Soft landings and business-focused maintenance
In April 2019, BSRIA launched TG 19/2019 Soft Landings and Business-Focused Maintenance Topic Guide. The free to download guide is an ‘at a glance publication’ giving readers a glimpse of the subject and pointing them towards further reading.
The design and construction of a building should allow it to perform at its optimum. Once it is in operation it is crucial to maintain the building to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency in supporting its function as well as the occupants’ needs and wellbeing.
In most buildings, maintenance is carried out to preserve physical assets through failure prevention schedules. Creating such schedules without knowing which assets are critical for business continuity can result in overspending or disruption due to emergency repairs.
Maintenance schedules should be customised to focus more on the requirements specific to the needs of the business. Business-focused maintenance (BFM) is a planned maintenance structure that supports business function by identifying critical assets and then shaping maintenance activities to suit.
BSRIA’s topic guide helps those involved in the design, construction and operation of a building to understand how an effective BFM regime can be developed and achieved through the soft landings approach.
Nick Blake, the guide’s co-author and Principal Consultant – Facilities Management at BSRIA, said:
“Maintenance can have a major impact on the success of a business and, therefore, can deliver a competitive advantage. It shouldn’t be considered as an overhead – but as a way of adding value to the business. Each building, therefore, should have its own bespoke maintenance programme which can enable the FM to prevent asset failures through a more pragmatic approach.
“BFM can help the team to first decide which assets are crucial in achieving the business goals and the end users’ needs. Then, Soft Landings success criteria in terms of the availability, accessibility and manageability of those assets can be set.
“Both BFM and Soft Landings are well-established industry practices. This topic guide has sketched out how the two can be applied to a project in synchrony.”
TG 19/2019 Soft Landings and Business-Focused Maintenance is free to download from the BSRIA website.
A six-step process for implementing this approach can be found in BSRIA Guide BG 53/2016 Business-Focused Maintenance.
--BSRIA
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- 2020 Soft Landings Conference.
- Better Buildings Partnership.
- BREEAM Aftercare support.
- BSRIA.
- BSRIA articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
- BSRIA Soft Landings Awards.
- BSRIA Soft Landings 2019 award winners.
- Business focused maintenance.
- Extended aftercare.
- Initial aftercare.
- Maintenance.
- Maximising maintenance budgets after lockdown.
- Post occupancy evaluation.
- Post project review.
- Performance in use.
- Servitisation, smart systems and connectivity of instrumentation.
- Soft landings.
- Soft Landings for owners.
- Success criteria for soft landings projects.
Featured articles and news
The continued ISG fall out, where to go?
Support for ISG contractors, companies and employees.
New HES national centre for traditional building retrofit
Announced as HES publishes survey results which reveal strong support for retrofit.
Retrofit of Buildings, a CIOB Technical Publication
Expected to become one of the largest activities in the global construction industry.
The ECA industry focus video channel
Keeping update with the industry session by session.
Over 25 recorded informations sessions freely available.
AT Awards 2024 ceremony East London October 25th.
Revisiting the AT community at the 2023 awards evening.
The Community Housing Fund and built affordable homes
CLTN reviews the impact of the Fund and calls for extension.
The grading system of the Regulator for Social Housing
A background, an explanation and ten recent enforcements.
Construction, repair and maintenance. Book review.
Putting new life into a city with a 1900 year history.
BSRIA Briefing 2024: Sustainable Futures speakers
Redefining Retrofit for Net Zero Living 22 Nov.
Wall of support for post-Grenfell regulation of electricians
Call for a shake-up of the construction industry highlighted on radio.
Digital sustainability through future AEC tools
Bringing together industry and academia to meet challenges.
Skills gap for net zero highlighted to Minister for Industry
ECA convenes roundtable discussion at Portcullis House.
Evidencing Net Zero with the new UK buildings standard
Pilot version with detailed excel proforma out now!
Scottish Building Safety Levy, in consultation
From direct remediation and the RPDT, to the costs and alternatives.
Waves of warmer homes grants for the rental sector
Boosting energy efficiency standards for all rented homes.
A refocus of the National Planning Policy Framework
Key terms described in brief, as the consultation closes the evening of the 24th.
Fortified farmhouses of the unruly 16th-and 17th-century borders.