Blogs

When more than 60 facilities professionals completed a voluntary survey, the results revealed a snapshot of the current operational climate across campuses. Their answers demonstrated consistent patterns around three critical themes: when facilities teams are brought into projects, how confident they feel about turnover documentation, and whether information gaps are creating real-world operational impact.

Growth starts with listening, and our recent ARC Facilities customer survey revealed clear ways to streamline workflows, sharpen performance, and give facility teams more control.

When the lights dim and the city sleeps, hospitals pulse with activity. After midnight, healthcare facilities enter a different operational reality. Staffing levels shift. Patient needs change. Community resources may be slower to respond. And when something breaks—an air handler, a medical gas line, a critical electrical component—the margin for error disappears.

In manufacturing environments, emergencies rarely arrive with a formal warning; instead, they tend to begin with an unfamiliar vibration, an unusual smell, a piece of equipment behaving slightly outside its norm. In those subtle early moments, the difference between a controlled response and a cascading crisis often comes down to one overlooked factor: how quickly the right information can be found and trusted.

There’s a growing tension inside facility operations. Teams are working harder than ever, but the foundation they rely on is becoming increasingly fragile.

Discover how Facility Workforce Tech 2030 is transforming maintenance teams with AI-driven scheduling, predictive insights, and real-time collaboration. See what tools forward-thinking facility leaders are adopting now to prepare their workforce for the next decade.

K-12 schools struggle with mounting maintenance issues. Digital operations offer a solution, streamlining tasks, providing real-time insights, and reducing costs for more efficient facility management.

There’s a particular stillness inside a stadium before an event begins. The seats are empty, the concourses quiet, and the building feels oversized for the moment.

Knowing where every water and gas valve is located is essential in facility management. Quick valve mapping improves emergency response, reduces damage, and avoids costly repairs. This guide covers the tools, steps, and common mistakes in the mapping process, helping you efficiently track all valves in your building for a safer, more operational space.

DJ Johnson retired in March 2021 after a distinguished career as CFO of a major hospital system. He described his retirement as exactly what he envisioned: living abroad, learning a new language, experiencing different cultures, and embracing a lifestyle far removed from the boardrooms and spreadsheets of his professional life. Johnson now lives in La Paz, Mexico, where he balances cultural exploration with his passion for touring motorcycles.

Some careers stay linear. Others come together through chance, hard work, and a curiosity that sees stories hiding inside floor plans.

Every facilities team deals with them: hot offices, cold classrooms, temperature complaints that show up in the work order queue every day. On the surface, hot/cold calls look like comfort issues. But in reality, they’re early-warning indicators that something deeper is happening inside your HVAC ecosystem—especially in your air handlers.

Facility managers juggle constant pressure, unpredictable failures, and competing priorities—often with limited resources and little room for error. FM Operations Director Trenton Patterson shared some of the stressors, surprises, and strategies that define modern FM work and what it really takes to stay resilient.