Maintenance preparation, a key success factor for prestigious real estate project: the new French embassy in Beijing
The new French embassy, a flagship project in the heart of Beijing
Since 1964, the year diplomatic relations were established with the People’s Republic of China, the French Embassy has occupied a small villa in Beijing’s Sanlitun embassies district. With the opening and subsequent economic growth of China in the late 1980s, France’s diplomatic and consular staff expanded to almost 300, spread across 7 rented locations all over the city: regrouping all the departments in one site became a necessity. At the same time, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had initiated a rationalization and modernization of its property portfolio worldwide: the construction of a new large building would allow the Embassy to escape the every-increasing rental costs in downtown Beijing, while the project could be funded by property sales in other countries. The new embassy project was launched.
Bird’s-eye view of the new French Embassy on March 28, 2011
The 19,950sqm U-shaped building was designed by architect Alain Sarfati, an innovative combination of Chinese fengshui and French Haute Couture. The construction contract was awarded to Beijing Construction and Engineering Group (BCEG) at the end of 2008. The new embassy provides office space for 300 people, public and reception facilities, the ambassador’s residence and gardens. Particularly attention has been put on ensuring energy efficient operations, with specific design features and an advanced energy monitoring system. The embassy was inaugurated by the French President in March 2011 and came into full operation later at the beginning of 2012.
The maintenance preparation project
In late 2009, the construction of the new embassy was well under way when the French Foreign Ministry’s Property Department realized that its expectations in terms of technical documentation and preparing future operations would prove challenging to attain in China. Who could review the drawings with an eye on maintainability? How to obtain proper as-built drawings from contractors? How to ensure the reliability of critical building systems?
In January 2010, Siveco was selected to provide maintenance engineering services and facilities management consulting for the Ministry. The Siveco team worked alongside the construction team for a project in three phases:
The three phases of the project
Phase 1 – Preparation of maintenance plans
– Creation of preventive maintenance plans
– Design review for reliability and maintainability
– Support for building up technical documentation (as-built drawings, equipment numbering and tagging, operation and maintenance manuals etc.)
– Preparation of maintenance budgets and the corresponding manpower requirements
– Design review for reliability and maintainability
– Support for building up technical documentation (as-built drawings, equipment numbering and tagging, operation and maintenance manuals etc.)
– Preparation of maintenance budgets and the corresponding manpower requirements
Phase 2 – Selection of Facilities Management (FM) suppliers
– Definition of service packages (soft and hard service, overall coordination)
– Preparation of technical specifications and tendering requirements, with a primary focus on hard services (maintenance)
– Preparation of FM contracts, including performance targets, incentives and penalties
– Organization and follow-up of tendering process
– Support for contracting and negotiation phase
– Preparation of technical specifications and tendering requirements, with a primary focus on hard services (maintenance)
– Preparation of FM contracts, including performance targets, incentives and penalties
– Organization and follow-up of tendering process
– Support for contracting and negotiation phase
Phase 3 – Commissioning and support for initial operations
– Delivery of a Computerized Facility Management System (owned by the embassy) and training of contractors
– Support for the start-up of FM contracts
– Monitoring of suppliers’ performance for the first year
– Maintenance audit before the end of the warranty period
– Support for the start-up of FM contracts
– Monitoring of suppliers’ performance for the first year
– Maintenance audit before the end of the warranty period
During the entire project, the project team had access to Siveco back-office resources and the Siveco network of experts on specific technologies, facilities or equipment (e.g. HVAC specialists) or methodologies and standards (most notably European standard EN 13269 – Maintenance – Guideline on preparation of maintenance contracts.)
Siveco’s Facility Management System was used in all phases, providing a strong methodological framework for all involved. The system contained the initial technical database (maintenance procedures for typical building systems), helped structure the data collection process and was later delivered to site. This enabled smooth knowledge transfer to the selected FM suppliers, with long-term contract performance (based on the EN 13269 standard) assessed automatically in the system from the FM team’s job records.
Benefits of the project
The involvement of Siveco helped the Embassy to overcome some of the challenges associated to construction projects in China and yet too often ignored by foreign investors:
– The shortcomings of Chinese engineering and construction firms in technical documentation (for example real as-built drawings) and maintenance preparation.
– Similar difficulties for local equipment suppliers to provide useful maintenance manuals.
– Widespread habit to improvise onsite solutions for problems met during construction and equipment installation, leading to undocumented design changes.
– Problems experienced during commissioning are often not well documented and solved by quick-fixes, rather than though proper root-cause analysis and modifications, leading to long-term recurring issues for the building.
– A run-to-failure approach to maintenance; preventive maintenance is seldom seen in practice or poorly executed.
– General lack of methodology, including fundamental aspects of maintenance such as diagnosis and troubleshooting.
– Weak or out-dated local technical standards.
– Lack of maturity of the local FM service market (and equipment vendors after-sales service), with a focus on providing low-cost labor rather than performance.
– Similar difficulties for local equipment suppliers to provide useful maintenance manuals.
– Widespread habit to improvise onsite solutions for problems met during construction and equipment installation, leading to undocumented design changes.
– Problems experienced during commissioning are often not well documented and solved by quick-fixes, rather than though proper root-cause analysis and modifications, leading to long-term recurring issues for the building.
– A run-to-failure approach to maintenance; preventive maintenance is seldom seen in practice or poorly executed.
– General lack of methodology, including fundamental aspects of maintenance such as diagnosis and troubleshooting.
– Weak or out-dated local technical standards.
– Lack of maturity of the local FM service market (and equipment vendors after-sales service), with a focus on providing low-cost labor rather than performance.
Operational benefits experienced by the Embassy included:
– Identification and resolution of maintainability issues from the construction stage, avoiding future impact on building operations.
– A pre-selection of high-quality FM offers, thanks to clear contractual requirements based on an in-depth technical analysis. Final selection of a supplier that was technically the best but also the most price-competitive among all bidders.
– The FM team was quickly operational on site, thanks to smooth handover process and full building documentation in the FM system.
– A pre-selection of high-quality FM offers, thanks to clear contractual requirements based on an in-depth technical analysis. Final selection of a supplier that was technically the best but also the most price-competitive among all bidders.
– The FM team was quickly operational on site, thanks to smooth handover process and full building documentation in the FM system.
According to David Seroul, head of the Regional Property Department at the French Embassy in Beijing:
“Siveco has provided much-needed maintenance expertise: thanks to their hands-on experience of China, Siveco has helped us make the right decisions in this challenging project. All the objectives of their mission were achieved. I strongly recommend Siveco for maintenance assistance in similar construction projects, as their service offering corresponds to a real need of the Chinese market.”
