Facility Life-Cycle Modeling
School district administrators and their maintenance and operations staff require clear, comprehensive data to properly operate, maintain and repair facilities and related components. The Texas Association of School Boards’ OnSite Facility Life Cycle Modeling provides a living document that captures and organizes key facility information that can be used for routine maintenance, budget projections and long-range facility planning. The Model ensures that administrators have the data to support critical decisions that will affect the life of all district facilities and the educational environment for years to come.
School district maintenance departments typically replace building equipment and components either when multiple work orders are issued or when total equipment failure occurs. Two primary concerns are present with this common practice:
- Each time a piece of equipment is worked on it typically becomes less efficient, and its expected life cycle is shortened. In addition, the costs of maintaining equipment as it approaches the end of its useful life cycle increases with respect to parts and labor, not to mention the possible disruption to the educational program.
- It is difficult to accurately budget for the breakdown of older equipment, other than to budget a random number and hope that it is not exceeded. The Model is designed to change the way this issue has been addressed by using standard life cycles and region specific cost estimating. The Model assists M & O departments, chief financial officers, and superintendents in determining when to replace equipment and components, budget for those replacements, and ultimately establish an effective and continuous long-range facility plan.
How the OnSite Facility Life Cycle Modeling works
The Model is comprised of four key components:
-
Building Inventory – All building components, interior and exterior, are inventoried by TASB OnSite staff and input into the Model based on quantity, square footage, age of installation, etc., per building. The information gathered is then grouped by campus. Building equipment and components consist of flooring, light and plumbing fixtures, doors, paint, HVAC, electrical and building envelope.
-
Life Cycle Standards – Manufacturer and industry standards are applied to the building inventory to establish an expected life cycle for each piece of equipment and component. Estimated replacement costs are then applied using RSMeans™ CostWorks™ that are specific to each geographical region.
-
Reports – District staff are able to run pre-defined reports that provide a wide variety of detailed and summary information that may be utilized by maintenance staff, maintenance directors, chief financial officers, and superintendents. The reports may be used to assist in determining material needs for special projects, setting the Function 51 budget, creating and updating a long-range facility plan and determining capital improvement budgets or bond estimating based on building facility condition indices.
-
Updating – The Model may be updated by district or TASB OnSite staff anytime there is a change to any equipment or building component, making it an ongoing tool to assist the district in any number of current and future planning needs.
For more information and pricing, contact OnSite Facilities at 512-467-0222 or 800-580-8272, extension 3205 or email facilities@tasb.org.