year within your première facilities engineering organization, your AFE.
Facilities maintenance and engineering has become an art of understanding your building or portfolio of buildings. Whether you call your structure a building or facility — from our early years in the late 1940s to the mid-1950s our organization composed of building or facility maintenance and engineering professionals learned to understand what makes the buildings work and keeps them running. As the years passed and technology evolved, so too has our understanding.
From a global perspective, we learned that a climate-toclimate approach in maintaining an increasingly sophisticated structure would not suffice. Our technologies were diff erent, and so were our cultural needs. While here in the United States, we use pre-filters for our air-handling-units, our European counterparts use no pre-filtration, saving large amounts of energy in the process.
Of course, lower static pressure equals less energy. They think we’re (to coin a phrase) eccentric, nearly doubling our energy use for the sake of cleaner air. Aft er all, we’re now a LEED culture. We extend the life of our final filter by using a pre-filter, but at an extremely higher energy cost. Yet the common denominator that both cultures realized: when the architect’s work was done, the facility engineer’s job had just begun. So during the fifties we initiated the development of best practices and industry standards from a committee we would name Professional Development. Today, our Certified Plant Engineer (CPE) certification rivals any state’s Professional Engineer (PE) exam in required skill and complexity. We also learned our practices developed here in the United States fit in quite nicely abroad.
As recently as a few years ago, property management professionals wondered out loud: Why is the building acting this way? What does the building engineer know that I don’t? Why can’t my engineer speak simple language for all to understand?
It appeared as though AFE heard you when we rolled out the Certified Plant Maintenance Manager (CPMM) certification. The CPMM provides an indepth outline of the fundamental and advanced skill sets essential for the maintenance and engineering of complex buildings and facilities. However, it was only by coincidence it became the educational model of choice for a select number of building owners and managers aspiring to level themselves with their maintenance engineering professionals.
What is control of a building? Simply, control can only be obtained when we are aware of our building’s programming, or every response our building is involved in. When we as facility engineers can accurately explain the reason for any and all climate variances within all areas of our building, we can safely proclaim that we are in control of our building. Any unexplained change in our building’s electrical or mechanical operation or climate temperature reveals that the building is in or has control, period.
A good asset manager will not attempt to manage the very entity that controls their building — the engineer — unless they are looking at the same playbook facility engineers’ use. The results are showing building owners and managers worldwide a better understanding of what makes it work and keeps it running. Building owners and managers are finding if they do not have an all around trust in his or her facilities engineer, the building loses its voice, its advocate.
As a consequence, the building also loses its physical and economic health. Starting a new year while experiencing very trying economic times, our global membership will find advanced web portals providing answers to their facility-related questions; while already aware our national office is a phone call away. Of course, that’s the advantage of membership. As an example, try our New England regional website at www.afe8.org , proceed to the left side margin of the screen and click on the “AFE Connections” tab, where you will be linked to our work-in-progress information toolbox.
Soon, every piece of information you’ll need as a facilities engineer or property management professional will be a mere click away. Once completed, you’ll only need your membership number to access the most complete facilities engineering link- library ever compiled.
Later this year, I will be making a personal visit to a number of our overseas members, accompanied by our Executive Director, Dr. Wayne Carley, along with other board members. Our agenda is shaping up to include South Korea, Shanghai, and Japan, and later we will head to Australia and visit our friends in Dubai.
I encourage our overseas members along with our North and South American member to take the new office tour of your AFE, linked at the top of www.afe.org. Please join me in gearing up for what promises to be an exciting year within your première facilities engineering organization, your AFE.
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