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Ensuring safety with integrated building management
How much of a role does a building play in contributing to the success of our business? Not much
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ow much of a role does a building play in contributing to the success of our business? Not much. When we think about growth, we are more inclined to focus our attention on natural resources, labor and capital as the important triad of factors of production.
But productivity is more than just about driving up inputs that are instrumental for generating economic goods. At its core, productivity should be about creating a safe, comfortable and truly efficient environment that can ensure continuity in production and enable results at an optimum level.
There appears to be very little admission of this importance and the serious consequences when building is not properly managed. We learned this the hard way with recent fire outbreaks that threatened to halt operations at several buildings.
In Jakarta alone, where building performance standards are generally higher than elsewhere in the country, the Disaster Mitigation Agency and Fire Agency has recorded 354 fire incidents with more than 50 occurring in buildings up to May this year.
This shows an imminent need to acknowledge the problems and readily implement competent building management that will guarantee a productive working environment and contribute to higher energy efficiency and business performance.
Fire outbreak is only one of the increasingly complex problems often encountered in a building. Other risks such as excessive energy use, adverse environmental impacts and low level of comfort loom large and are given even less attention.
Business is almost always guaranteed a loss as any occurrence of these risks will result in generally high operating costs or worse, frequent interruptions in company's operations. Many have attributed the problems to either poor managerial abilities or weak implementation of government regulations, including authorized visits to inspect compliance with the regulations.
A more useful way to approach this issue is to think about how we can compensate for human errors that often characterize poor building management. This is not to say that oversights should be condoned. But where such an outcome is inevitable, we should be ready to implement a reliable support system that can reduce and even prevent unintended consequences from taking place.
One aspect is technological innovation. Many newly industrialized countries such as India and Malaysia have demonstrated this through integrated building management that can tackle building issues which would otherwise hamper their business productivity.
Under the current practices of building management in Indonesia, several fundamental technologies have actually been applied.
These include building automation, fire detection as well as security systems designed to ensure quick responses and generate a higher degree of comfort and safety. However they are disparate functions that must be managed separately.
Communication between these systems is still rudimentary and involves a great deal of technical effort and financial expense.
Such complexity often results in delays in applying appropriate measures in the event of an incident or alarm. This is essentially what exacerbated recent outbreaks as fire sprinklers reportedly failed to launch while other components could not detect anomalies in the overall systems and respond proactively.
Integrated building management addresses this complexity to reduce hazards and maximize efficiency. The process is still complex, but the management is much simpler.
It seamlessly integrates all systems into one platform while analyzing their individual performance, diagnosing anomalies and identifying all energy saving potentials in a building.
The result is a platform that centrally controls all systems, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, room automation, fire safety, as well as security functions such as video surveillance and intrusion detection.
As the overall control is placed under one platform, better synergies can be achieved and costs saved. Considering that consumption in buildings makes up for 40 percent of operating costs, integrated building management can optimize energy usage to reduce costs up to 20 percent, which means lower costs without loss of comfort.
It also offers building managers the flexibility to keep up with the systems through text and email alerts, allowing them to quickly make decisions and maintain control over the building.
Some renowned applications of this innovation are the managements of Taipei World Trade Center, Chicago O'Hare International Airport and even the whole Vatican City in Rome.
What these buildings have in common is highly sound management that greatly contributes to an uncompromising level of safety, comfort and efficiency.
Taipei World Trade Center is known for its energy efficiency that is 30 percent higher than the average building. It also achieves nearly 3,000 tons reduction in CO2 emissions and saves up to US$700,000 every year due to reduced power consumption.
Tying the conclusion back to the question raised at the beginning, it is clear that reliable management is crucial to ensuring building comfort, safety and efficiency.
And as technology has now made it possible to achieve this, the remaining challenge is how to push forward this positive shift in Indonesia. After all, only properly secured infrastructure can guarantee operational stability and productivity essential for business performance and growth.
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The writer is country manager of Building Technologies Division of PT Siemens Indonesia. The views expressed are his own.
