September 28, 2001—The Association for Facilities Engineering presented three special awards during its national conference at The Tropicana Resort and Casino this month. A panel of Certified Plant Engineers and licensed Professional Engineers chose the entry submitted by John Jordan, facilities director at Fingerhut Corp. in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the FAME Award of Excellence. Criteria were originality, efficiency of problem-solving method used, measurability of results achieved, contribution to corporate objectives and applicability of the solution to comparable facilities.
Fingerhut is one of the nation’s largest direct marketing and online retailers. Its 186,000-square-foot, five-story data center is crucial to all the company’s facilities across the country. Downtime business costs are estimated in excess of $100,000 per hour. Jordan’s entry described a wide-ranging project to ensure reliable operations at the data center, plus obtain revenue from under-utilized or surplus facility assets. Specifically, he addressed such things as the data center’s mechanical and electrical systems infrastructure and equipment like chillers, generators, switchgear, and uninterruptible power supply units. Security issues were considered, too.
FAME Awards of Merit were presented to Anthony D. Mares, CPE, director of site facilities for Atmel Corporation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the facility management division of Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. Mares was recognized for a facilities interruption prevention program at a semiconductor manufacturing plant.
FAME, sponsored by The AFE Foundation, is a 17-year-old program to salute outstanding performance in the facilities engineering profession. For more information contact AFE or by email.
