Sustainability & Risk / Emergency Preparedness / Background Data
Smart Client / Sustainability & Risk / Emergency Preparedness

Recording Critical System Information

During an emergency, you will need to access information regarding your building systems and their status. Maintaining accurate and up-to-date information about the critical systems for your buildings can help first responders (fire fighters, police, and rescue personnel) contain a dangerous situation, prevent further damage, and protect the safety of employees.

Building systems are rarely, if ever, independent entities; rather, they depend on each other to operate. For example, most building systems rely on the building's base electrical service for power; computer systems often need supplemental cooling to operate properly. Mapping these system dependencies will help you quickly determine each system's operational status during an emergency.

Note: System Types, Systems, and System Dependencies can also be entered using the Archibus Smart Client environment's "Define System and Zones" process. The following instructions are written for Web Central users; Smart Client users can adapt accordingly.

Step 1: Establish your System Types

First, establish the system types in your buildings, so that you will be able to categorize your systems.

  1. Select the Define Systems Types task.
  2. Choose Add New to define a new system type; or, select a system type to edit.
  3. In the System Type field, enter a type of system that is critical to the buildings of your facility, for example, "Fire & Smoke Detection."
  4. In the System Category field, select a system category from the provided list.

Step 2: Establish your Systems

Next, record your vital building systems information:

  1. Select the Define Systems task.
  2. In the Systems table, complete the following fields:

Step 3: Map System Dependencies

If a system is dependent on other systems, you should document this dependency. A master system is a building system on which other building systems rely.

Note: You can create multiple levels of dependent systems. For example, in the sample HQ data, the electrical system is master to the exhaust system, which, in turn, is master to the network system.

  1. Select the Define System Dependencies task.
  2. Choose Add New.

  1. In the System Dependencies table, complete the following fields:
    • System Master Code – Enter the master system, on which other systems rely.
    • System Dependent Code – From the validating Systems table, select the dependent system. This is a system that is dependent on the master system in order to operate. A master system can have several dependent systems.
    • Propagate Status to Dependents? – Use this field to specify how Archibus updates a dependent system’s Recovery Status field. A Yes value means that the master system automatically applies its Recovery Status value to the dependent system. If you enter No, you can change the Master System status without affecting the status of a dependent system.

Note that you can specify this propagation behavior for each dependent system, not just for the overall master system.

For example, enter System A as the master, System B as a dependent, and System C as a dependent. For System B, enter a value of Yes in the Propagate Status field; for System C, enter No as a value for the Propagate Status field. If System A has a Recovery Status of Offline, then System B automatically inherits the Offline status from System A, but System C does not inherit this status.

Step 4: Map the Areas Served by a System

If you have floor plan drawings, CAD users at your site can map the areas on each floor that are served by a building system. For information, see Draw Zones .