The facilities industry is plagued with a growing shortage of skilled workers, including electricians, HVAC technicians, building controls programmers, and plumbers. In the early 2000s, students were pushed to pursue four-year degrees with less emphasis on the importance of vocational training. The impact today is an aging workforce and fewer skilled trades workers coming up through the ranks to take over.
In addition, there is a booming construction industry that’s adding infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and hospitals across the nation, and with the construction growth, so too does the need for skilled labor.
To overcome these shortfalls, innovation and technology have been embraced as ways to offset labor deficits. Building automation technology, for instance, has played a vital role in bridging the skilled trades gap. Automation can reduce the man hours required to maintain HVAC, lighting and security systems, because the control systems can automatically and remotely manage the systems to programmed set points, resulting in efficiency gains. Building automation systems (BAS) collect real-time data, including system performance, HVAC efficiency, equipment run-times, and power disturbances.
When analytics are overlayed on top of the BAS, the platform can detect failures and send alerts to the facilities personnel using fault detection and diagnostics. This reduces the number of technicians needed for day-to-day adjustments or routine monitoring. Instead, the facilities teams are alerted to faults detected, including which system or part needs attention. The data from the systems are used to understand operational technology usage and how it impacts efficiency and equipment life span.
Armed with this type of information, facilities teams can be more strategic, reducing emergency repairs and identifying preventative maintenance strategies that mitigate unplanned downtime and even extend the life of the systems.
The use of technology also enables workers to upskill, using apps and software to manage building systems rather than physical controls and paper logs. With the downturn of the great generation of skilled workers, traditional facility technicians are shifting into these new roles using tech-enabled oversight and analytics to manage the equipment and systems within a facility remotely and across multiple locations. The infusion of technology and data helps facilities address labor shortages, because one technician can oversee multiple sites using a centralized dashboard.
Even though technology is helping to alleviate some of the pain points, many building operations teams require third-party service support for efficiency and cost control. It’s often not practical or affordable to have full-time in-house experts for every system within the building. On-demand labor isn’t always a full-time requirement when technology and data are infused into building operations.
Stark Tech is a market-leading technology and service provider of facilities and energy solutions designed to keep facilities running at optimal performance. Using Stark Tech’s homegrown building analytics platform, Optelligent®, service teams can better understand and analyze building performance and identify inefficiencies, potential issues, and maintenance strategies that keep assets online and running at optimal performance. The state-of-the-art tools and methods baked into Stark Tech’s platform provides the benefit of innovation and specialty expertise in areas like energy efficiency, protective systems, and power management.
This article was originally featured on the Buffalo Business First website. To view the original article, click here.
