Building documentation is often considered a necessity by contractors, but it can also be a useful time-saving device for a facilities manager. The facilities manager needs documentation to be accurate, robust and searchable. He has two priorities with the building files;

Firstly in a planning phase – plan the preventative maintenance, and to keep check on when certificates need to be renewed of both the building and plant. To find out the information on each piece of plant, an FM would be able to use the building documentation files, too.

Secondly is a reactive phase – when a piece of plant or part of the building is in breakdown or fault, the FM needs to understand what, why and how to repair the item. This important information needs to be readily at hand to pass on to the technicians who will carry out the repair.

Why does this information need to be readily at hand? Health and Safety is the key reason. To ensure all persons that work on the maintenance and repair of your building are aware of the procedures, process and risks involved, and so to minimise the likely impact.

Searching through arch lever files for a distribution board location, or a water stop when it’s dark or there is already water flooding in, is no help. A quick search engine is needed by the FM to quickly look for and pass on the key information to the people who need it.

In these days of multi-site management, carrying all the information you need is near impossible in paper form. But we can when we have access to the Internet and your electronic data on building documentation is available on laptops, IPAQs or phones.