Coronavirus Accelerates Fault Detection & Diagnostics

May 27, 2020

Covid-19 has fast-tracked remote work. Just as companies have scrambled to enable remote employees with the tools they need to collaborate and work from anywhere – like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack – facilities management teams and building service providers are looking

Covid-19 Is Shining a Light on Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD)

For years the facilities industry has continued in fits and starts towards embracing fault detection and diagnostics technology to enable predictive maintenance strategies, drive energy and cost reduction, and better manage equipment lifecycle costs.  Some organizations have dived in head first, others have slowly climbed down the pool steps, and some just watched from the deck while others got in the pool.

Then COVID arrived and sent a giant tidal wave over the pool and now everyone is swimming – like it or not.

Now, more than ever, facility teams need to have remote visibility into building system performance combined with automated prioritization and root cause analysis of equipment issues. No one wants to send a technician on to the site, unless they have to.  No one wants an engineering firm doing a walk through, unless they have to.  No one wants to continue scheduled maintenance on units whose wear and tear or usage profile don’t justify it.  This is precisely the time in which FDD can help organizations rethink service, maintenance, energy engineering, and facility management with a remote-first, analytics driven approach.

With FDD in place, organizations can re-evaluate scheduled maintenance based on monitored equipment performance.  Simple maintenance and service tasks with quarterly checks on system operation can be replaced with continuous monitoring and analytics with remote visibility and exception notifications.  Engineering firms can provide value without going on to a site with access to key control sequence information, engineering information such as rated powers, time-series data, and prioritized diagnostic findings to assess projects for reset schedules, setback strategies, VFD installations, and other optimizations and improvements.

There is a very real risk that organizations that are not embracing technology and digital transformation will be left behind. While those that do, are positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.

A recent McKinsey article states:

“The COVID-19 crisis seemingly provides a sudden glimpse into a future world, one in which digital has become central to every interaction, forcing both organizations and individuals further up the adoption curve almost overnight.”

Especially in the current environment, use FDD to its full advantage to empower your teams and vendors to do as much as possible without ever having to enter the building.