The Louvre, a smarter museum
A world famous building like the Louvre Museum requires serious brains to maintain its beauty. Most of the preservation and operations work happens behind the scenes by unseen but essential facilities operations staff. To better preserve and protect its facilities and artwork, the Louvre Museum is using "intelligent" building management software (Maximo Asset Management) by IBM to upgrade its building operations.
Previously, the Louvre's repairs and maintenance tasks, which number 65,000 annually, were managed on paper. The building management software streamlined the Louvre's maintenance functions while allowing the majority of its galleries to remain open daily during repairs.
According to Metin Pelit, the department manager of computerized maintenance management system for the Louvre,
"Buildings are massive systems of systems, and these systems need to talk to each other for a building to become smarter. In The Louvre's case, there's the added challenge of being home to thousands of irreplaceable pieces of art which must be carefully preserved while trying to accommodate millions of visitors annually. By using Maximo software to monitor the condition of assets across the museum's facilities in one single database, these systems begin to talk to one another, allowing staff to preserve artwork and facilities with more ease and efficiency."
By creating a single, shared information database, the intelligent software provides the facilities staff with coherent and real-time information. The integrated network helps staff visualize the operations of the mechanical, electrical, lighting, elevator, and security systems.
The software also coordinates
- the location and maintenance histories of all facility assets
- the tracking, scheduling, and recording of maintenance activities
- matching job tasks to available contractors
- project cost estimates and approval
- an improved system of supervision of maintenance staff and contractors
David Bartlett, vice president of Industry Solutions at IBM, explains that "Technology today can make it possible to 'listen' to the abundance of information from buildings."
The Louvre's new intelligent management system is part of IBM's Smarter Buildings initiative. Other projects include building performance management solutions for the US Air Force and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com