5 Ways How AI can Optimize Space Management in Facilities

Space management is inevitable for effective facilities management. In fact, many businesses struggle to optimize their space to improve workflow and increase productivity. Thus, the facility mangers are vested with the responsibility of planning, designing and controlling the space use in a facility. It is often said that, a good facilities manager knows how to make the most out of even the tightest spaces. Thus, space management involves the strategic use of the available space with the view to maximize efficiency and productivity in the organization.

However, space management is not children’s play and it even difficult when carried out manually. It is due to the cumbersome, costly, non-efficient and time-consuming nature of manual space management tactics. This blog thus attempts at discussing the major space management problems generally faced by facilities managers and how automation can solve them.

So, let us dive right in!

Though it may seem to be a mere bagatelle for some, effective space management is inevitable for the long-term viability of the business. Studies have revealed that globally, 42% of commercial office space is underused. It has been further stated that large organizations waste nearly £10 billion annually owing to waste office space. Thus, from saving money to improved people’s/employees’ experience, space management in facilities have multi-faceted benefits.

Thus, effective space management in facilities is important as it ensures:

Space management is a matter of core concern for the facility managers as they generally face the following issues when it comes to effective space management in facilities:

• Space Planning: The first major challenge confronted by the facility managers as regard space management is ‘space planning’. Generally, it difficult for them to plan the right amount of space that is needed, especially so when setting out or undergoing expansion. They often find it difficult to visualize the amount of space that is required by the employees to operate and move freely. Also, undergoing in-depth analysis of the amount of physical space that will be used and who will use it becomes further more challenging.

• Space Utilization: Evaluating the amount of space that has been used and that has been wasted is another major challenge faced by the facility mangers while undertaking space management. Effective utilization of the available space is crucial to boost the output, and it is especially so in cases where the space is limited. The more the people are able to utilize the available space in the building/facility, the greater are the chances of increased productivity.

• Space Optimization: Often facility managers find it difficult to optimize the facility space and thus redefine space usage and/or refashion it to bring about a new development. In addition to this, manual space optimization is both time-consuming and less efficient.

• Assets Arrangement: Setting the perfect place for the right asset is another challenge for the facility managers. As for example, finding the perfect room and desk arrangement for employees to foster their creativity and enable them to perform their roles effectively without getting in other’s way is a major challenge to the facility managers.

Organizations adopt different mechanisms to ensure efficient space management. However, while doing so, they often miss out an important factor, that is, automation. In contrast to manual space management tactics, ‘automation’ serves as an effective technique of cost-cutting, time-saving and efficient management of organizational pace. It is why companies these days must go beyond manual planning when it comes to effective space management.

Advanced technologies like AI & its subsidiaries like video analytics are redefining the entire countenance of space management in facilities in the following ways:

• Automated Housekeeping Management: Proper housekeeping management is necessary for maintaining cleanliness, order, tidiness and safety in the workplaces. Effective housekeeping helps eliminate the certain workplace hazards and ensures that the work is done properly and safely. Automating housekeeping management with AI can help facility mangers schedule and alert cleaning/housekeeping activities at different times of the day, so as to ensure improved hygiene and safety in the facility.

• Real-time Utilization Detection: Maximizing every space manually is very daunting. However, using space utilization tools powered by AI, facility managers can have real-time insights of space utilization. This enables them to make smart space management decisions such as freeing up overcrowded spaces and/or using unused/ free spaces for appropriate purposes, and the like.

• Real-time Occupancy Monitoring: AI video analytics can provide facility managers the real-time insight into the occupancy and space utilization status in the facility. Using the obtained data from the AI monitoring system, they can undergo better space analysis and take better decisions concerning space allocation and optimization. Further, this also enables them to allot configurable spaces as per time-slots and work shifts.

• Automated People Counting: Automating peoples/ visitors flow count in different spaces in the facility using AI video analytics, can facilitate better resource allocation, staff and time management, as well as monitor energy needs. Also, the system of instant alerts can help in risk anticipation & management by sending out real-time alerts whenever any unwanted/risky situation arises, such as over-capacity in certain spaces.

• Asset Placing & Surveillance: Video surveillance in facilities can provide the facility managers insights into the placing of the different asset in the facility. This can help them to decide whether assets are placed in their right places and if not, they can be replaced. Also, the AI monitoring system can expand options for assets safety through 24*7 surveillance of the assets, in particular and the whole property, in general.

viAct leverages the power of its proprietary scenario-based AI and industrial grade video analytics to aid sound infrastructure maintenance with the help of real-time and historical data. It offers plethora of solutions to the facility managers that use AI for facility management. These solutions help them to mitigate the various facility management issues ranging from security surveillance and predictive maintenance to waste and space management.

Its smart AI monitoring system using industrial grade video analytics offers several space management solutions like automated people counting, unattended object detection, automated housekeeping management, social distancing alerts and the like. Also, the facility managers can visualize all their data on the interactive floor plans and have heat map views of their facility in viAct’s ALL-IN-ONE AI monitoring platform.

Thus, with viAct’s AI-enabled solutions, facility managers can ensure 80% improvement in space utilization post-implementation; save 90% of their costs than manual monitoring that too in a manner which is 10 times more accurate than human monitoring.

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