Where are your priorities? - Practical Facilities Management

efurbishment
A Health and Safety Executive report states
that the familiar four-drawer filing cabinet is
one of the most dangerous methods of storing
office filing. It is therefore not surprising that
they are a common cause of office accidents
and injuries.
How aware are Facilities Managers and
Architects of this problem? It is often the case
that the office planning process is over simplified
with only the simple ratio of storage space
to floor space being considered. This simplification
ignores important factors such as accessibility
and ease of document retrieval, factors
that should be of high priority when you consider
the large amounts of weight that workers
handle throughout a working day. Workers have
to twist, turn, reach and stoop to retrieve,
often heavy, files; it is in adopting these complex
postures that injuries can occur.
Tremco’s start to
finish roofing service
With over 75 years and millions of square
metres experience in built-up flat roofing,
Tremco offers a start-to-finish service for
specifiers and building occupiers.
The service ranges from initial consultation, onsite
survey and analysis through development of
a specification and a single point warranty for
installation and materials.
A new edition of Tremco Roofing Systems Guide
to New Build, Repair and Refurbishment is now
available. It details all aspects of the company’s
service, including its infra-red investigation
technology for identifying flat roof problems
and an introduction to a wide range of products
for new build and repair projects.
Reader Reply No.: 84128
Vertical carousels help make the
workplace safer and more secure
Vertical carousel systems can immediately overcome
this problem. Files stored on the vertical
carousel are brought to the worker at an
ergonomically positioned retrieval point in seconds
at the touch of a button. Workers no
longer have to bend, stretch (or even search) for
a document - thus, the risk of injury is diminished.
This is a problem that SELEX Sensors and
Airborne Systems (SELEX S&AS) successfully
overcame when they recently embarked on an
ambitious modernisation and expansion programme.
This involved building a new state of
the art facility adjacent to their existing building;
whilst the existing building itself was completely
refurbished. The Facilities Management
team at SELEX S&AS, having given priority to the
storage and management of documents, recognised
how vertical carousels could benefit their
business. They decided to install 20 Hänel
Whilst cold liquid-applied waterproofing may
now be the most reliable method of choice for
both new-build or refurbishment of flat roofs,
without the risks of torch-applied processes,
the introduction of a solvent-free application
from Kemper now makes this an even more
attractive proposition for commercial, practical
and environmental reasons.
The Kemperol range of specially formulated
resins, which use a
polyester fleecebased
system to give
exceptional performance
and longevity,
now includes a solvent
free option, 2K-
PUR, which retains
all of the strength
and durability of
Kemper’s traditional
products but, being
odourless, can be
applied without the
need for buildings to
be evacuated. Quite
apart from the environmental
benefits,
this is particularly
attractive when
refurbishing buildings
such as schools, hospitals
and hotels, or
manufacturing plants
Office Rotomat carousels supplied and serviced
by IAS Industore.
Furthermore, in looking beyond the simple ratio
of storage space to floor space the Facilities
Management team at SELEX S&AS were also able
to save 80% of their floor space. Such a saving
is highly relevant at a time when space is at
such a premium. This saving was possible
because a Rotomat greatly reduces the required
footprint; SELEX S&AS were therefore able to
store the same amount of filing and documentation
in one Rotomat as in 24 four-drawer filing
cabinets.
Just as standard four-drawer filing cabinets do
nothing to alleviate the Health of Safety issues
within an office, neither can they offer any form
of security over the documents they store. A
vertical carousel tracks the location of all files
it stores through its file management system
which is controlled by a simple user interface so
a user has knowledge of what documents are
stored at any one time.
One of the innovative decision makers on the
SELEX S&AS project was Information Services
Manager Brian Cuthbertson. He says, “We specified
exactly what we wanted to achieve and IAS
Industore worked with us to make it happen.
Good result.”
Vertical carousels make the office workplace a
safer, more secure place and one in which space
optimisation is achieved. This should stand as
conclusive evidence that the office planning
process should never be sidelined or trivialised
with the conservative subscription of four-drawer
filing cabinets becoming the ‘done thing’ -
the alternative offers too much.
Reader Reply No.: 84119
Solvent-free waterproofing -
a breath of fresh air
in the food and pharmaceutical
industries,
where the option of continued occupancy
makes project scheduling far more easy and
convenient, and avoids costly shutdowns.
Further information on Kemper’s solvent-free
waterproofing is contained in a new specifier
handbook and technical datasheet, which can
be obtained by using the reader-reply service
below.
Reader Reply No.: 84049
www.practicalfm.co.uk 21