Pervasive sensing technologies for facility management: a critical review

Abstract

Purpose: The practice of facility management (FM) has been evolving with the rapid development of pervasive sensing technologies (PSTs) such as sensors, automatic identification (auto-ID), laser scanning and photogrammetry. Despite the proliferation of research on the use of PSTs for FM, a comprehensive review of such research is missing from the literature. This study aims to cover the knowledge void by examining the status quo and challenges of the selected PSTs with a focus on FM.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviewed 204 journal papers recounting cases of using PSTs for FM. The reviewed papers were extracted from Elsevier Scopus database using the advanced search.

Findings: Findings of this study revealed that PSTs and FM applications form a many-to-many mapping, i.e. one PST could facilitate many FM applications, and one application can also be supported by various PSTs. It is also found that energy modeling and management is the most referred purpose in FM to adopt PSTs, while space management, albeit important, received the least attention. Five challenges are identified, which include high investment on PSTs, data storage problem, absence of proper data exchange protocols for data interoperability, a lack of mature data processing methods for data utilization and privacy of users.

Originality/value: This paper paints a full picture of PSTs adoption for FM. It pinpoints the promising explorations for tackling the key challenges to future development.