Facilities Management Notes

Researchers: Linda Zarate and Mike Tarrani

Numbering in diagram aligns to text in notes below

Numbering in diagram matches numbering in notes

1. Consequences of Unplanned Downtime

Business Disruptions

Minor Irritations are disruptions which do not impact the ongoing operations of the business, but require diagnosis and repair beyond "normal" operating procedures. Applications include internal e-mail, internet access, printer and file sharing, or backup procedures.
Some business disruption means non-critical parts of the business operations are disrupted. Examples include shipping and receiving delays, database not accessible, and increased customer service response time.
Significant business disruption means processes, sales transactions, accounting functions, payroll, or other critical systems are not available or suffer extreme performance degradation.
All business grinds to a halt in organizations relying heavily or exclusively on IT equipment such as on-line services, Internet service providers (ISPs), telecommunications, or remote data storage and file transfer services.

2. Cost of Unplanned Downtime

Tangible Costs include the cost of idled employees, IT staff time for diagnosis and repairs, replacement parts and equipment, disaster recovery implementation costs, business continuity insurance programs, lost sales or revenue, and outside consultants, contractors, or temporary staff.

3A and 3B Are Intangible Costs Significant?

Intangible costs include customer dissatisfaction, stock price declines, lost market share, adverse publicity, and other consequences not easily or objectively quantifiable. Significant intangible costs would be defined as any or all of the above consequences occurring to the degree that it severely affects both the immediate and long term success of the organization.

4. Weekend Shutdowns

Maintenance and Operations

Weekend shutdowns: The number and duration of periodic shutdowns has a significant impact on the design approach and cost of designing and constructing a mission critical facility. As few as three 12 hour shutdown periods per year can eliminate the need for expensive and complicated redundant components and automated backup systems. Even if fewer periods of shutdown are available (one or two), but the duration is longer (20-24 hours), periodic maintenance activities can take place without the risk of damaging or disrupting the critical business applications.
7 x 24 x Forever: The inability to shutdown any ofthe critical systems requires a sophisticated approach to identifying and managing any and all possible component failures, including normal maintenance procedures.