What the Battle of Britain can teach facility managers about data-driven operations

I recently read a book about the Battle of Britain — the defining part of World War 2 between Nazi Germany and the United Kingdom. The book was very informative; the most interesting part was some of the innovations England developed that helped it fend off the Nazis.

Specifically, England used fighter planes to repel Nazi air attacks. They didn’t stop all the bombing attacks (see the Blitz) but they did stop many. Many are familiar with England’s use of radar, but that’s only part of the story…..

First, some background: Up to WW2, military aviation was fairly new. And, in many cases, defending skies was difficult. In general, defensive airplanes only intercepted their targets 30–50 percent of the time. This means that if a spotter identified enemy aircraft, the planes sent to intercept were more likely than not to simply miss the bomber — they would still be looking while the bombs were dropped and the offending planes were heading home.

The implication of this should be clear to building and facility managers: to effectively defend the skies, you’d need at least 2x the planes and would have to live with a low intercept (or utilization) rate.

Radar helped — the data provided much clearer guidance on incoming bombers, direction, etc. However, England also developed the Dowding System, named after Hugh Dowding (head of Fighter Command), which was a communication system that ensured that the people manning the radar sites (typically right along the Southern and Eastern coasts) could very quickly get their readings to the airbases scattered all over England, which would then send fighters to intercept the Nazis. Radar plus the Dowding System was very effective and England managed a 90 percent intercept rate of German bombers and fighters during the Battle of Britain. Moreover, England was already building as many planes as it could — doubling output to overcome a 30–50 percent intercept rate simply was not an option.

Facility and building managers have similar challenges — their budgets can’t simply be doubled to better maintain their facilities, so data driven products and services must be used to increase utilization and improve outcomes. Additionally, it’s not just the data that will help — empowering the right people with the right data at the right time is just as important (just like the Dowding system).

I always enjoy learning about analogies to managing buildings with data and thought I would share this particularly good anecdote.