Implementing a CAFM system

Implementing a CAFM system

So you’ve decided to make the leap to computer-aided facility management. Or perhaps you’ve already made the switch and its just not living up to expectations. The next hurdle is to realize that any CAFM system must be customized and fine-tuned to meet your facility’s specific needs. Once all of the issues and decisions have been identified and made, and any problems resolved, there still remains the specific tasks necessary to get your system running optimally for your facility.

• Establish data fields and codes. You already know which data fields you will track through the system. Now it is time to code the system, using your nomenclature, to be sure each field is located and designated as you want it to be.
• Define graphics, symbols, and layering conventions. Decide how colors, cross-hatching, and all other graphics conventions will be used. Decide whether you want to use the AIA standard layering scheme or to modify or add to it. Define your standard furniture and workstation symbols.
• Define and write standard reports and queries. This effort will be your first of many tries at developing alphanumeric reports to help you study your inventory, both to look up data and to arrange them in a variety of forms that management and others outside the facility management group will need.
• Customize menus, data entry screens, and prompts. This task is another way to make the system easier for staff to understand.
• Write (program) macros. Macros are a series of commands that a user strings together in advance. They are helpful when you frequently need to use the same commands in the same sequence. When a macro has been programmed, the user can simply call it up, saving considerable time by not having to write each command in the series.
• Establish your drawing management conventions. Define the types of data you will track about drawings and when the data will be input during the creation of the drawings.
• Set up system security codes. Develop the codes to ensure that only the people you designate can access the system.
• Program the interfaces to other systems. This task often requires a fully experienced programmer or systems specialist.
• Customize the training program. As mentioned previously, this step is necessary to make it easier for your staff to learn not only how to use the system but also how to apply it to your organization’s operating procedures.
• Collect, enter, and verify the data. Enough has already been said about data collection and entry; now is the time to perform these tasks. Data verification checks are then made to ensure that the data have been input correctly.
• Modify or write the procedures manuals. This time-consuming task must be completed before the system can be used, unless there will be only one user. Even then, completing this task is desirable to ensure that a single user works consistently and knows when certain tasks are to be done (for instance, updating and verifying the data) and that another user can take over the work without repeating the entire learning process.

This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Technologies for Facilities Management, a course in the Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) designation program.