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Districtwide Facility Condition Assessment

Sept. 19, 2023
5 min read

Rethinking Your Approach to Physical Asset Management

Facility managers across the country are rethinking their approaches to physical asset management and capital planning. Brevard Public Schools is lucky to have one of those forward-thinking teams, which propelled the Office of Purchasing Services to partner with FOS of CannonDesign to implement a districtwide facility condition assessment (FCA) program.

Recognizing the abundance of challenges facility managers and owners face, FOS of CannonDesign was formed in 2009 as a solutions-driven practice with the core belief that our clients are our most important partners. FOS—short for Facility Optimization Solutions—is a multidisciplinary professional services and software consultancy that provides facility assessments, capital planning, asset tagging, cost estimating, job order contracting and more to propel data-driven decision making.

 

See How Current Facility Managers At Brevard County Are Making Major Changes

This significant assessment with Brevard Public Schools comprised 14 million square feet, with deliverables that made a meaningful impact on the learning environmental quality for all students in the District. Over a span of several field weeks, FOS’ professional team of licensed architects and engineers, constructors, facility managers, cost estimators, and system specialists performed observational field assessments of the District’s physical assets. The collected information was used to identify deferred maintenance deficiencies and capital renewal needs by answering questions such as:

  • What is the condition of each asset?
  • What are the values and liabilities of each asset?
  • What is the equipment lifecycle for assessed systems?
  • What will it cost to maintain each asset over its lifecycle?
  • What should the annual budget be to achieve an appropriate level of improvement?
  • How should the capital improvement plan be prioritized, based on available funding?
  • How can operation costs be stabilized and/or reduced?

This allowed the FOS team to provide actionable and prioritized recommended improvements with associated cost estimates. Ultimately, this approach enabled a dynamic decision-making framework designed for master plans and financial strategy.

 

How Information Extracted From FCA Data Supports Decision Making

When it comes to facilities optimization, information is crucial to making defensible decisions. FCAs collect and create data to support maintenance planning and capital improvement strategies. A main question successful FM teams should be asking is how to define and communicate FCA level of detail based on the desired outcome. Understanding the appropriate FCA level of detail allows for enough data to support decisions, while avoiding information management overload.

Organizations encounter goals, preferences, and viewpoints that influence their investments in renewing facility infrastructure. While it’s wildly understood that necessary investments need to contend with other organizational requirements, it's essential to be capable of presenting a compelling case to decision-makers in an objective manner. Performing a FCA generates dependable data, bolsters decisions, and showcases alignment between priorities and the organization's long-term best interests.

The information provided by an FCA should precisely quantify and strategically rank deferred maintenance and capital renewal necessities. When executed correctly, this yields substantiated insights to advocate for smart allocation of limited investment resources and making informed choices within these constrained budgets. These outcomes can serve as a communication tool bridging the gap between boots-on-the-ground facility managers and the higher-ups they answer to.

 

Delivering Best In Class Capital Solutions

The mission of Brevard Public Schools is to “serve every student with excellence as the standard,” and they aspire “to deliver best-in-class capital solutions.” Their partnership with FOS will help the District accomplish these admirable goals by building a comprehensive understanding of the condition of their assets and creating a proactive and strategic approach to addressing associated deficiencies and capital needs over time.

Anthony Trioisi, from Brevard Public Schools, said, “I have worked with countless facility management service providers for over two decades. The FOS team is without question the cream of the crop. I more than appreciate the professional services and software platforms that this group provides, and thank them for their time and efforts.”

FOS advocates and challenges building owners to look beyond the capabilities of static FCA reports. While FOS feels strongly that their FCA reports deliver unparalleled value to their clients, they are inherently stuck in a single point in time. FOS built FOScore®, a FCA and capital planning platform, as a tool to perform assessments, update datasets, and leverage information to create project budgets and bundled capital plans. Supported by substantial reporting and visualization capability, the FOScore® platform is a centralized decision making and communication hub for District stakeholders.

At the asset level inside of FOScore®, building general information may be populated and files can be uploaded. A breakdown of any condition assessment items is listed by discipline with key information by discipline listed in a table. In addition, any inventoried assets can be explored in the asset tracking table. Once a condition model is built, the FOScore® platform has a robust capital planning module that allows users to build projects across a single asset or packaged across the portfolio. Projects are built by filtering condition assessment items by site, asset, priority, category, and UniFormat number.

According to FOS Senior Project Manager, Mike Carroll, “this is the best project I’ve been a part of since I started at FOS. The cross-sectional building types were fascinating, and we couldn’t have asked for a better client — the people at Brevard Public Schools were tremendous to work with. As a current FOScore® subscriber, this organization understands the value of efficiency and consistency.”

Since 2021, FOS has been ranked #1 worldwide for facility management services by World Architecture 100. Reach out to FOS today to learn what this award-winning team can do for you!

 

Company Contact Information:
Darra Kubera, Director of Communications
716-774-3310
[email protected] 
www.foscd.com

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