NOTICE
The Federal Construction Council (FCC) is a continuing activity of the Building Research Board of the National Research Council (NRC). The purpose of the FCC is to promote continuing cooperation among the sponsoring federal agencies and between the agencies and other elements of the building community in order to advance building science and technology--particularly with regard to the design, construction, and operation of federal facilities. Currently, 18 agencies sponsor the FCC:
Department of the Air Force, Office of the Civil Engineer
Department of the Air Force, Air National Guard
Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers
Department of the Army, Construction Engineering Research Laboratories
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation
Department of Energy, Office of Project and Facilities Management
Department of the Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command
Department of State, Office of Foreign Buildings Operations
Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Construction Management
General Services Administration, Public Buildings Service
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Facilities Engineering Office
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Endowment for the Arts, Design Arts Program
National Science Foundation, Structural Systems and Construction Processes Program
Smithsonian Institution, Office of Facilities Service
U.S. Information Agency, Voice of America
U.S. Public Health Service, Office of Management
U.S. Postal Service, Facilities.
As part of its activities, the FCC periodically publishes reports like this one that have been prepared by committees of government employees. Since these committees are not appointed by the NRC, they do not make recommendations, and their reports are not reviewed and approved in accordance with usual NRC procedures. Consequently, the reports are considered FCC publications rather than NRC publications.
For further information on the FCC program or FCC reports, please write to: Executive Secretary, Federal Construction Council, Building Research Board, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20418.
PREFACE
During the last decade, hundreds of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) have been developed to help building managers organize and control the operation, maintenance, and repair of their building systems and equipment. Federal agencies have found that CMMS can be of great value, but that they have one major shortcoming: In order to function, considerable information about each piece of equipment to be maintained must be ferreted out of manufacturers' literature and then typed into the CMMS database. Agencies have discovered that the cost of collecting and inserting information into a CMMS database actually is much higher than the cost of the CMMS itself and that the possibility of errors being made in the process is high.
After reviewing the situation, the Federal Construction Council Consulting Committee on Computer Applications concluded that one solution would be to have equipment manufacturers supply the required information in digital form so that it could be read directly into a database. The problem is there are literally hundreds of CMMS on the market, each with different data requirements and different ways of coding the data. Obviously, equipment manufacturers could not be expected to supply digitized operating, maintenance, and repair (OM&R) information in hundreds of different formats. However, this would not be necessary if there were data-input standards for CMMS.
The committee was convinced that such standards were feasible and that, once developed, they would be of inestimable value to all concerned. Specifically, owners would benefit by being able to computerize their maintenance activities at a fraction of the current cost, CMMS vendors would benefit because the market for their systems would expand greatly as owners saw the cost of implementing the systems drop, and equipment manufacturers would benefit by being assured that the information put into the systems about their products was accurate.
In order to get the standards-development process started, the committee held a symposium/workshop moderated by Tony Hinson, Committee Chairman, in February 1993 at the National Academy of Sciences. The goals of the symposium were (1) to define the types of standards needed, (2) to prepare a plan for getting the standards developed, and (3) to obtain commitments to the effort from key participants. To help ensure that these goals were achieved, the committee selected
a group of influential decision makers for participation in the symposium/workshop and developed an example of the type of standard envisioned to serve as the starting point in a standards-development effort. Participants represented major building owners, building equipment manufacturers, CMMS vendors, and national facilities standards groups. The discussion at the workshop revealed a clear consensus on the need for the proposed standards and support for initiation of the standards-development process through ASTM.
This report presents summaries of five papers presented at the symposium/workshop plus the sample standard, which was prepared by committee members William Brodt and Paul Fardig. The summaries were prepared by the speakers, and the opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the FCC. However, the papers are believed to be relevant and timely and to contain information that will be useful to the sponsoring federal agencies.
Following the symposium/workshop, ASTM formed Task Group E06.25.11 on Data Input Standards for Computerized Maintenance Management Systems to begin work on the proposed standards. Anyone interested in participating in the ASTM task group should call John Vowell at ASTM on (215) 299-5400. The Task Group co-chairmen are FCC committee members William Brodt of the National Institute of Health and Kent Reed of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION COUNCIL CONSULTING COMMITTEE ON COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
Chairman 1
Jane Barnum,
Office of Foreign Buildings Operations, Department of State
Members
Hugh Adams,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Carolann Beda,
Readiness Center, Air National Guard
William Brodt,
Facilities Engineering Branch, National Institutes of Health
Michael Case,
U.S. Army Construction Engineering and Research Laboratories
Patrick Collins,
Office of Foreign Buildings Operations, U.S. Department of State
Paul Fardig,
Engineering Support Services Branch, U.S. Public Health Service
Alex Formwalt,
Civil Engineering Support Agency, Department of the Air Force
Bruce Goettel,
U.S. Army Construction Engineering and Research Laboratories
Mark Hall,
Facilities Oversight Office, Department of Veterans Affairs
Joseph Hassenfeldt,
Facilities Management Division, Department of Energy
Tony Hinson,
Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Department of the Navy
Mel Kince,
Voice of America
Ronald King,
General Government Division, General Accounting Office
Ben Lawless,
Construction Engineering Division, Air National Guard
Frank Liebner,
Office of Foreign Buildings Operations, U.S. Department of State
Charles Masen,
Voice of America
Ron McIntyre,
Office of the Civil Engineer, Department of the Air Force
Kent Morgan,
Planning and Review Branch, U.S. Public Health Service
Hal Piper,
Public Buildings Service, General Services Administration
Willard Powell,
Mid-Atlantic Area Office, U.S. Postal Service
Kent Reed,
Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology
1 |
Tony Hinson of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command was chairman at the time of the symposium/workshop. |
Adam Scully,
Facilities Management Branch, U.S. Public Health Service
Dana Smith,
Naval Facilities Engineering Command
Public Facilities Council Liaison
Carl Greeson,
Division of Design and Construction, State of Missouri
Joseph Thelan,
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Lawrence White,
Department of Facilities Service, Montgomery County (Maryland) Government
Staff
Henry A. Borger, Executive Secretary,
Federal Construction Council
Lena B. Grayson, Senior Secretary