Technologies

A research partnership from the University of Leeds and the University of Sheffield, along with Smart hand sanitisation company, Savortex, has created hand sanitisers that can track their own usage, and send alerts to staff members to use them. The technology will be rolled out across government departments and corporate head offices this year. This initial trial of the new smart sanitisers comes with integrated video screens on the devices showing the latest health and safety guidance from the companies, as well as reminding staff to use them. They can also integrate with other parts of the building management and bar people who do not sanitise their hands from the building. The data collected from the trial is hoped to show “effectiveness, how people feel about integrating smart technologies into their working life, their attitude to workplace health and safety guidance, and help facilities managers ensure the best use of the sanitisers in various environments”.

Bosch are working to improve workplace monitoring technologies. At CES 2021 they announced a small sensor that measures air quality which they hope will assist in sensing small aerosols such as coronavirus particles in the air. They have also created a heat sensing camera that works within a half degree (°C) of accuracy. Suggested applications for this product are to automatically detect when capacity limits for a specific area have been reached; for example on a shopfloor, or in a school, and to send a warning alert to monitors if so. The integration of these, and similar products, into monitoring footfall could have a profound effect on the safety of people in the workplace, whilst shopping and attending school.

Another company, IDTechEx report on the latest printed and flexible electronics technologies which are often used in workplaces to the benefit of facilities managers. A few key technologies they have espoused for the FM market are pressure sensitive floors, leak detection and new gas and air quality sensors.

Pressure sensitive floors have seen a spike in installation since the start of the pandemic, and can be used similarly to the Bosch sensors but without the possible security concern of using camera based technology. So far they have seen a lot of use in retail so that shops can automatically assess how many people have entered or exited the retail space in order to maintain social distancing rules. They are beginning to be employed in the workplace as well. They are used to monitor footfall in shared spaces by gathering data on heavy and light traffic throughout time in order to better manage a building space.

Another key technology is printed sensors that improve leak detection and therefore maintenance when built into the fabric of a building. The sensors can digitally alert to small amounts of water or other liquids which can allow for preventative maintenance against what could become a substantial problem. Similarly to the Bosch sensor, gas sensors and air quality sensors will assist facilities managers in improving the air quality in a space through ventilation and air conditioning. They will also allow for data collection for modelling and improving the quality of air, including monitoring CO2 levels and detecting small virus particles in the air.

Disruptive Technologies is the creator of the world’s smallest wireless sensors which, when joined with Infogrid’s IoT (Internet of Things) system, have allowed companies to remotely monitor their fridges and freezers over the course of lockdown. This has been essential to NHS Trusts as they take on storage of the Pfizer vaccine which must be stored at closely regulated low temperatures to remain viable. The ease of installation means that anyone can add the sensor to a fridge and instantly see a return. Infogrid gives automated and recorded readings once every 5 minutes, where before fridge temperatures were checked once daily by a nurse. Secondly, the fridges can be automatically turned on and off and NHS trusts are alerted to temperature fluctuations outside of the norm. This allows them to reduce medicine and energy wastage as they can easily see when fridges and freezers are not operating at full capacity. By doing maintenance on those freezers which are not performing as expected allows them to be more sustainable, and to increase the longevity of their infrastructure which may last longer due to doing repairs work sooner.

AI

The current field of AI and technological innovations for the workplace is expansive. Facilities managers now have a host of technology available to them in order to better manage physical building spaces and to assist employees in working from home, or hybrid working. The systems they manage have become increasingly complex, including internal hardware, software, and the building’s own design. This has created a drive to have everything running from one integrated system.
IBM have partnered with Cisco and Esri to improve their facilities management provision greatly during the last year. They will be harnessing Esri’s location intelligence technology to allow them to place employees when they come into the building, unite colleagues and show desk space availability. They want to go further with occupancy mapping however, and will be using IoT sensors and Wi-Fi to spot high traffic areas and pinch points in the office.

International partnerships are also working to towards creating more sustainable HVAC solutions. Facilio and Evogy match AI-driven operations with energy monitoring to ensure that sustainability is at the core of managing large property portfolios. This match between the two companies allows facilities managers to implement Internet of Things (IoT) centred solutions which will improve a building’s efficiency. Part of their offering has become particularly crucial during the coronavirus pandemic as they provide “remote monitoring and control of multiple building assets, equipment, and systems (HVAC, fire safety, access control, etc.) through a ‘single-pane-of-glass’ dashboard”, according to Facilio’s site. To make building portfolios more sustainable, they are also using machine learning to optimise the energy efficiency of HVAC, and will be optimising energy usage across the portfolio by using Evogy’s ‘Simon’ feature, which dynamically responds to variable load, weather forecasts, electricity tariffs, etc in order to ensure the most efficient use of energy.

Building Information Modelling

Building information modelling (BIM) technology, which has been around for some time in the construction and architecture sectors, has also been utilised in the FM sector to plan the ongoing management of a building once constructed. BIM works by creating a virtual 3D scale model of the building with all infrastructure shown. Facilities managers can then integrate this model with their management software, the physical building and the people who work in it, as well as the processes by which it is managed in order to gain data. For a smart building, the data can then be fed into AI models to analyse these processes and begin to improve the efficiency of the building through adopting other (or newer) technologies and processes.

One cost-saving use of AI is for predictive maintenance, rather than planned maintenance. With long term smart building solutions, facilities managers will have a better idea of the overall health of their systems, and thus able to bring in maintenance as needed, rather than as part of a planned cycle. In this way, facilities managers can forecast for the future, and change operations and systems around in the digital building until they reach an optimal set up which can then be implemented.

Digital Twins

Looking forward, Verdantix’s Simon Winter expects major growth in the global digital twins market, with a “total spend [to] reach $27.6 billion in 2040, as widespread adoption of the underlying technologies required for more sophisticated twins – enterprise asset management software, APM software, and IoT platforms, to name a few – gathers pace”. Digital twins allow remote management of buildings and could become indispensable to the FM sector. The virtual system renders a digital 3D image of the physical building, and holds all the data facilities managers need, including information on rooms, equipment and security.
Facilities managers with access to a digital twin have been able to increase the promptness of their interventions as they are signalled by the system when something might be failing. They collect dynamic data on their building through smart building features such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. IoT sensors can be used to identify and address maintenance needs using live floor maps, and show easily accessible information on all energy outputs. Facilities managers using these sensors in conjunction with AI can also ensure that people entering the buildings can be monitored through auto check-ins, kept safe through cleaning and occupancy monitoring, and have everything set up when they get there. All remotely, and even through an app on their phone.

The use of AI, IoT and other technologies in facilities management has been proven to be the way forward in the sector as companies push towards being more sustainable and technology focused. Integrated sensors and software will lead to more efficient, sustainable and future proofed facilities management. Sensors that manage footfall can be used for security and can be integrated into HVAC systems to allow for more airflow in a crowded room for example, rather than just to assist social distancing now. It has been evidenced now more than ever that buildings can be managed remotely. Through integrated IoT and AI systems facilities managers are able to see the current state of a property portfolio and can ensure that it is in working order even when they are not there.

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