A defining decision each facilities professional must make is how to configure their building management system (BMS), which systems to tie together, and whether to develop a proprietary system or purchase a vendor “plug and play” system. There’s no uniform “right” decision. Sub-systems to include in a BMS, based on operational requirements, cost, and ease of use, must be considered in determining a facility’s optimal configuration.

Perhaps most important is deciding the level of interdependency a facility can tolerate—whether to tie all major building components into one master BMS or to keep some systems discrete in their operations. Designing redundancy to keep operations going during a BMS failure is critical, and its configuration will depend upon the initial decision on which components are independently or master monitored.

This cleanroom tip was taken from “BMS Is Watching,” which appeared in the October 2012 issue of Controlled Environments.