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Glenstone Museum Made FDD Operational by Assigning Distinct Roles to Onsite Technicians, Remote Analysts, and Its Internal Team
Glenstone Museum made Fault Detection and Diagnostics operational by clearly defining who owns the work across its internal team and Schneider Electric support staff, the provider of its FDD platform.
The museum structured the program around three roles: onsite HVAC controls technicians, remote analytics support, and internal operational oversight.
Brendan Robinson, Director of Facilities at Glenstone Museum, said the deployment only became productive once those responsibilities were clearly separated.
"There's an HVAC technician on site regularly, a remote FDD specialist working in the platform, and our engineering team reviewing the findings," said Robinson.
Each role handles a different part of the workflow. Schneider technicians focus on troubleshooting mechanical issues in the field. The remote analyst helps interpret faults and tune the analytics rules. Glenstone's engineers review results and decide which issues matter operationally.
The teams operate on a consistent cadence. They meet every two weeks to review faults and prioritize work. Glenstone staff also hold internal meetings between those sessions so the team can continue learning the system and build independence rather than relying entirely on the vendor.
That structure turned FDD from a list of alarms into a troubleshooting workflow.
The work also exposed ongoing friction between analytics and real operations. Glenstone frequently adjusts BAS sequences and setpoints to improve energy efficiency. When those changes occur, the FDD rules must be updated as well, or the platform begins generating false positives.
Some rules also required tuning because museum conditions differ from those of typical buildings. In several cases, the FDD platform recommended free cooling even when chilled water was intentionally used to maintain humidity control for artwork.
Robinson's conclusion was straightforward: "FDD doesn't run itself."
Software can identify faults, but resolving them requires coordinated effort between technicians, analysts, and building operators.
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Glenstone Museum made Fault Detection and Diagnostics operational by clearly defining who owns the work across its internal team and Schneider Electric support staff, the provider of its FDD platform.
The museum structured the program around three roles: onsite HVAC controls technicians, remote analytics support, and internal operational oversight.
Brendan Robinson, Director of Facilities at Glenstone Museum, said the deployment only became productive once those responsibilities were clearly separated.
"There's an HVAC technician on site regularly, a remote FDD specialist working in the platform, and our engineering team reviewing the findings," said Robinson.
Each role handles a different part of the workflow. Schneider technicians focus on troubleshooting mechanical issues in the field. The remote analyst helps interpret faults and tune the analytics rules. Glenstone's engineers review results and decide which issues matter operationally.
The teams operate on a consistent cadence. They meet every two weeks to review faults and prioritize work. Glenstone staff also hold internal meetings between those sessions so the team can continue learning the system and build independence rather than relying entirely on the vendor.
That structure turned FDD from a list of alarms into a troubleshooting workflow.
The work also exposed ongoing friction between analytics and real operations. Glenstone frequently adjusts BAS sequences and setpoints to improve energy efficiency. When those changes occur, the FDD rules must be updated as well, or the platform begins generating false positives.
Some rules also required tuning because museum conditions differ from those of typical buildings. In several cases, the FDD platform recommended free cooling even when chilled water was intentionally used to maintain humidity control for artwork.
Robinson's conclusion was straightforward: "FDD doesn't run itself."
Software can identify faults, but resolving them requires coordinated effort between technicians, analysts, and building operators.
Register for the next Nexus Labs event.
Sign up for the newsletter to get 5 stories like this per week:
This is a great piece!
I agree.