Servicing the SAB

Managing a state owned, 33m KWD project is all in a day's work for Robert Wood, general manager of Emcor Facilities Management (Kuwait). Becca Wilson reports.

It's 44 degrees, 5.45am on a Monday morning and the Kuwait State Audit Bureau's (SAB) building management system has suddenly detected a leak coming from a main pipe that feeds into one of the building's Hivar units.

The duty manager is called and on site within 20 minutes. The leak was found, technicians and engineers checked for further leaks, the chiller system was drained and the leak was then isolated so the system could be filled again. Once full, the 19 Hivar units were bled.

By the time facilities management Middle East arrived at 9am to conduct a case study of the building's operations, the incident was under control and the air conditioning was back in full flow.

"The process ran so smoothly because there was a point of call who could then inform the maintenance team what to do, if they were not already aware, coordinate with the onsite supervisor for the clean-up operation and coordinate with the maintenance team," explains Robert Wood, general manager, Emcor Facilities Services, Kuwait.

At around 11am, a report, including images of the leak and its damage, had been produced to give to the client.

"It is all recorded and documented so we can come up with a solution to find out how it happened and how we can rectify it. If it's a fundamental flaw and it is in other units, then we'll have to come up with a new idea to resolve it. All this will happen during the course of the day," adds Wood.

Luckily, for SAB, Emcor has policies and procedures in place to deal with reactive maintenance. Response time is key to damage limitation, as is knowledge of the building and client. And in this particular instance, advanced technological systems played a vital role in altering the FM team to the leak.

While the BMS detected the leak and alerted staff, the computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) system (Concept500, FSI FM Solutions) was used to document the incident.

Technology

SAB's BMS was purchased from Honeywell and is used on an integrated, single IP platform along with other critical systems.

"This is the first time in Kuwait that they have come up with this concept of integrating the BMS, CAFM system, fire alarm system, security systems etc.

It's all IP based and everything is reported back to the BMS so any faults that occur, we can react to immediately. We've got people operating it 24/7," explains Wood.

Concept offers Emcor and SAB a platform to generate all the work orders, manage the sub contractors, PPM and reactive maintenance, the calls coming in, emergencies and stock control.

It will also link to PDAs (personal digital assistant), a concept Wood is keen to implement.

"We're going to start using PDA's here shortly which will reduce the paper side of things dramatically. We're just waiting for them to be configured. Once this has been done, they will be rolled out and the technicians will be trained," he confirms.

Due to the nature of its business, the SAB has implemented strict and controlled security and access control.

Wood and his team manage biometric, fingerprint access throughout the building. The biometric, proximity card readers are specifically designed and modified for the project, by Biometrics Canada. Both the cards and fingerprints can be used for access.