A Simplified Facility Management Tool for Condition Assessment through Economic Evaluation and Data Centralization: Branch to Core

Abstract

The field of facility management, especially concerning condition assessment, is affected by two main issues: one is the incompleteness and heterogeneity of information transfer between the involved subjects; the other is the frequent lack of specific advanced skills needed for technically complex tools. The immediate consequences of this process inefficiency fall on economic and environmental aspects: the unavailability or incorrect structuring of data related to building conditions does not allow for making optimal choices concerning interventions on components. This paper attempts to provide a solution in this framework by presenting a methodology for simplified condition assessment, in which the evaluation of decay parameters draws from economic evaluation techniques, and which optimizes data collection, systematization, and elaboration, also integrating it with a mobile app for automatic data upload and centralization. The research underlying its development draws from decay evaluation criteria and national standards for the analysis and breakdown of buildings. The methodology was tested on a case study of the Cloister of Santa Croce in Florence, which also served as the client of the tool. The proposed methodology stands as an easily implementable integration to condition assessment for maintenance planning and building inspection activities.