Background

The University had just recently tendered its hard services contract. As part of this new regime, there is a strategic aim to collate and survey all of the M& E assets and the internal Building Fabric condition across the University portfolio of 279 facilities, both Residential and Non-Residential settings, recording details of their location, condition and description, to enable the data to be transferred to the new supplier’s operational CAFM (Computer Aided Facility Management)system.

The transfer of the new asset register will enable the supplier to plan each facility’s labour loading and preventative maintenance (PPM) regime for each of the facilities.

There is also a requirement to provide a lifecycle plan and a forward maintenance register from the new asset register to enable capital and project planning.

Brief

Our brief was to provide the University with:

•  A comprehensive asset register for each of the University facilities, to cover all Mechanical & Electrical assets, across each of the facilities;

• A comprehensive asset register for each facility covering fire safety, safe systems and building attributes;

•  A collection of key attribute information such as location, asset type, year of installation, capacity, rating, residual life and position in the lifecycle;

•  A dynamic photographic report linked to individual M&E assets that support the condition and criticality reporting assumptions by identifying any assets in a poor, unsafe or obviously non-compliant condition, or where there is a need for a further, detailed inspection;

•  Condition and criticality coding allocation against assets using a recognised and agreed format including, incorporation of industry- standard data classification structures – BCIS (Building Cost Information Service) and SFG20 - the leading maintenance manager software platform;

•  Application of a barcode and QR code label/tag to allow the deployment of dynamic asset tracking, fault history tracking and other technologies;

•  A detailed output report in an agreed format that will allow for the bulk data upload into the supplier’s CAFM System; and

•  Report any compliance needs assessment for each location withRAG status reporting, based on need versus seen, highlighting any gaps.

Approach

Our initial approach was to perform a desktop evaluation of the current available data, including drawings and any operation and maintenance records, to assess at a high level the locations of the key plant and assets at a high level.

As a part of our survey, we examined and recorded all M& E assets, verified the Operations & Maintenance data, and recorded any additional or missing assets across the premises.

All asset data was recorded on a comprehensive template, enabling it to be transferred into a CAFM system when required. The template recorded the relevant floor, area, room number and location, followed by the classification of the asset against SFG20 –the leading maintenance manager software platform, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and BCIS categories, as well as the type of asset and any additional remarks.

Regular progress reports were issued, detailing the progress against the overall agreed timelines, and noting any access issues or areas of concern identified during the survey. Our approach ensured that we provided a multi-disciplinary team that fully supported the asset collation/survey project and we undertook the following activities:

• Asset data capture for all mechanical and electrical assets

• Recording the location and position of each asset, noting any differences in a final report, and

• Asset data is collated on a template in hard and soft copy format, through agreement on a new classification of assets (Event critical/life safety- critical/noncritical etc.)

Outcomes

Our surveying team used their essential technical and asset knowledge to provide the University of Glasgow with critical asset data to develop a robust PPM schedule to ensure that important environments operate to an optimum level and that teaching can be delivered in safe and well-maintained environments. We have used the information and data gathered to support the University in developing a capital plan for future years.

Using experienced surveyors, we captured all external and internal fabric conditions and all mechanical and electrical asset data. This was recorded on a comprehensive template, capturing all the relevant data and details and enabling it to be transferred into a CAFM system. We recorded detailed location information such as the floor, area, and room number along with detailed asset information including the age and condition of each asset, followed by the classification of the assets against SFG20 Maintenance codings.

Regular progress reports and meetings with all stakeholders detailing the progress against the overall agreed timelines, noting any access issues or areas of concern during the survey process enabled us to achieve incredible results in four months - with 35k assets collected across 250 buildings.

Once all data had been collected and checked, we supported the University of Glasgow with a gap analysis report to understand the variation in asset detail by building and to identify any assets that were identified as in poor condition and in need of remedial action.