Facilities Management Services Feature Library

Operations Engineer's library catalogues editorial features going back five years.

Access to all archive material is free to all, including non-members of IPlantE (the Institution of Operations Engineers) or BES (Bureau of Engineer Surveyors), under the umbrella of SOE (Society of Operations Engineers). However, to discover the many benefits of becoming an SOE member, please click here.

01/03/2010 Wasting away The Carbon Trust reckons that UK companies are still wasting €1 billion worth of energy per year, largely due to unresolved plant optimisation issues and inefficiencies in energy generation plant itself. Brian Wall reports on ways ... » Read More

01/03/2010 Latent heating As UK government ups the ante on going green and slashing emissions, air- and ground-source heat pumps are rearing their heads again. Brian Tinham examines the issues » Read More

01/10/2009 Saving the earth In the rush to save energy and reduce emissions, it's easy to forget the sheer range of potential solutions. Dr Tom Shelley reviews some of today's most powerful options » Read More

01/08/2009 Clear vision Selecting the right lighting for a plant or building requires some understanding of current options. Brian Wall explains » Read More

01/06/2009 Hidden hazards Did you know that if dry wire wool - think of discarded Brillo pads - comes into contact with a dead nine-volt battery, it can spontaneously combust? Or that dust - for that matter, even sugar or custard powder - can ignite and unleash a ... » Read More

01/06/2009 Flawed floor? A recent survey of 1,500 IOSH (Institute of Occupational Safety & Health) members revealed that slips and trips are the most recognised safety hazard in the workplace. Yet just 22% of respondents use key preventive measures, such as ... » Read More

01/06/2009 Blowing hot and cold Last summer's government energy strategy - which called for power generation from renewables to rise to 20% by 2020 and for CO2 to be reduced by 60% before 2050 - is going to have a profound effect on plant, and that includes HVAC ... » Read More

01/04/2009 Uplifting experience SAFed (the Safety Assessment Federation) care' - which is why SAFed does recommend is still reporting 4.5% immediate defects to HSE after thorough examinations by its members. That's around 14,000 problems with lifts alone that are serious ... » Read More

01/04/2009 Lift wire rope corrosion Under instruction, and on making almost my first thorough examinations of lifts, I recall how my instructors stressed the importance of looking for ?rouging' between the strands of the wire ropes. Research soon showed that rouging was the ... » Read More

01/02/2009 Lift ropes and lubrication When it comes to steel wire ropes for lifts and elevators, getting lubrication and maintenance right couldn't be much more critical. At the most basic level, all such ropes must be periodically checked for equal tensions, as well as for ... » Read More

01/10/2008 An inspector calls If you speak to engineer surveyors across the industry, chances are they'll mention two trends - one slightly surprising, the other plain worrying. On the surprising side of the equation, they'll probably mention that only now are some ... » Read More

01/08/2008 PiperAlpha: 20 Years on On 6 July 1988, at about 10.00pm, Occidental's Piper Alpha platform, operating 120 miles off the north east coast of Scotland, exploded in a ball of flames 120m high. 167 people died and many others were horrifically injured as they jumped ... » Read More

01/08/2008 Greener world Most plants have already implemented a wide range of energy-related programmes - from switch-off campaigns to intelligent production scheduling at lower time-tariffs; and from installing energy-efficient equipment to improving maintenance ... » Read More

01/08/2008 Get a green light Legislation, such as the Building Regulations Part L, places pressure on engineers to make facilities more energy efficient, and replacing fluorescent lamps is one way to do so. Part L2B of the regulations, which applies to facilities with ... » Read More

01/08/2008 Cost versus risk Here's a thing. Suppose you've got condition monitoring in place on plant: if you find some equipment trending towards failure, what should you do? Or suppose you haven't gone the condition monitoring route, so you're running planned ... » Read More

01/06/2008 First floor Although the number of major injuries to employees as a result of slips and trips decreased slightly between 2006 and 2007, from 10,955 to 10,790, they remain the most prevalent cause, accounting for 38% of the total. More disturbing is ... » Read More

01/06/2008 Building better controls Improved sensors, electronic controls, automation, modern materials - they're all great, but they're not only about developing radical, high tech engineering solutions. Many can also give a huge boost to old, some very simple and ... » Read More

01/04/2008 Spend a little, save a lot Now that we know conventional energy costs aren't likely to fall any time soon, spending what turns out to be relatively little to save a lot has suddenly become much more attractive. All the more so, as engineers and business leaders ... » Read More

01/04/2008 Power to the people We've got a problem with energy generation. We need more capacity and higher efficiencies to cater for unrelenting increases in demand, but we also need to reduce CO2 and other emissions. This at a time when many of our fossil fuel power ... » Read More

01/02/2008 Power of the press Power presses, like most big mechanical plant, have been operated subject to regular mandatory inspections for many years. But there's a problem: the approaches taken to those inspections have varied, according both to the inspection ... » Read More

01/02/2008 Money for nothing? There's no such thing as a free lunch - and that holds true for green energy generation, too. Even with wind farms, there is the price of the plant, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance. There are also safety inspections ... » Read More

01/12/2007 Fire hazard Fire in an engineering environment is likely to have far more serious consequences than in almost any other industrial premises. » Read More

01/12/2007 Cooling the tube Anyone who travels on London Underground knows that the tube is too hot, particularly on the deeper central area lines. When Transport for London's (TfL) Cooling the Tube programme director Kevin Payne tells you: "We're going to move from ... » Read More

01/10/2007 Light fantastic With government and regulators calling for industry to consider environmental issues, to drive down energy consumption and to rein-in waste, selecting commercial lighting has become more than just a simple 'cost versus illumination' ... » Read More

01/10/2007 Going underground What keeps London Underground's head of operational engineering awake at night? Top of Maurice Poole's list is the competence of project and maintenance engineering people - across all the professional sectors. That's not just in his own ... » Read More