< Previous COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.com20 April 2021 SKILLSETS AND INNOVATIONS Oil & Gas businesses operate in an industry that is subject to complex global and national constraints ranging from continuously fluctuating prices to strict regulatory monitoring. To thrive, these organisations need to constantly adapt to the ups and downs in the industry. Achieving this requires, among other things, excellence in their core operations — crude oil exploration, processing, and supply. Haneef adds that Oil & Gas facilities include control centres, production sites, piping and gathering networks, transportation and distribution facilities, and residence camps. Some of the capabilities needed in these environments and addressed by building technologies include fire detection and suppression, site and corporate security, automation and controls, data services, distributed energy management, and building performance. According to Haneef, to be successful in this sensitive sector an FM personnel needs to have the following: (1) holistic overview of the premises. The staff looking over a host of control systems and necessary knowledge of operating them is crucial; (2) solid base in HSE/ PTW stipulations to strictly adhere to best practices in the organisation; (3) strong communication skills; and (4) strong decision-making skills. Haneef says: “To comply with these requirements, AG Facilities has a dedicated department to deal with all regulatory and compliance requirements. We hire and train staff with relevant Oil & Gas experience and support them with a strong HSEQ team.” According to Sen, the other innovations that the firm implements in order to service the sector include, (1) CAFM: AG Facilities has integrated its in-house-developed Facilities Solutions Applications (FSA), enabling it to consolidate all operations and support activities on a seamless platform. FSA is accessible by multiple in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, while creating a manufacturing ecosystem in the vicinity. Haneef says: “These are exciting and challenging times to be in the Oil & Gas sector. AG Facilities is motivated to be a major business partner in this pioneering strategy and contribute to the nation’s growth in this sector. We are aligning all policies and plans accordingly. We anticipate the Oil & Gas sector to drive more than 30-35% of our revenue by 2030 and towards that measure we are working at increasing our presence in the Oil & Gas sector by setting up workshops and an integrated camp, a warehouse, an employee development center and stores in Ruwais. “These initiatives combined with recruiting local talent can help increase our ICV score as well as set the foundation of a fruitful relationship between AG Facilities and the major players across all value streams in the Oil & Gas sector.” An AG Facilities' employee at work. COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.comApril 2021 21 stakeholders to generate live updates and efficiently manage operations. This will provide a one-stop solution for all FM needs; (2) PDA devices: This enables the firm’s operational staff to retrieve service updates, conduct surveys and gather customer feedback simultaneously. This has reduced the turnaround time significantly; (3) Online Training: Sen says: “The pandemic has managed to teach us the importance of digitalisation, disruption response, and scenario planning. These lessons were inculcated in designing our online training modules and helped us accomplish the operational changes which Covid-19 demanded”; (4) Biometrics/Geolocation: AG Facilities installed biometric machines at its camp and transport facilities to enable biometric attendance and automate the payroll process; (5) R&D: AG Facilities is implementing IoT in its daily operations for predictive analytics and preventive maintenance. This will help identify and resolve potential service requests before they manifest; (6) VR/AR Training: Sen explains: “Adding these modules to our training regime helps simulate exact client infrastructure at our training facilities. This enables staff to immerse themselves in their future work environment and practice FM activities. This training is a godsend in a sector as sensitive as the Oil & Gas”; and (7) MCoins: A motivation scheme termed MCoins targeting all employees of the organisation and incentivising adherence to best practices. This drives a conscientious behaviour among the staff and enables them to be task owners. FUTURE OBJECTIVES The UAE Oil & Gas market is expected to register a CAGR of greater than 7.5%. Factors, such as massive investment in upstream and government policies, are likely to drive the UAE oil and gas market over the next decade. The refining capacity of the country is to increase by 65%, up to 1.5 million barrels per day by 2025.2 Haneef concludes: “The onus is on facilities management organisations to partner with this growing sector and AG Facilities stands at the forefront of this partnership. Towards this effect, we are building our resources for additional anticipated FM projects in the industry. A strategic plan is in place to attract the right talent, retain them with enhanced HR policies, augment their skillset by providing them world-class training and certifications as well as equipping them with the resources to fulfil client requirements with the highest level of professionalism and quality.” References: 1• U.A.E.-Oil-and-Gas-Sector.pdf (usuaebusiness.org) 2• United Arab Emirates Oil and Gas Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020-2025) (researchandmarkets.com) THE PANDEMIC HAS MANAGED TO TEACH US THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITALISATION, DISRUPTION RESPONSE, AND SCENARIO PLANNING. THESE LESSONS WERE INCULCATED IN DESIGNING OUR ONLINE TRAINING MODULES AND HELPED US ACCOMPLISH THE OPERATIONAL CHANGES WHICH COVID-19 DEMANDED. NILANJAN SEN, HEAD, TFM, ABU DHABI, AG FACILITIES INNOVATION 22 April 2021www.fm-middleeast.com Two innovators from France have developed a tiny box resembling a Rubik’s cube that can assist facilities managers to monitor a building’s performance A n innovative little box that resembles a Rubik’s cube is making its way into corporate workspaces to assist facilities managers and HR teams gauge energy consumption and monitor a building’s efficiency. In addition, the cube is designed to track air quality, temperature and overall comfort of an occupant’s physical surroundings. If individuals feel good in their workplace, they’re more likely THE CUBE to care about (and take care of ) the buildings where they spend a large part of their time. This complex electronic device, created by the French company GreenMe, is a plastic cube with small INNOVATION April 2021 23www.fm-middleeast.com Alexandre Dugarry, co-founder, GreenMe. doing plastic injection. We designed a model and manufactured the first dozen using a 3D printer. We had met design companies who advised us to produce the parts in China, but we wanted to work locally.” Berrada elaborates: “Since our main market is French, it was important for us to produce as close as possible to our clients. In addition, the energy produced in France is mainly nuclear so largely decarbonised. It would have been absurd to create a solution that while aiming at reducing building energy consumption, emits tonnes of carbon when produced or imported.” GreenMe worked with the team at AI2P/Acaplast to reduce the cube size, as it was important that the units be portable and placed on desks close to individuals. While most buildings have sensors on ceilings or floors, the data is more relevant if it is close to where people are sitting. Acaplast was asked to address the constraints of organising the internal electronics in a small space, so the sensors wouldn’t corrupt one another. GreenMe wanted a device that was easy to mount, priced competitively and had attractive colours and design. The founders envisioned an object that people would be happy to have on their desks, which is how the design of the Rubik’s cube was chosen. perforations on its surface to allow air to reach internal sensors that collect data about ten environmental factors. Each individual can have this lightweight and portable device called the “GreenMe Comfort Meter” on their own desk. Workplace discomfort has obvious and proven detrimental effects. Flickering lights can cause brain activity imbalance, resulting in disorientation, vertigo and nausea. An environment that’s too hot requires our hearts to work harder and causes heat fatigue, whereas one that’s too cold causes stress disorders. Exposure to loud or shrill noises can lead to increased blood pressure. Addressing the abovementioned issues, GreenMe was founded in 2014 by engineers Aïda Berrada and Alexandre Dugarry, who are passionate about creating green, efficient buildings and making individuals understand the impact of their own behaviours in those spaces. Berrada says: “It’s all good and well constructing an energy-efficient building, but if people don’t feel good in it, they won’t care about acting responsibility and won’t pay attention to their energy consumption. There’s an added benefit for the companies, too. Studies have shown that employee productivity increases 40% with better lighting and sick leave declines by 55% with better air quality.” A software engineer with a specialty in applied mathematics and signal processing, Berrada has worked in a bank’s trading room in Paris for several years before launching GreenMe along with Dugarry. She says: “I am passionate about designing the most performant solutions for people. I love problem solving, especially in new technologies, and feel great satisfaction in meeting or exceeding client expectations.” Dugarry on the other hand is a PhD in applied mathematics and human machine interfaces, who founded and managed a software engineering company for 15 years before launching GreenMe. Coming from a family of architects, Dugarry has a strong background in building conception which has led him to take an interest in sustainable building. The firm, based in the Southwest of France, won an EDF (Électricité de France) start-up competition with a prototype of the “GreenMe Comfort Meter” – and landed the French utility company as its first client. Once it was clear there was a market for the device, the founders looked at scaling up the operation. They contacted a Lourdes- based firm AI2P (part of the Acaplast Group) about manufacturing the plastic cubes, which encase the electronics. THE CUBE Dugarry explains: “We got to know Acaplast by researching local companies INNOVATION 24 April 2021www.fm-middleeast.com The cube comes with a 3-year guarantee; but, all the devices that the firm has placed since 2017 are still working, the founders claim. “There is no battery because of environmental priorities,” adds Berrada. THE FUNCTIONING The “GreenMe Comfort Meter” records a room’s ambient temperature, its noise levels – including frequencies that are unpleasant to the human ear – lighting levels such as colour temperature and flickering frequencies, and air quality – including the level of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), CO 2 and particulate matter present in the room. In addition, employees or occupants can indicate their personal comfort level or raise alerts by tilting the Meter on its side: If set down in one direction, a smiley face appears; in the opposite, a frowning emoji. Or it can serve as a simple survey tool, by programming it to respond to YES or NO questions. For example, for the question, 'Do you like the new cafeteria menu?' You only need to tilt the Meter to record your answer. The information is sent to a data centre, which is updated every 10 minutes, located in France using public radio frequencies that connect to the LoRaWAN network, which is used for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. LoRa is a proprietary low-power wide- area network modulation technique. It is based on spread spectrum modulation techniques derived from chirp spread spectrum technology. It was developed by Cycleo of Grenoble, France and acquired by Semtech, the founding member of the LoRa Alliance and it is patented. GreenMe provides clients with access to a dashboard they can use to evaluate the performance of their facilities. It also offers training and assistance in creating an action plan to optimise the building’s efficiency, reduce energy consumption and meet European norms for natural light and noise thresholds. Talking a bit about the dashboard, Berrada says: “The dashboard aggregates and correlates data. It offers different advanced metrics so that the facility manager, or any person in charge, can assess the situation precisely, detect anomalies, objectify the comfort situation when dealing with users’ complaints, etc." About the accuracy of recording, Berrada says that the more cubes there are, the better. She says: “One cube per person will give you the individual comfort situation. But in open spaces, we can define homogeneous comfort areas (e.g., people near a window don’t feel the same as people near a corridor) and place one cube per area. What is important is that the device is placed as close as possible to the occupants so that it reflects their comfort situation and that they can see it and tilt when they need to express a discomfort or when the device asks for feedbacks.” In addition, what needs to be noted is that an alert is sent when an environmental factor goes beyond a permissible range. “The thresholds and factors for which you want to be alerted can be configured,” she says. Berrada says that commercial and residential buildings must significantly reduce their energy consumption in order to reduce their GHG emissions and achieve carbon neutrality (an objective targeted by the Paris agreement among others). Actions to reduce energy consumption in buildings have an impact on the satisfaction and well- being of occupants (IAQ, hygrothermal comfort). The deterioration of the well- being of the occupants has an impact on their productivity and their physical and mental health. It leads to an increase in complaints, turnover and absenteeism. This degradation can lead to significant costs for businesses and our health care system. Most of this cost is linked to premature mortality, healthcare and the reduced quality of life. She says: “The question we wish to address is: How can we make buildings less energy-intensive while at the same time ensuring the comfort and good health of users?” THE FUTURE GreenMe, with its five employees, is based in France, but has a presence that reaches across Europe. GreenMe comfort meters can be found in banks, insurance companies and offices across France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. The recent health crisis has brought air quality and comfort into focus outside the office, as well, with more clients asking if they can use the device at home, the founders reveal. Berrada says that it’s technologically possible to use the GreenMe Comfort Meter as a plug and play module. On plans of scaling up operation in other parts of the world such as the Middle East, Berrada says: “Yes, we are. We have started to sell in Europe and North Africa, but we are looking into the Middle East as well, especially in countries that have decided to take environment seriously.” Any takers in this region? STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES 40% WITH BETTER LIGHTING AND SICK LEAVE DECLINES BY 55% WITH BETTER AIR QUALITY. AïDA BERRADA, CO-FOUNDER, GREENME Aïda Berrada, co-founder, GreenMe.Why routine HVAC maintenance is essential? SMART SYSTEMS, SMART SERVICE Gone are the days when we wait for an AC to fail before it is fixed p30 plus A SP EC IA L R E P O R T F R O M FACI LITI ES M A N AG E M E N T M I D D L E E A ST HVAC MAINTENANCEwww.fm-middleeast.com COMMENT April 2021 27 he HVAC Services Market was valued at $57.8bn in 2020 and is expected to reach $82.5bn by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period (2021-2026). The outbreak of coronavirus has impacted logistics and supply chain across the globe. For the HVAC industry, the summertime attracted prominent demand for retrofitting and new installations, which is expected to be influenced severely due to the shortage of components in the time of lockdown, according to Mordor Intelligence. P&S Intelligence states that the growth in construction industry in MEA is expected to support Middle East and Africa HVAC market growth. At present, construction sector is surging at an exorbitant pace in the MEA region. Global events such as World Expo 2020 in UAE and FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, is anticipated to drive the tourism industry in GCC countries. Moreover, Qatar’s hospitality sector is registering unprecedented Want to enter the debate? If you have any comments to make on these issues, email the editor at rajiv.pillai@itp.com. VIEWP INT With global events such as Expo 2020 and FIFA World Cup 2022, the HVAC maintenance market is only set to grow in the coming years. RAJIV RAVINDRAN PILLAI Maintenance market T About the author Rajiv Ravindran Pillai is the editor of Facilities Management Middle East. growth year-over-year (YoY), as the country gears-up for National Vision 2030 and FIFA World Cup 2022. In addition, the recently annouced Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, which envisages large-scale changes to the landscape and skyline, brings another set of advantages to the HVAC sector. Tariq Chauhan, CEO of EFS Group. says that this master plan has its particular focus on the inclusivity of environment, culture and quality of living, which eventually means an exciting role-play for the service industry. Therefore, the FM industry is likely to get a significant boost and will have to capitulate on this. He adds: “FM companies need to be at the forefront of its implementation and execution. These have to raise their bar both in terms of quality and compliance. The maintenance and support standards will have to be upgraded to ensure best practices.” The demand for HVAC maintenance invariably will rise in the coming years. Just as Dubai’s 2040 Master Plan, HVAC maintenance is something which cannot be ignored. INSIGHT 28 April 2021www.fm-middleeast.com Does the FM industry in particular and end-users in general have realistic expectations from air conditioning equipment? By Jad Nachabe, FM director at Al Bonian FM W hat do we expect from our AC systems? Should be simple, right? Depending on when and where you’re asking this question, your answer could be cooling in the summer, heating in the winter. Yes? – but let’s dig deeper. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems – HVAC for short – have come a long way since 1902 when Carrier invented the modern air con. These machines have made the impossible possible, quite literally. Unbearable summer heat in the Middle East has long been a thing of the past. The wind towers in the UAE may have re-gained popularity in recent years, and not because of how efficient their cooling AC SYSTEM PERFORMANCE is. They are an ode to the country’s Bedouin past and a testimony to how far towers have risen in the skyline since then – from a few meters up until the 1980s to hundreds on top of hundreds ever since. Mercury-raising temperatures and glass-fogging humidity are merely an inconvenience to overcome nowadays with ever more efficient and greener AC equipment. It’s a race to the top for living comfort, air quality, and environmental sustainability with AC manufacturers worldwide. But do these climate making machines perform as we need them to? Are we using them properly? And does the Facilities Management industry in particular and end-users in general have realistic expectations from air conditioning equipment? ‘My AC isn’t working’ is your typical overused and misleading complaint in any facilities or property management help desk. It says so much with so few words, doesn’t it? This request could be solved with basic over-the-phone series of questions: the tenant didn’t set the thermostat properly, causing the unit to blow uncooled air, for example. It could be a bit more technical and require a quick troubleshooting visit from the AC maintenance team, and problem solved within a few hours at most. Otherwise, it could be an isolated incident or one of several calls logged that afternoon relating back into a bigger issue with the building’s cooling – longer fix time, still manageable though. In brief, ‘my AC isn’t working’ is a common problem with INSIGHTINSIGHT April 2021 29www.fm-middleeast.com many possible outcomes – easily solved by any maintenance team worth their salt. Until it isn’t. My father, one of the founders of Al Bonian FM, who’s been in the construction and maintenance industry for over 4 decades, always said: “The structure is the foundation of any building. The MEP installations are its living, breathing heartbeat.” As with our body’s organs, MEP installations need to be looked after regularly, taken care of when any issues arise, and trained regularly to improve their performance and enhance their fitness level. That last part sounds a bit confusing, but it will make sense in a minute. When you want to run a marathon, you need to train your body for it. You cannot go from couch potato to sub-4-hour marathon in one leap. You could, but it would hurt everywhere. Ideally, you build up your training – increasing your lung capacity, enhancing your running posture, strengthening your muscles, improving your threshold heart rate, etc., over the course of an 8-week program. You align your reality with your expectation. You work hard and achieve what you set out to do. Like your organs, MEP installations need a lot of TLC (tender, love and care) to perform and live out their life cycles. Proper maintenance is undeniably key, that’s something anyone in the industry will agree on. However, aligning our expectations with reality is a tactic that hasn’t had its time in the sunshine, yet. Aside from the preventive or predictive maintenance – the TLC you can gift to your assets, we need to understand how they were designed, selected, installed, commissioned, and operated. A lot of steps to be considered but all crucially important. The first step is when the consultant or engineer on a project, ranging from big complexes to single villas, creates the design, writes the specification documents, and issues the drawing. The second step is when the contractor selects the equipment, notably the AC system in our example here, from water- or air-cooled chillers to VRV systems, and anything in between. The marriage of these two steps is essential yet overlooked or even rushed. If the AC is designed to run at 99% capacity, if the calculations do not factor in the incoming municipal water temperature, if the design brief did not factor in that the occupant wants to achieve an 18 °C without any excess humidity, if, if, if… Numerous factors need to be considered in the early stages that will have a direct impact on the performance of the system during building occupation later on but also on the expectations of the occupants. We’ve dealt with over- and under-designed cooling capacity in all kinds of projects. The consultant, fearful of the boiling summer temperatures, selects a cooling system with 150% more load than actually required. The result? A property owner struggling with higher DEWA bills. On the other end of the spectrum, you may have a system that’s designed to run at full load in the summer. Running a cooling system at 100% is not the most efficient, yes. But also, what if you factor in an efficiency drop of 1 to 3% per year depending on use and maintenance. The result is cooling that doesn’t keep up with demand and a lot of upset occupants. Let’s look at a homeowner living in one of Dubai’s finest gated communities, in an idyllic 5-bedroom villa. She has paid good money for 5-star consultants and contractors to build her family’s new home. They didn’t spare an expense on anything, marble and kitchen appliances from the finest quarries and factories in Italy, sanitaryware from top German brands, chandeliers encrusted with Russian precious stones, water features and plants shipped in from Spain – well everything’s been carefully chosen except their AC system selection. The AC manufacturer is a good one undeniably – premium engineering, innovative R&D, state of the art factories, all the works. But the selection was sub-par. The fresh air handling unit was not selected knowing that this homeowner likes chilly temperatures in the summer. The humidity being blown in by the unit was causing the special paint to become moldy and develop cracks. Similarly, the installation of the AC units and controls was far from ideal. The interface between the AC controls and smart home automation was not implemented correctly. The AC cuts off during the warm months because the temperature reading is from the decorative thermostat instead of from the return air duct. A long list of faults meant this homeowner paid top-Dirham to have an unpleasant living environment. Had these issues been taken into consideration early on, the selection of the AC system and its installation would’ve meant a much more comfortable atmosphere. Any good maintenance team should be able to rectify these issues thoroughly for this homeowner. As was in fact the case for this homeowner with Al Bonian FM’s competent technical team. This has long been the standard at which Al Bonian FM operates and troubleshoots for countless others, large or small scale, in our more than three decades of services and expertise. What we strive for however, is to tackle such issues at their root – and aligning expectations with installations. Jad Nachabe, FM director at Al Bonian FM. PROPER MAINTENANCE IS UNDENIABLY KEY, THAT’S SOMETHING ANYONE IN THE INDUSTRY WILL AGREE ON. Next >