Among the fans of Star Wars, while most rooted for the Rebellion, no one could avoid a sense of admiration and awe toward the sheer size and might of the Empire. Look at the dreaded Death Star—a magnificent battle station the size of a moon, built on the die-hard ambitions of the power-drunk Emperor Palpatine to rule the galaxy, with the 'fatherly' figure Lord 'Anakin' Vader acting as Project Director.
Imagine being in charge of the Death Star facilities management. Firstly, on safety: I struggle to understand the decision-making of the Empire's design department. Power and control panels are often dangerously placed across narrow bridges with no safety barriers. Blast doors open up to empty space. Countless stormtroopers had fallen into oblivion simply because they lost their balance while wiggling to avoid laser blaster fire. TK-421 never even had the chance to say goodbye to his wife. Anyway, it was a battle station, they were at war, and troopers are aplenty. Fortunately, I assume maintenance and housekeeping are mainly done by robots—though some robots seem even clumsier than humans.
A thing to note: there were always men or women sitting behind monitors in zonal control rooms lined with cabinetry of blinking buttons. Sensors and surveillance cameras are everywhere, and a flick of a button sends the whole battle station into alarm mode—I swear I can hear their alarm sounder in my head right now. The superintendents reported everything to the Boss, even though sometimes it meant you would end up being force-choked to death (not that much different from your workplace, eh?). Its Building Management System must truly be out-of-this-world (of course). Everything from opening up a drawing to turning the garbage compactor on and off, looking for a prisoner, and checking who just left the hangars or loading bay can be done from the many access points available, as long as you have the right tool, or companion.
The Death Star power core must have been colossal, capable of powering entire nations. The Empire's take on sustainable power consumption remains unclear; I have never seen a "Switch the lights off before you leave" sticker anywhere on the wall. Well, I guess when your budget is unlimited, cost savings doesn't make it to the top of your priority list. Power for the base station was obviously not only used to light up the corridors—the tractor beam system surely consumed a handsome portion of the supply. But the power system had to be large enough to juice up that planet-buster laser beam whenever it was activated to obliterate a suspected rebel base or an unsuspecting planet.
Lessons learned: resorting to technology is the inevitable way ahead. Most facility systems are now automated, remotely controllable, and some are even powered by AI brains. But I wouldn't discount the need for manpower, at least for now, especially on the front lines. Embracing technology should help us provide superior customer service. The more information and secured control avenues made readily available, the more effective a facility management team can be. Think about it: by now, response times to complaints or breakdowns should be almost instant. When a customer with the right channel provides feedback, the person-in-charge acknowledges it immediately the moment they hit "Send," and help is already on the way. Honest and timely reporting to the decision-makers also helps in expediting rectification and avoiding recurrence. Same goes for the mean time to repair; with more control over vendor management and parts inventory, downtime can be reduced to a minimum.
However, having such a system is not the ultimate solution. The fact of the matter is, this isn't anything new or something that only exists in a galaxy far, far away—and technology is progressing day by day—it's just that it wasn't used proactively. This isn't a technology problem; it is entirely a matter of the responding organization's mindset. You can have unlimited resources and state-of-the-art facilities, but if priorities are placed anywhere else but customer service, the results are almost surely below par. You can round up battalions of stormtroopers, give them shiny guns and armor, but their inability to shoot on target means a sure failure of the mission. As Master Yoda said, and I quote: “In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.”
