Facilities Management Robot
What is a facilities management robot?
A facilities management robot is a robotic device involved in the management of indoor or outdoor properties, including tasks such as lawn care, security, and cleaning. A subset of commercial robots, facilities management robots are a robotic technology application for a specific vertical–in this case, facilities or building management. Facilities management can involve the management of a single building or encompass multiple buildings in the case of corporate campuses, educational campuses, resorts, hotels, apartment complexes, and assisted living grounds, just to name a few.
The facilities management world is divided into “hard” and “soft” management tasks. In short, soft facilities management encompasses activities more typically performed by humans, such as cleaning, security, mail and parcel delivery, and landscaping and maintenance.
Hard facilities management, in contrast, involves the management of physical structures that serve an electrical, technological, or industrial function, such as mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems management, heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) management, and fire and environmental safety management.
Drivers of the facilities management robot market
Facilities management services are a global multi-billion dollar market influenced by a number of significant dynamics that make automation and robots more attractive.
- Evolution from reactive to scheduled to predictive. Over time, facilities management has grown from a few handymen to a sophisticated, holistic solution for managing myriad interconnected systems, all while making that work appear as invisible as possible for tenants. Facilities managers evolved from reacting to things breaking to scheduling regular maintenance to reduce breakdowns to using AI and algorithms to predict a system failure before it occurs.
- A trend toward centralization of operations. While facilities managers were becoming more efficient and proactive, they began to recognize the efficiencies of centralized management. Where there might have been a small building team in each building, now a facilities management team can manage many buildings from a centralized location. Centralization brought additional efficiencies as facilities management can think more holistically about work, for example, scheduling service calls to reduce the number of trips back to the central hub.
- Persistence of remote and hybrid work. Owners and managers of office buildings and parks are facing post-pandemic offices that in many cases are still sparsely populated. To safeguard their investment in those assets and ensure that the lack of foot traffic doesn’t lead to a stale or abandoned atmosphere for the remaining tenants, managers are limited on how much they can cut back on the basics while still delivering a quality customer experience.
- Focus on efficiency and cost-cutting. Due to financial uncertainties, rising heating and cooling costs, and fluctuating numbers of office workers, facilities management professionals are laser-focused on making every penny count and demonstrating the ROI of every investment.
- A tight labor market, especially for relatively unskilled roles. Adding on to this difficult mix is the challenge of hiring and retaining unskilled and low-skilled workers who perform many of the soft facilities management tasks.
All of these trends are converging to make it an attractive time to address some of these facilities management situations with robots. However, those same cash constraints and narrow margins may also cause some facilities management professionals to be unwilling or unable to take on the capital expense of investing in robots. A new breed of service provider is stepping in to fill the gaps by offering Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions, which enables facilities management to pay on a monthly or quarterly basis, transforming these deployments from a capital expense into an operating one.
Tasks performed by facilities management robots
Due to the various services that properties require, the facilities management robot market includes various function-specific robots:
- Security robots. Facilities management security robots may patrol the grounds of a corporate campus, compare parking lot license plate numbers against visitor logs, or check out a door left ajar. In addition to staying safer in a command post, human security professionals can also keep an eye on the activities observed by multiple robots, lowering the number of professionals needed to meet service-level agreements.
- Cleaning robots. Cleaning is another important facility management service affected by the shortage of less-skilled workers and it can have a big impact on how people feel about the workplace. Robots can also now more affordably be equipped with disinfecting technology, helping reduce illness and reduce absenteeism.
- Delivery robots. Deliveries can take place within office parks and corporate campuses. A central mailing center might send arobot to deliver mail and packages to various offices while another delivery robot delivers hot coffee and a sandwich to a student who doesn’t have time to make it to the dining hall. Delivery robots enable professionals to continue doing their jobs centrally while robots deliver for them.
- Lawnmowing robots. Landscaping and exterior maintenance is another non-negotiable service that requires constant attention. Robots that can autonomously mow laws while avoiding plantings, sidewalks, and buildings are helping facility managers keep the outside as tidy and inviting as the inside.
- Monitoring robots and Inspection robots. A big component of proactive maintenance is understanding the current state of the physical plant. Monitoring robots can patrol both public and behind-the-scenes locations and compare what they are observing with what they expect to see, raising a red flag if there are differences a human should examine. Inspection robots are typically inspecting a particular part of the facility on a regular basis to ensure it is functioning as expected. These robots might check gas storage tanks and piping or ensure a field of solar panels remain unobstructed by leaves or snow.
