Rapid technological advancements have dramatically altered how we live, work, and interact. This sentiment is especially true for facilities managers where digital tools like the Internet of Things (IoT) bring substantial benefits via automation and sensor-enabled intelligence.
IoT-powered smart facilities streamline operations, reduce costs, and automate tasks, while meeting demands for sustainability, cleanliness, and seamless experiences that benefit employees and customers.
Let’s see how IoT solutions help facilities management in four important areas to provide valuable benefits and clear returns on investment (ROI).
Elevate Employee and Customer Experiences
IoT transforms daily operations by automating time-consuming tasks, which is especially impactful in large, high-traffic facilities. For example, IoT sensors can continuously monitor temperatures in cold holding units like refrigerators and freezers, eliminating the need for staff to manually check and record temperatures in logbooks, which frees up their time to focus on customer-facing tasks. If temperatures deviate from set parameters, staff receive real-time alerts enabling quick corrective action to mitigate the risk of food spoilage and enhance food safety.
Similarly, IoT helps maintain ideal environmental conditions—an integral component of facilities management. If conditions fall outside of acceptable ranges, it can, for example, signal HVAC maintenance needs, allowing facilities teams to proactively address unit malfunctions before they negatively impact occupant comfort or disrupt operations.
Cleanliness and Hygiene, Redefined
IoT has reinvented the modern restroom, improving custodial efficiency and customer experiences with smart solutions. Smart restroom solutions, for example, provide janitorial teams with real-time data to streamline cleaning tasks and eliminate the guesswork for restocking. With nearly half (48%) of facilities managers in a 2024 survey citing restrooms as the most problematic area to maintain and keep clean, this automation is invaluable.
Sensor-enabled dispensers monitor supply levels and alert staff via a mobile app for timely restocking, ensuring clean, well-stocked restrooms, improving hygiene, reducing waste, and boosting staff productivity. This needs-based restocking approach can cut paper waste by up to 50%, lowering costs and supporting sustainability goals.
It also supports employee wellness and helps address burnout, which nine out of 10 cleaning professionals experience. Further, data from restroom usage patterns informs smarter staffing, inventory management, and resource allocation, which is crucial for high-traffic venues like airports and stadiums.
Tackle Sustainability Initiatives
Creating sustainable operations is a top priority, with 52% of business leaders increasing investments towards these initiatives. Enabling smart technologies and real-time energy management solutions can effectively reduce costs by an average of 15%, showcasing the impact of IoT for the bottom line and for cleaner, greener operations at facilities.
For example, with non-intrusive optical character recognition (OCR) readers, facilities teams can intelligently and efficiently manage energy consumption at the meter level. They can then leverage real-time data, alerting, and predictive analytics for critical insights into energy efficiencies to drive down costs.
IoT also optimizes waste management processes with fill-level sensors that trigger alerts notifying staff when waste bins are full. This needs-based approach enables timely waste removal to ensure waste accumulation doesn’t reach hazardous levels that could attract pests and repel customers. It also reduces the carbon and greenhouse gas emissions associated with unnecessary waste collection trips by optimizing pickup routes for efficient dispatch, management, and disposal.
Proactive leak detection is another way IoT boosts sustainable practices. IoT-based water leak sensors offer 24/7 monitoring to detect and report leaks in real-time—triggering alerts for quick, targeted remedial action. This is fundamental for less-frequented spaces like utility closets, storage annexes, and boiler rooms, where leaks can go unnoticed until considerable damage and water waste has occurred. Identifying and addressing leaks promptly empowers facilities managers to prevent serious damage while avoiding unnecessary water waste.
Understand, Improve, and Optimize Space Utilization
Space utilization is vital for facilities managers, and IoT provides valuable insights into how areas throughout their facilities are (or aren’t) being used. IoT occupancy sensors placed at ingress and egress points anonymously count people entering and exiting the space, providing valuable data on traffic flow and room/space occupancy levels.
This data enables facilities managers to maximize space efficiency, which is crucial for ROI and business continuity. By revealing key variables such as peak occupancy times, occupancy rates between business hours, and the number of people on a floor or within a building, facility managers can dictate crucial business imperatives, facility planning decisions, and more.
For example, facilities managers can leverage occupancy data to determine how long to keep food operations open at office buildings, how frequently conference rooms or shared spaces need cleaning, or ensure adequate staffing at venues with heavy foot traffic. Occupancy data also uncovers new opportunities for profitability and business expansion plans, such as converting underused spaces into new revenue-generating areas.
IoT for Smart, Connected Facilities
IoT technology can transform facilities management, offering powerful solutions that create exceptional experiences, enhance cleanliness, advance sustainability, and optimize space utilization. The benefits of IoT can positively impact organizations, employees, and customers, and can be a competitive differentiator across multiple industries. As the digital transformation of facilities continues, IoT will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping a new age of facilities management, driven by smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable spaces.
Beth Milano is an IoT solutions consultant at MachineQ, an enterprise IoT company within Comcast. John Strom is vice president and general manager of innovation at GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, where he leads the team responsible for the company’s KOLO Smart Monitoring System for restrooms.