Facilities Unfiltered - The Built Reality

Defending your Dollar with Smart Data Pilots | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 29

Josh and Nic welcome back Brian Carlin of Integrated Facilities Solutions to unpack why “smart data pilots” are the fastest way to turn messy, inconsistent asset inventories into something teams can actually trust, use, and scale. They dig into what makes facility data reliable (unique identifiers, location hierarchy, and maintenance history that’s truly asset-specific), why “more fields” can create noise instead of insight, and how to structure a pilot so it earns real acceptance from executive

The Evolution of FM Software | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 28

FM software has been around a lot longer than most of us think—nearly 60 years—starting with preventive maintenance schedules on mainframes and punch cards. In this episode, Josh and Nic trace the surprising evolution from early CMMS roots through CAFM, EAM, and IWMS, and into today’s world of BIM, digital twins, IoT, and AI. Along the way, they unpack why the industry’s “alphabet soup” can be both genuinely useful and, at times, pure marketing noise—and why many tools still feel like work-order

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Give Your Building a Physical: FCAs as Preventive Care | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 27

Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) can be the difference between clear, fact-based capital planning—and endless “political harangues” over who gets what. In Episode 27, Josh and Nic sit down with architect and FCA/PCA specialist Kyle Christiansen (and fellow ASTM committee member) to unpack what actually makes an assessment reliable, defensible, and technically accurate—and when it makes sense to keep FCA work in-house versus bringing in outside experts. They dig into the unglamorous but miss

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The Scope Conversation That Makes or Breaks Your FCA | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 26

Why do so many Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) miss the mark—before anyone even steps on site? In Episode 26 of Facilities Unfiltered, Josh and Nic sit down with Shay Rankhorn (Partner at Facility Diagnostics, former healthcare facilities leader, and 2022 ASHE President) to unpack the most common failure point: unclear expectations. The conversation starts where great FCAs actually begin—asking “What are you trying to do with the information?”—and follows the ripple effects that show up la

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25th Episode Built Reality Throwback | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 25

In celebration of our 25th episode, we're going back to one of our most popular episodes "The Value Engineering Hangover."  We'll be back with a new episode next week!

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Why Facility Data Needs Plain Language | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 24

Facilities teams often lose budget battles because the message is too complicated. In Episode 24 of Facilities Unfiltered, Josh and Nic make the case for keeping facility condition assessments and capital planning “first-grade simple,” especially when the audience is a board, a CFO, or the general public who just wants to know: What’s broken, what’s at risk, and what do we need to fund? They unpack how deep classification standards (Uniformat, CSI, D-levels) and overly technical language can cre

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Snapshots vs. Systems: Rethinking FCA Deliverables | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 23

Josh and Nic tackle the elephant in the room for both building owners and AEC firms: the traditional FCA deliverable report is eating up engineering hours, killing profitability, and producing a product that goes stale the moment it's delivered. This episode isn't about dismissing the value of expert assessments — far from it. It's about questioning where those expensive engineering hours should actually go. Should your architect or engineer spend a third of the project timeline copying photos i

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Short-Staffed Grounds Crews & Autonomous Mowers | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 22

Grounds work is getting harder to staff—and the riskiest areas (steep slopes, roadside embankments, fire-abatement hillsides) are often the toughest to maintain safely. In Episode 22, Josh and Nic sit down with Neil Simons of RC Mowers to unpack how remote-controlled “extreme slope” mowers and full-size commercial autonomous mowers are reshaping the way facilities and contractors tackle dangerous terrain, heat exposure, and relentless labor shortages. You’ll hear where each approach fits (remote

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Where Food Services Meets Facilities | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 21

Food service is more than menus and meal counts—it’s a massive, fast-moving operation that lives and dies by the facilities behind it. In this episode, Josh and Nic sit down with Thomas Arganda, Director of Child Nutrition for a large California district, to unpack what “asset management” really looks like when you’re responsible for hundreds of kitchens, thousands of moving parts, and the daily reality of serving meals at scale. From the murky line between food service equipment and facilities-

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What Your FCA Should Actually Tell You | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 20

What does a truly useful facility condition assessment actually look like? In this episode, Josh and Nic sit down with John Hajduk, VP of Support Services at Geisinger Health System, to dig into a topic that trips up both owners and service providers alike: the right level of granularity in an FCA, and what to actually do with that data once you have it. With 26 years of experience spanning both the client and service provider sides — including energy engineering, capital planning, and healthcar

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Lessons from 47 Years in HVAC | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 19

HVAC touches every corner of facilities management, and in this episode of Facilities Unfiltered, Josh and Nic sit down with Richard Boothman (Sales Director at Modine) to get practical about what actually matters in the field—sizing, fuel choices, and the maintenance realities that can make or break comfort, reliability, and budgets. Richard brings nearly five decades of HVAC experience (and Modine’s 100-year legacy in unit heaters) to unpack why “bigger isn’t safer,” what really happens when e

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What Every FM Should Know on Day One | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 18

What's the number one thing every facility manager should know? Josh and Nic went digging — through AI, Google, articles, job postings — and the answer was so obvious it actually caught them off guard. It wasn't PM strategy. It wasn't finding the right CMMS. It was asset inventory: know what you have and where it is. Sounds simple, right? And yet only 25–35% of FM job postings even mention it as a responsibility. In this off-the-cuff (and timely) Episode 18, they unpack why that gap exists, why

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The Fire Life Safety Gap (and How to Close It) | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 17

Fire life safety can feel like a “set it and forget it” line item—until a panel dies, an inspector interprets code to the letter, or a proprietary system leaves you stuck on fire watch with no fast (or cheap) options. In this episode, Josh and Nic sit down with Mike Stratman of Firetrol to unpack the real-world risks and recurring oversights that trip up facilities teams, and why these systems—though a tiny slice of your building—can decide whether you’re allowed to operate at all. They dig into

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Hero or Hazard? Why Saving the Day is Killing Your Facility | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 16

We've all been there: the 2 a.m. call, the overheating server room, the frantic scramble to save the day. In facility management, being the hero feels good — but what if that hero complex is actually holding your facility back? In this episode, Josh and Nic tackle the uncomfortable truth about reactive maintenance culture and the "cycle of abuse" that keeps facility teams trapped in firefighting mode instead of strategic planning. From the technician who ripped out asset tags to protect his job

The Staffing Cliff | Facilities Unfiltered | Episode 15

Facilities teams everywhere are approaching “the staffing cliff", and it’s not just about hiring more people. In Episode 15, Josh and Nic unpack why staffing shortages, turnover, and an aging workforce are colliding with the reality that most professionals don’t choose facilities as a career path—they stumble into it. With too few accredited FM degree programs and long hiring cycles for leadership roles, the gap isn’t closing anytime soon, which raises a tougher question: what can leaders do rig

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COVID & FM, A Six-Year Reflection | Facilities Unfiltered Episode 14

Six years after COVID was declared a national emergency, Josh Lowe and Nic Guedenet look back on how the pandemic reshaped facilities management—overnight. From the split reality of “essential worker” life versus remote work improvisation, they unpack what it felt like to keep buildings safe and operational while guidance, supply chains, and expectations shifted almost daily. This reflection digs into the real FM lessons that stuck (and the ones that faded): the scramble for cleaning products, t

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AI Across the Lifecycle Series #4 - Bolt-On vs. Built-In AI. Why AI in FM Software Isn't All Equal | Episode 13

In the finale of our AI Across the Lifecycle series, Josh and Nic sit down with AkitaBox product expert Dan Cooper to cut through the noise around “AI-enabled” facility management software. With AI suddenly everywhere—from IFMA show floors to CMMS feature lists—the team unpacks a crucial reality: not all AI is created equal, and a bolt-on chatbot that summarizes work orders is a very different animal than AI that’s trained for facilities and built directly into your workflows. You’ll hear what “

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AI Across the Lifecycle Series #4 - Lifecycle, Costing, & Capital Planning | Facilities Unfiltered Episode 12

Capital planning has always asked facilities teams to “predict the future” with tools that weren’t built to be maintained—binders, spreadsheets, PDFs, and one-time assessments that quickly go stale. In this installment of the AI Across the Lifecycle series, Josh Lowe and Nic Guedenet get candid about why traditional lifecycle costing models erode trust (when the model says four panels but the building has 22) and why the real bottleneck isn’t technology—it’s culture, workflow, and how consistent

AI Across the Lifecycle Series #3 - Development of Preventive Maintenance with AI | Facilities Unfiltered Episode 11

In this AI Across the Lifecycle Series installment, Josh Lowe and Nic Guedenet unpack where AI can genuinely help PM teams right now: accelerating calendar-based schedules by pulling from trusted sources like manufacturer O&M manuals and industry standards, while avoiding the “bad data faster” trap that comes from poorly constrained tools and questionable inputs. From there, the conversation moves into the real-world complexity: how to balance manufacturer-prescriptive recommendations with what’

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AI Across the Lifecycle Series #2 - The Foundation: Data Collection & Cleanliness | Facilities Unfiltered Episode 10

AI promises to help facilities teams do more with less—but only if the foundation is solid. In this second episode of the AI Across the Lifecycle series, Josh and Nic sit down with AkitaBox Director of Product Geoff Baron to unpack the unglamorous (and absolutely essential) reality behind successful AI in the built environment: data collection, structure, and cleanliness. From “garbage in, garbage out” to why AI will confidently fill gaps when your data model is broken, they break down what faci

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