Space Management Tools

Spatial information is captured within three systems. CADM, SPAM and RUIS

In combination of CADM & SPAM tools enable the production of plans delineating space occupancy and the space reports, with all standardised reports available online. RUIS is used for analysis of all common teaching space both central and academic controlled.

What are these tools

CADM (Computer Aided Drafting and Management)

• Is the primary record of physical space and room addressing. All buildings owned or occupied by the University or any of its organisational dependants are recorded. Basic spatial attributes are 'attached' to each room to enable linkage to the space planning and asset management (SPAM) database.
• CADM plans can be accessed using Internet Explorer andthe installing the Dataviewer plugin.

SPAM (Space Planning Asset Management)

Provides all reports on space, spatial reports are available directly from the web at http://www.property.adelaide.edu.au/fr/space-rpts/

The SPAM application is a neutral (democratic) tool to calculate the SPACE ENVELOPE a department, faculty, etc, should be able to work within. It allows the comparison of occupancy against indusrty norms and then allows questioning of the operational and space requirements of the occupying unit. This intern allow the University to examine its priorities in relation to the provision of facilities for that particular unit.

Space is measured to match standards used by Australian Universities. This is very close to the NWPC Standing Committee guidelines.

These allow the categorisation of space by function (organisational) and type (physical).

RUIS (Room Utilisation Information System)

Draws its data from the central timetable and scheduling system Syllabus Plus. Using enrolment data, class sizes, venue parameters and categories can produce utilkisation reports for three aspects, room frequency, seat occupancy or a combination for total utilisation. There are other repoorts available refer below for more details.

Descriptions of the systems

CADM

Maintains and produces drawings of occupancy. CADM manages only the graphics and the primary area of for measurement with an attribute pointer for SPAM.

CADM records

All floor plans of all known University owned or occupied buildings and facilities for each campus, farm, hospital or external located organisational unit.

Data held

• Cadastral data for each Campus and immediate surrounding area. That is Land Title Lot Numbers. and in Roseworthy's case the adjacent land holders names and addresses.
• Surveyed site data for North Terrace, Waite and Roseworthy. At different stages of completeness.
• Each building and each level/floor plan.

Each room has an attribute attached for identification (the room number) and linkage to SPAM. A transfer file is generated from CADM and imported into SPAM when alterations or additions are made to the built environment. CADM calculates the area for each room, the floor or level GFA (gross floor area) GBA (gross building area).

Is the master register of all asset addressing for the University land and built environment.

There are three main areas to SPAM, physical (land, buildings and space), organisational, Faculties and Divisions (Academic and Administration occupiers) and statistics, the annual DEST statistics for students & staff using EFTSU & FTE. The first two are the space inventory module (SIM) and the last is the indicative space module/model (ISM)

Reports

• Many reports are hard coded in to the system as well as a very versatile interface for adhock reporting.
• Space can be reported by building or occupancy at various levels of the physical tree or organisational tree.
• Reports generally provide different levels of data depending on the level being reported.

Primary Reports

Basic Building space and occupancy reports are the most used.

Physically the smallest unit is a room.
Campus/Building/Level/Room.
A campus is either a single site, e.g Thebarton, or a collection of like facilities, e.g Hospitals.

• Campus floor areas.
• Summarised by campus giving Gross, Nett and Unusable area.
• Building Reports.
• Provide a listing of each room, its number, function, occupier and area; Floor/Level - Gross, Nett and Unusable and the Total - Gross, Nett and Unusable.

Organisationally the smallest unit is a group.

Academic: Faculty/School/Disipline/Group or Administration: Division/Section/Department/Group

• Occupiers reports are generally by faculty, scchool, disipline with different levels of data at each level reported.
• Individual departments.

The occupier report lists each building and each room in that building occupied by the organisational unit with summaries for occupied space in each building. Data presented against each group (if any identified) room is number, use (function) and area.

SPAM modules

Space Inventory Module (SIM).

Has the ability to report the total holdings of the university, a building, its floor area, condition, occupiers, function, value (insurance), a room, its condition, the occupying Faculty and School, Disipline and its area. Each campus can be summarised and the total holdings can be summarised.

Indicative Space Module (ISM)

This allows the examination of the numbers staff and students against each department and faculty, using EFTSU’s, FTE/FFT’s, Casual and Outside Funded numbers, apply standardised rules against these numbers and advise an envelope of space within which the faculty/dept. should be able to successfully carry out their operations.

For specific details on how the ISM is works select this link

Advantages of the ISM

Data format: The base staff and student data is already collected in a usable format. There is some manipulation and cross tabulation table editing rerquired on each import. This is detailed and critical to the results produced.

Rules : The space rules are standardised, being derived from a large pool of reference data and used by other Universities around the world for reference.

Comparisons : Can be used as a Space Usage comparison tool between various Universities

Limitations

DEST reports: The reports completed for returm by the departments to DEST are incorrect as they often show staff and students in depts that either don't exist any more or data that is obviously wrong. E.g. large numbers od students in a Faculty Office.

Institution Codes and structure. Sourced from OPQ annually or biennielly as required.

Use for Planning: It is only intended to, be used as a broad scale planning and management tool. It cannot be used for detail planning for small departments. Perhaps the smallest it should be applied to is the disipline of Architecture.

Calculation accuracy:The accuracy of the results is dependant on the data collected and submitted to DEST. There are ongoing issues with faculties incorrectly completing returns.

Obtaining Data Files: Though these are standardised DEET files they are not readily available at the times needed. This is an organisational issue.

RUIS

Drawing its data from Syllabus Plus and using enrolment data, class sizes, venue parameters and categories can produce utilisation reports for three aspects, room frequency, seat occupancy or a combination for total utilisation.

Explanation of RUIS Utilisation Reports

There are a number of user defined parameters that are set before the running of each of the following reports.

These include;

• Campus e.g. North Terrace
• Room type e.g. lecture theatre, laboratory, tutorial room etc
• Periods – half hour periods between the designated time for a given week e.g. half hour periods starting at 9:00am up to and including, period starting at 5:30pm each day for a given week. This equates to a total of 90 periods over the designated week.
• Reports can be run so that it selects the busiest week in which to base the reports e.g. reports for 2003 data is run against week 20 or the user can select the week in which to base the reports on.

• Shows periods used against the total available periods for a set time frame for a particular space type. Does not indicate whether the room is being used at full capacity, half capacity etc.
• Total periods available (90) is based on total number of half hour periods for the week between designated time set e.g. between 9am and including half hour period starting at 5:30pm2. Utilisation by Room RFF (Room Frequency Factor) vs Target RFF report

• Room Frequency Factor – shows how often a room is actually used as a %. Does not indicate whether the room is being used at full capacity, half capacity etc.
• RFF is calculated as [actual periods used] divided by [periods available], expressed as a percentage
• Displays room usage as a % against set target use
• Target use for lecture theatres has been set at 75% within RUIS. Target can be set at any amount however TEFMA guidelines indicate 75% for lecture theatres an indicative “good practice” space utilisation rate.

• Shows seats used against the available seats for a set time frame
• Available seats is the total number of seats available in each space type over the total number of periods for the week e.g. total seating capacity of the lecture theatre X total number of half hour periods available for use over the week

• Seat Occupancy Factor – shows as a % how many available seats are actually used.
• SOF is calculated as [seats actually used] divided by [seats available during the actual periods used], expressed as a percentage
• Displays seat usage against target seat occupancy. Target set for seat occupancy for lecture theatres has been set at 75% within RUIS. Target can be set at any amount however TEFMA guidelines indicate 75% for lecture theatres an indicative “good practice” space utilisation rate.

• Overall Utilisation Factor – is calculated by multiplying the seat (SOF) and room usage (RFF)
• Utilisation target is calculated by multiplying the SOF target (75%) by the RFF target (75%) = 0.5625 (56%) 

Impact Statement

There is a need for a tool to enable the impact of proposed alterations and projects to be measured (quantified) and to this end I have put together this Proposed Impact Statment.