Facilities Management
Facilities Management
RackBank provides for the maintenance of the physical building structure and its surroundings such as landscaping, car parks, general lighting infrastructure, etc., as well as the infrastructure of the data center such as the MEP Fit-Out (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) and other supporting areas.
It ensures that each and every piece of equipment and component is maintained in accordance with the life cycle planning and that the execution of the maintenance can be adjusted to meet changing IT and business requirements (e.g., sustainability, profitability, corporate social responsibility, etc.).
1 Maintenance Policies, Procedures, and Work Instructions
RackBank define policies, procedures, and work instructions to ensure an effective maintenance program, taking into consideration at a minimum the following:
Obligations as defined in SLAs.
Cost of downtime.
Risk tolerance/appetite.
Age of equipment.
Allowable operating conditions.
Internal (in-house staff)/external (vendors/contractors) capacity and capabilities (qualified by experience and/or certification).
Recommended maintenance schedule and instructions of the manufacturer.
Budget.
Environmental conditions.
RackBank ensures sufficient budget is allocated to execute maintenance programs that consider local codes, manufacturer requirements/guidelines, and best practices. RackBank should consider at a minimum the following:
The maintenance cost review should be part of the equipment purchase selection process to avoid unexpected maintenance costs after purchase of the equipment.
The full maintenance cost, including potential (regular) refurbishments and consumables, should be determined.
The maintenance cost review should cover as long a period as possible, ideally spanning from the date of purchase until the end-of-service life of the equipment as stated by the OEM.
The maintenance cost should be benchmarked if required, considering changes in maintenance programs and/or industry best practices for price increases over time based on exchange rates, inflation, etc.
Based on the policies, an effective facilities maintenance program should be developed and maintained. It should at a minimum address the following:
Maintenance program options defined for each and every piece of equipment.
A detailed schedule for execution of the maintenance-related programs, including trigger dates for annual life cycle reviews.
Skills, knowledge, certifications, and other requirements for personnel executing the program.
SOPs and MOPs.
Requirements for (onsite) spares.
Details of parameters to be monitored and recorded.
Reporting details (e.g., format, monitoring points, and intervals).
Where work instructions are defined for maintenance activities, the instructions should be:
Detailed, specific, and listed ‘step-by-step’.
Use consistent terminology across all documents of RackBank.
Where possible, include illustrations to provide more clarification/guidance.
Validated by a person/persons other than those who wrote the work instruction.
Reviewed regularly or after a change that may impact the work instruction.
RackBank considers using a ‘buddy’ system (two-person verification) for types of work instructions and/or activities that carry a high or elevated level of risk. The ‘buddy’ system will have one individual executing the steps, whereby the other individual ‘ticks the box’ for each complete step to ensure no steps are skipped that may result in potentially unsafe situations.
Where RackBank is using outsourced maintenance service providers, it should either require the vendor to use RackBank’s policies, procedures, and work instructions, or where feasible, review the policies, procedures, and work instructions of the vendor. Such documents should be approved before the vendor starts the provisioning of their services, where applicable it should follow the change management process. These documents should be referenced in the maintenance agreements and contracts.
Facilities Maintenance Program Selection
RackBank selects an appropriate maintenance program for each and every part of the facilities' infrastructure. The selection of a maintenance program can be a mix of different programs depending on the equipment/facility under scope and the business requirements. The selection should be documented and include at least the following details (some may not apply depending on the program option chosen):
Type of maintenance program:
Reactive maintenance (corrective maintenance).
Preventive maintenance (time-based maintenance).
Predictive maintenance (condition-based maintenance).
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM).
Telephone support hours.
Onsite support hours.
Response time.
Fix/resolution time.
RackBank determines for each part of the facility which program meets its business needs.
In-house/Outsourced Maintenance Service Provisioning
RackBank determines for each of the service requirements whether it should outsource the service delivery or retain it in-house in part or full. At a minimum, considerations should be given to the following factors:
Technical (e.g., are the in-house competences available?).
Organizational (e.g., not enough resources available at any given time).
Financial (e.g., outsourcing might be more cost-effective).
Governance/risk (e.g., separation of duties or risk is shared with vendor).
Selection of Outsourced Maintenance Vendor
Where RackBank decides to outsource all or part of its maintenance service requirements, there should be a process in place to select vendors in a professional and fair manner, taking into account a variety of factors. Please refer to section 20.7 Vendor Management.
Maintenance Agreements and Contracts
RackBank has appropriate maintenance agreements/contracts in place. Where the maintenance services are performed internally, a maintenance agreement in the form of an SLA should be established to ensure accountability of the service supplying party. SLA requirements are described in section 10 Service Level Management. The maintenance agreement/contract should cover at a minimum the following:
Legal entity name(s), registration identifier(s), registered address.
Start and end date.
Clear description of the terms used (e.g., fix time, response time).
Equipment under scope (e.g., make, model, serial number, etc.).
Clear description of the services to be provided, including reference to the appropriate policies, procedures, and work instructions.
Minimum qualifications and experience of personnel allocated to the service provisioning.
Dispute resolution and penalty for non-performance and/or breach of terms and conditions.
Commercial terms.
Names and signatures by authorized officers.
RackBank has controls in place to ensure that service commitments agreed to in the maintenance agreement are properly executed (e.g., comparison of service reports with equipment checks committed to in the agreement).
Where the agreement/contract does not cover 24x7 for telephone and/or onsite support, RackBank should agree on the out-of-contract charges.
Where the agreement/contract does not cover spare parts, RackBank should agree on a spare part list with pricing. Maximum allowable lead times should be defined.
Both the out-of-contract charges and spare part price list should be reviewed on a regular planned interval.
Maintenance Schedule
A maintenance schedule needs to be created and maintained. The schedule should at a minimum:
Be coordinated with all departments involved or at risk when maintenance is being performed.
Be coordinated between vendors to avoid conflict of maintenance activities.
Be executed to conform to local regulations (e.g., noise restrictions).
Include compulsory compliance testing (e.g., testing for legionnaire contamination, CO2 emissions, etc.).
Take into account the equipment manufacturer's recommendations and restrictions.
Ensure that qualified personnel (e.g., in-house staff, vendor, contractor), including appointed roles as well as tools and parts, are available.
Be coordinated with external parties (e.g., fire department) where required.
The schedule should be published on a need-to-know basis. Upcoming events should be communicated well in advance to ensure that feedback can be solicited on the planned activity. Potential rescheduling should be communicated in a timely manner to all parties involved.
RackBank should keep track of scheduled events and their actual date and time of execution to monitor how well the schedule is executed and to discover potential maintenance gaps which could increase risk. Delays should be documented and taken into account where required for the upcoming schedule or next year’s schedule.
A CMMS – Computerized Maintenance Management System could assist in supporting tracking and automating maintenance tasks.
Maintenance Operations Procedures (MOP)
RackBank creates and maintains appropriate maintenance operations procedures.
The format of the MOP should conform to document management policies and procedures, use consistent terminology within the MOP (as well as other documents of RackBank), and should be concise and clearly written.
Any MOP should meet but not be limited to the following requirements:
Impact on the critical facilities.
Risk and assumptions.
Describe/define health and safety warnings.
Safety requirements and usage of PPE (where applicable) to perform the MOP.
Include illustrations where possible.
Should include reference to other documents (e.g., equipment manufacturers’ documentation).
Approvals required (if applicable).
Define the scope and applicability.
Describe the methodology and procedures.
Describe checkpoints and fall-back procedures.
Indicate where applicable, the anticipated duration of each step.
List equipment and supplies required.
Location of equipment.
List cautions and interferences.
List reporting requirements (service reports).
List communication paths (e.g., technical escalation), including communication method details.
Version controlled using document management policies and procedures.
A MOP should also include, where applicable, reference to other documents relevant to the execution of the tasks/activities covered within it. For example, the instructions/steps of an external process (e.g., LOTO) prior to the execution of this MOP should be referenced.
The MOP should be reviewed at regular planned intervals and tested by at least one individual who performs the procedure(s) under the scope of the MOP