This review applies to Class 1b to 9 buildings only;
It is not intended for the day-to-day management of a building where a “Facility Management System “ can be used.
BCA Performance has created an Annual Certification Management System whereby a building owner can easily (and inexpensively) track and store all data relating to the Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) requirements of their building. This system is call – Annual Certification Management System (ACAS), and is available on our web site for testing purposes should you wish to have a look.
www.bcaperformance.com
As Accredited Certifiers (AC) we are often faced with the prospect of providing certification for new works within a building where the maintenance regimes may not be as one would expect. Lack of, or poor maintenance on existing buildings has for many years been a point of contention for many different authorities. This concern has given rise to the preparation of various discussion papers where some of the maintenance issues were raised and discussed at length and then legislated to various levels of success.
When an AC is requested to perform an approval on an existing building there are certain details and documents that they will require prior to preparing and issuing an approval. At the top of that list and the most basic will be the need for a current AFSS and this is where the question of building maintenance comes into focus. Whilst the maintenance of fire systems in a building is clearly not the only item of concern it is however representative of all other maintenance requirements and serves as a fairly reliable barometer for the rest of the building.
Bearing the above in mind the real question at hand is, what does the term “building maintenance” actually mean? From our perspective we would say that building maintenance should mean the following:
(a) Testing and certification of services against a relevant standard and/or codes;
(b) Maintaining of services on a regular basis (as per the relevant standard);
(c) All testing activities should be documented as a means of verification;
(d) Documentation relating to the maintenance to be stored by the building owner in a form that is readily accessible.
As noted above there are many facets to Fire service maintenance but without a dedicated record and information storage system the process of maintenance can be difficult. We have noticed in the past where service contractors readily conduct testing and maintain certain services and then provide the relevant information to the client for their advice. Whilst this is useful it is of little or no use to the building owner if they do not have a storage system that can be easily referenced at any time when needed. This type of storage also allows quick reference to documents that are pivotal to the function of a building and would satisfy one of the key initiatives called for by various authorities.
Given the depth of knowledge that a building owner would need to have when dealing with maintenance requirements it becomes evident very quickly that this is a specialised area where different levels of expertise is required. So it is not realistic to expect a building owner to understand the nuances of maintaining critical fire systems within their building. Whilst many are more than capable in do so it is the interplay of recording the results in to an accessible storage system where the process can fail.
As with all procedures there is a relevant starting point, we would suggest that each building should have their very own management and maintenance database which would allow information to be accurately stored and readily retrieved.
Whilst there are currently any number of Facility Management (FM) Systems on the market that claim to achieve the same outcome, this would be without substance. Given that a generic FM system is designed to cover most of the management requirements of a building they do not consider the legal maintenance and / or certification requirements for various critical service systems on a state by state basis on a state by state basis.
As Accredited Certifiers we have not been directed to an existing FM System to find the relevant information that we would need to perform our duties. It is our view that a more dedicated system is required for the storing of critical information that would be able to do the following:
(a) Store build plans;
(b) Store specifications;
(c) Store building approvals (base building);
(d) Store building approvals (tenancies);
(e) Store Fire Services Schedule;
(f) Store contractor details and agreements;
(g) Store contractor reports;
(h) Store contractor certificates;
(i) Store Annual Fire Safety Statements (AFSS);
(j) Store and track Alternative Solutions;
(k) Be readily accessible for retrieval of information;
(l) Track change to fire services due to building changes.
As noted above the building management systems advocated by the various authorities over recent years is not necessarily an FM System. It is more aligned to the regulatory requirements of building maintenance and would set a platform for a building owner or manager to easily track this very important process.
It is also worth noting that under the latest legislation requirements all AFSS’s issued to council must now be endorsed by a “Competent Fire Safety Practitioner” (CFSP), this is the subject of a later blog.
Should you wish to discuss this system in more detail please feel free to contact Mr. John Koloadin (john@bcaperformance.com) to organise a discussion.