Integrating internet of things (iot) and facilities manager in smart buildings: a conceptual framework

Abstract

A Facilities Manager (FM) plays a key role in managing all non-core services of a building by integrating people, processes, places, technology, and etc. Considering the effective integration of aforementioned sectors, a facilities manager needs to deal with the evolving information and communication technology. Presently, the most emerging trend is the “Internet of Things” (IoT) which is developing rapidly throughout the world. Subsequently, IoT concept is apparent in the field of facilities management mainly in the sector of building automation with intelligent controls. This intelligent automation results in creating SMART buildings which has become a global trend in the building sector. In such a situation, Sri Lankan building traditions should also be updated with the emerging IoT based technological trends to gain competitive advantages. Even though this is a timely requirement, user acceptance of new technologies and other external factors directly affects new IoT trends in Sri Lankan building culture. Due to the lack of data available in practice, this research was adopted using qualitative approach to identify the existing limitations and challenges of the integration of IoT and FM in smart buildings. This paper presents a conceptual framework which was developed by critically reviewing the secondary data. The proposed framework represents the relationship between FM and IoT in SMART buildings.