A loosely coupled system integration approach for decision support in facility management and maintenance

With the objective of providing the best decision support to facility management and maintenance, this paper presents an agent-based, serviced-oriented approach for integrating data, information, and knowledge captured and accumulated during the entire facility lifecycle from its project planning, design, construction, material/component/equipment procurement, to operation and maintenance. All data/information/knowledge sources and hardware/software applications are loosely integrated through agent-based web services, either proactive or reactive, to provide decision support over all stages of the facility lifecycle, and particularly to optimize facility operations and maintenance. Case studies have been conducted with proof-of-concept prototype implementations to validate the proposed approach.