CMMS Designed to Help Facilities Become More Green

By Paul Lachance

A well developed CMMS software package designed by those who understand the needs of facilities maintenance and operations professionals can be a fundamental contributor to energy efficiency and support for green practices.

The BOK Center is a 565,000 square-foot, architectural wonder of stainless steel and sweeping glass that has brought fresh economic stimulus to the city of Tulsa, while using a computer maintenance management software system to improve energy efficiencies and sustainability. 

Since 2008, the 8900-seat BOK Center has attracted 1.5 million attendees to major concerts, featuring rock and country stars like Elton John and Carrie Underwood, and blockbuster family entertainment like the top stars of American Idol.

Also home to three professional sports teams, it has environmental sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives underway.  It recycles paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum.  Its food and beverage department reduces food miles by purchasing locally grown produce.  Its kitchen uses non petroleum-based, biodegradable products, and its utensils and serving ware are all environmentally friendly.

Engineers from BOK’s Preventative Maintenance division use a computerized maintenance management software system from Bigfoot to manage maintenance of all equipment within and part of the building.

They can measure utility usage amounts by conducting daily and weekly inspections of lighting, HVAC, electrical, plumbing and mechanical equipment, and are able to quickly identify deficiencies in operations which in turn, reduce “wasted” energy consumed. 

Energy costs are one of the biggest line items in an organization’s budget.  Given the financial impact this can have it is little wonder that many facilities managers and energy engineers stay awake at night thinking of ways to trim costs wherever possible.

CMMS monitors a variety of meter readings, including pressure, temperature, voltage and hours run, and also helps operators identify energy peaks and spikes. Improved preventive maintenance (PM) planning can dramatically improve the energy efficiency of facility assets. 

CMMS software packages should interface with commercially available technologies to correlate energy consumption with specific asset performance levels and identify “energy hogs.”  Then PMs can be set up based on hourly run times instead of extended calendar periods, ensuring they are completed at optimal times.  This results in a more efficient use of staff, reduced downtime and lower maintenance costs.

Tracking and monitoring an asset’s utility consumption can also help trigger appropriate corrective and preventive action.  For example, if an asset is “running hot,” based on thermal readings or spikes in utility consumption, this might indicate a potential maintenance issue. CMMS can capture warnings, chart a trend and trigger a PM.  The result is optimal equipment operation and reduced energy consumption, which translates to increased profitability.  

Improved Efficiency

For facility maintenance, strong asset utilization can equate to less asset usage and less energy consumption.  For example, if an HVAC system is operating efficiently because of comprehensive PM work managed by CMMS, facilities managers use less heating from boiler X, when boiler Y and Z are running efficiently.

Interfacing CMMS with building automation systems allows operators to capture alarm data, display trends and automatically trigger work orders.  For example, an overheated air handler generates an alarm ticket, which creates a work order. The cause is diagnosed as an electrical issue. With the help of CMMS, the maintenance team is able to correct the issue and now the unit requires less energy to operate. “Over time, operators can observe energy spikes on a particular air handler unit and become proactive about scheduling work orders for those peak periods. 

Bigfoot is also used to schedule preventive maintenance checks and avoid unexpected failures.  During preventative maintenances checks engineers are able to change out parts such as bulbs, filters and other mechanical parts, which in turn keeps equipment running clean and efficiently.  The BOK Center has approximately 1,000 pieces of equipment being monitored in the Bigfoot database. 

CMMS can also track equipment history and grade performance over time.  Instead of automatically projecting capital expenses to replace old equipment, CMMS identifies which assets are poor performers by ranking every component. 

Surprisingly, a newer asset could be consuming more energy by failing frequently and costing more to repair over time.  An asset would be retired or replaced based on several factors: frequency of failure, energy consumption, frequency of work orders, cost trends, etc.  Using CMMS a facilities manager can be proactive about his maintenance plan and reduce capital expenditures.

For a manufacturer, finely tuned operation of production equipment creates more product output with less waste, and less waste equals fewer raw materials used.  Improved utilization and reduced downtime equal consistent production. CMMS automates the preventative maintenance plan for all plant floor equipment.   

Paul Lachance is a technology expert for Bigfoot CMMS, and one of its founders. He has been designing and creating CMMS software since 1994.  Bigfoot CMMS has more than 1,400 clients around the world with more than 7,000 users, large and small.