Peeling back IoT, use a spoon!

Its reported that we will have 50 billon connected IoT devices by 2020 in everything from kettles to cars; we are experiencing a shift in how we react, monitor and control our machinery, tools and toys, including now, your UK gas boiler.

Sometimes it feels like IoT is the new household must have, we have plenty, used with great enthusiasm for about a week and then revert to something that is tried and tested, but tweaked for the 21st century. Some do make it through the initial intense period of use, but very few. So, what makes us invest in new tech without much thought and then pack it away only to re-emerge during the spring clean? We are simply convinced that we cannot live without it, slick adverts, compelling use cases and a simple story that if you do not have one you are missing out. Is IoT in Facilities Maintenance the same?

IoT will help transform Facilities Maintenance and how we maintain buildings and manage service delivery. I for one believe that too. However, with all ‘on trend tech’, we need to take a deep breath and step back before we make a pointless investment.

Huge numbers 30 – 40% are thrown around about how much IoT can reduce your spend on Facilities Maintenance. If that is the case, one has to question, why is it not selling like hot cakes and installed into every building. It is in some cases, but used in a slightly different way to the basics of maintenance.

Lets assume a 3rd of your maintenance cost can be removed by using IoT; I can accept that IoT can be used as a catalyst for change but its an expensive catalyst, a bit like buying a Porsche as a catalyst to force the need for a Mini.

In all my years of experience, a reduction in delivery cost without introducing risk, affecting plant performance or impacting on the customer experience can be achieved without IoT and before any technology is introduced; whether it is cleaning machines, heat recovery units and other technologies and in some cases merely managing the contract. The first step is to establish where the costs are, the benchmark.  

The first step is to understand the strategy of your FM solution and how it is delivered, please read a previous post, ‘I wanna tell you a story’, about my experience in a vertical building in Dubai. IoT in this scenario would save 30%, but the question is what part of 'change in service provision' was attributable to IoT, perhaps 5%. The rest came from setting the right strategy; labour profiling and qualified people, leadership and meaningful performance measures and much more.

So lets not get carried away, in most cases IoT alone will not save 30% more like 5 - 10% with the rest coming from basic change management and innovative smart delivery, working smarter not harder.

So if you want to reduce cost, improve customer care, reduce risk and optimise your building you first need to review your strategy. IoT is merely a small tool in your bag of options, and yes, it will contribute but is it really worth the cost. A ROI and OA (return on investment and options analysis) will answer this by identifying where the benefits are; this needs teasing out. As an example, would you replace a pointless activity with a pointless IoT device, what is the point? Enough said. Do not forget you are paying for it!

Some IoT devices are several $’s per month, they need to be cents, need a gateway or several, have no practical way of being mounted and require a lot of effort to maintain. You might be buying more of a headache than a benefit. Imagine several hundred devices mounted in plant rooms, tie wrapped to pipes, glued to motors in hard to locate, poorly lit spaces requiring batteries to be changed.

Yes, they have a role, although IoT alone will not deliver the savings, they merely contribute to the savings. Like any other technology or process, they claim to reduce your costs, it has to be understood, much like life its self, challenges can be resolved by merely adjusting behaviours from traditional to smart. A super computer does not make you smart it enables smart people to work more efficiently.

Before investing in IoT be smart and invest in a review and don’t get carried away with it is new, I have to have it. Now where did I put that Avocado Slicer - cannot use a spoon a tried a tested method used for a super food of the 21st century or my Banana Peeler…and yes they do exist!