What is Integrated Life-Cycle Management?

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What is Integrated Life-cycle management (ILCM)?

Let’s break this down a bit.  Life-cycle means over the entire cycle of life.  Such as a person starting out as a baby in a cradle and ending in the eventual death in a grave – That’s the “cradle-to-grave” life-cycle for a person.  Now if we talk about the ongoing human cycle of life, I’d have to refer you to Disney’s The Lion King ‘circle of life’ song; someone through birth takes our place upon our demise, or in the case of say equipment in a facility, if a piece of equipment is retired and replaced with a new piece of equipment then that’s essentially a ‘circle of life’. The life-cycle definition includes the circle of life of ongoing equipment repair and replacements for a specific ongoing need of use with in a facility. 

Life-cycle “Management” is the management of this life-cycle of say equipment by a manager who needs to understand the life experiences of this equipment to figure out how best to manage its ongoing health and productive use or replacement by buying new equipment.  As an example, if a pump was showing signs of wear or vibration from what was seen in the past years, the manager would consider how to extend the pumps life through repair and replacement of some worn parts in the pump, or would consider a new pump that could be more efficient and thus improve productivity and profits.     

So, to complete the definition, what is ‘Integrated’ in this phrase ‘integration life-cycle management’?  Integrated means managing not only the life-cycle of the equipment, but managing and utilizing the data and information about the equipment as it relates to the facility.  There are software systems that help in the management of this ongoing circle of life of data and information to enable a manager to efficiently manage the ongoing health and eventual replacement of equipment in this circle of ongoing facility life (Life-cycle for short).

These software systems are typically silo’ed information and control systems used at various stages of a facility’s life from cradle-to-grave, if you will.  What was once a simple drawing design system for printouts of construction drawings is now becoming quite sophisticated in enabling 3D Virtual Design and Construction with highly detailed Building Information Modeling for use in the logistical supply of specific equipment and the construction activities needed to build a facility. 

In addition, the same information from construction can now be leveraged in Facility Management solutions to continuously manage not only the facility and its equipment, but the ongoing data and information about the facility that changes over the life of the facility.  If a software system can integrate this intensive amount of data and information from these various disparate systems mentioned about, over the life of managing the facility, managers can better manage the facility from cradle-to-grave, and you have integrated life-cycle management.

OMB partners with ONIT Global to deliver excellence to its existing and new customers

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As part of OMB’s continuing development of facility based solution services for our customers, OMB has now standardized its deployment using the ONIT software platform. As a certified ONIT Platform provider, OMB will enable its customers to further benefit from its service offerings.

ONIT’s integrated digital twin cloud platform is designed to increase a company’s competitiveness and support its growth.

The ONIT platform enables our customers to capture operational and energy improvement opportunities within your facility while reducing business risk through a combination of intelligent software tools and trusted collaborative networking.

Peak kW: Driver of Higher Electricity Bills

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For many customers, electricity use is metered and charged in two ways by your utility: first, based on your total consumption in a given month, and second, your demand, based on the highest capacity you required during any 15 to 20 minute period during the monthly billing period.  

If electricity were water, consumption would be the amount of water you used and demand would be the size of the pipe you required for your peak usage.  

National Grid explains: “Some [commercial and industrial energy users] need large amounts of electricity once in awhile – others, almost constantly.” And because electricity can’t be stored, this gets even more complicated, so “meeting these customers’ needs requires keeping a vast array of expensive equipment – transformers, wires, substations, and generating stations – on constant standby.” While in some areas all customers are assessed a demand charge, the idea is that the customers who create this exceptionally high demand are then correspondingly charged more for it.

If  two companies use the same amount ( kWh) of electricity and one uses it a  constant low (kW) rate and the other intermittently and therefore has periodically higher peak (kW) usage the second company may have a significantly higher bill.  

Peak kW can be Managed

Gaining visibility to your energy data will illuminate ways in which you can save money that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to identify. Looking at your real time energy data with Energy Watchdog or other building management system will show you when your demand for electricity is greatest and will allow you to develop strategies for lowering those peaks – and thus, your demand charges. If you have already taken measures to lower your peaks, and thus decrease demand, or lower overall electricity use, or consumption, your data will indicate the impact of these efforts.

Consider no or low-cost energy efficiency adjustments you can make immediately.  When you start up your operations in the morning, don’t just flip the switch on all of your high intensity equipment. Consider a staged start-up: turn on one piece of equipment at a time, create a schedule where the heaviest intensity equipment doesn’t all operate at full tilt simultaneously, and think about what equipment can be run at a lower intensity without adverse effect. You may use more kWh – resulting in greater energy consumption or a higher “energy odometer” reading as discussed above – but you’ll ultimately save on demand charges and your energy bill overall will be lower.  If you need help developing a plan to reduce kW consider an Energy Assessment.

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Operate My Building attends HIA-LI 9th Annual Energy & Environmental Conference

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In support of Long Island businesses OMB attended the 9th annual HIA-LI Energy and Environmental Conference where developments affecting energy efficiency, new technologies and sustainability were discussed.