My Painful Information-Seeking Experience

One day, I was tasked with overseeing the development of a new business. Eager to understand the progress so far and gather the necessary information, I sat down in front of my computer with great enthusiasm. However, as soon as I began, a harsh reality hit me.

"Where are the vision and strategy documents?"
"Where's the customer feedback?"
"Wait—who made this decision?"

Files were scattered across my personal drive, buried in email attachments, and stored in various dedicated systems. Every search felt like wading through a swamp. Before I knew it, more than an hour had passed, and all I could do was stare at the screen in frustration.

At that moment, I realized something painfully obvious:

"Organizing information is such a painstaking process."

My Struggle vs. the Reality of Facility Managers

My frustration was temporary, but for some, this is a daily struggle. The few hours I spent searching for information are a routine part of their workday.

Who are these people? They are facility managers—our clients.

Facility managers are responsible for maintaining buildings, factories, office spaces, and other facilities, ensuring they remain in optimal condition. However, many report spending a significant portion of their work hours simply searching for information.

Imagine These Scenarios:

• An emergency equipment failure occurs! You need to provide critical information to the repair team, but you can't find the latest drawings.
• You want to compile a periodic inspection report, but you're unsure if the previous inspection data is in an email attachment, the cloud, or an internal server.
• You need to check the repair history of a piece of equipment, but each team member records data in a different format, making it difficult to compile a unified report.

The information chaos I experienced is their daily reality.

The Cost of Searching for Information

According to IDC Research (2022), employees spend an average of 2.5 hours per day (12.5 hours per week) searching for information. This equates to more than 650 hours per year—or over one full month per employee wasted on information retrieval.

If this time were reduced, how much more efficient could operations become?

Our mission is to create an environment where facility managers can focus on their core responsibility—optimizing facilities.

The Complexity of Information in Facility Management

Facility operations generate an enormous amount of information, including:

• Specification documents
• Equipment drawings
• Inspection reports and updates
• Repair and maintenance logs
• Energy management records (electricity, water, gas consumption data)
• Contracts and warranties (lease agreements, maintenance contracts, warranty periods)
• Emergency response manuals (guidelines for equipment failure and disaster response)
• Cleaning and sanitation records (schedules and implementation logs)
• Safety management reports (occupational safety and environmental risk assessments)
• IoT sensor data (real-time operational data and anomaly detection logs)
• Asset management information (depreciation schedules and renewal plans)

However, this data is stored in different formats, across different storage locations, and managed by different teams. As a result, finding the information needed becomes a time-consuming and frustrating task.

Visual-Based Knowledge Management: The Solution

To address these challenges, 360-degree image-based visual knowledge management offers a powerful solution. By shifting to a visual-based information system, facility-related data can be organized, searched, and utilized more intuitively.

1. Organizing Information Visually

Using digital twins, physical spaces can be replicated as 360-degree images or 3D models. These models can then be linked to relevant information, allowing for a more intuitive way to organize data compared to traditional folder-based systems. This significantly reduces search time and effort.

2. Intuitive Information Access & Search

With a visual-based system, employees can navigate images and 3D environments to locate necessary information quickly. Features like tagging and linked metadata make it easy to find specific facility or equipment details.

3. Overcoming Language Barriers

For international projects, language differences can hinder information sharing. With visual-based knowledge management, data is conveyed through images and 3D models rather than relying solely on text, helping teams communicate more effectively across language barriers.

4. Real-Time Updates & Information Sharing

Facility management requires up-to-date information to be shared immediately. A visual knowledge management system allows for real-time updates by integrating the latest field images and inspection data directly into the system.

Conclusion: Boosting Efficiency with Visual Knowledge Management

The challenge of managing complex information is one that many companies face, but it is particularly critical in facility management. The ability to efficiently organize, access, and utilize vast amounts of data is key to optimizing operations.

By implementing visual-based knowledge management, facility teams can dramatically reduce the time spent on information retrieval, improving overall efficiency.

Is your facility still relying on outdated, folder-based information management?

Consider leveraging digital twins and visual knowledge management for a smarter, more efficient approach.

Read more - Do You Need a BIM Comparison in Your Digital Twin?