Over the past couple of years and since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, facility management principles have changed. In accordance with the precautionary measures during Covid-19 (additional disinfection, etc.), the costs only increase, but the budgets don’t, so...
Over the past couple of years and since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, facility management principles have changed. In accordance with the precautionary measures during Covid-19 (additional disinfection, etc.), the costs only increase, but the budgets don’t, so it is important to look for how to optimize these costs. The time has come for facility management in the era of digitalization. It makes it much easier to manage facilities. Especially if we are talking about large facilities such as shopping malls, logistics centres or hypermarkets.
Metaverse, digital twins, indoor navigation, various SaaS solutions and other technologies are helping to optimize operations and reduce business expenses. Let’s explore how and what technologies can cut your facility management operational costs.
Maintenance operations
The main task of the maintenance service is to maintain an efficient and safe mode of operation in the shopping mall, logistics centre etc. When something breaks down, it slows down the work of the tenants of the shopping mall (for example, if there’s no water, the cafe or restaurant can’t fully serve people, etc.), therefore speed is important for the repair process.
With a precise indoor navigation and maintenance report system with a pinpointed location, you pay only for real work, not for searching for directions, discussing the ticket and reporting issues. With these technologies, maintenance contractors receive reports with clear descriptions and directions on how to get to a specific spot.
Indoor navigation reduces maintenance response time. With clear direction, contractors get to the damaged spot without any delay. The maintenance reporting system helps to send prompt requests that minimize delays in fixing. In addition to this, you save costs on maintenance. When contractors fix, for example, pipe breakage twice faster, it will minimize facility damages. Any spot will have downtime if electricity, for instance, fails because of the high speed of reaction on the report.
Staff optimization
AR indoor navigation fully covers concierge functions. If you decide to explore this technological option, you can cut the number of concierges and receptionists by optimizing their workload and thus reduce operational costs. With AR navigation visitors can get points of interest much easier and faster and with no extra interaction (that is very actual in the post-pandemic situation). As well as contractors, delivery and other services that are usually directed by receptionists.
AI analytics enables you to track employees’ movements and analyse their speed of work and reaction on reports/tickets (in the case of in-house maintenance or cleaning services, for example). You can check if employees were present on their floor and how much time they spend on their work. Based on this information you can make a strategic decision and fire unproductive company staff. In the context of constantly changing rules of the game, lockdowns and, in general, a change in the paradigm of work, it’s very important to keep your finger on the pulse of company finances.
AI analytics helps to optimize employees workload and manage the number of personnel per floor. Let’s consider a shopping mall as an example. You will see the busiest areas in a shopping mall to send extra cleaning staff or consultants, or security guards to ensure the comfort and safety of clients. And vice versa, when the foot traffic is low, you can reduce the number of employees per floor.
Digital twin creation
To digitize your facility, HVAC and other systems, automate facility management services, track equipment etc., you will need to create a digital twin of the facility. The digital twin of a building is not just a database or diagram, but a dynamic, expressive real-time recording system. As more developers and management companies create digital twins, this leads to a decrease in labour costs associated with the management and operation of facilities. It’s a common practice, but quite expensive.
We applied a crowdsourcing approach for mobile 3D mapping to decrease the cost of digital twin creation. You can read more about our case here. Moreover, we enable our solutions to update maps by using navigation. So you won’t need to spend any extra resources on digital twin updates. Rescanning all areas with changed decorations is in the past.
Onboarding process
Metaverse enables you to speed up the onboarding process and make it easier to share all necessary information with newcomers. Interactive content is much easier to perceive than printed texts, brochures or booklets. AR navigation will help to adapt to new workspace faster and without extra help. That will save senior managers’ time for really important tasks instead of helping and guiding new employees all the time.
Beacons and third-party hardware
The indoor positioning system worked on the basis of beacons and third-party hardware. BLE-based indoor navigation systems still rely on electromagnetic waves. This can either lead to incorrect readings from beacons that are far from the user.
The absence of beacons is our competitive advantage. Our solutions provide a precise 2 cm accurate localization and indoor AR navigation, AI analytics, digital twin crowdsourcing and many other features not requiring any complex hardware or expensive devices. We have developed a solution to locate objects and people inside a building using radio waves, magnetic fields, acoustic signals or other sensory information collected from a mobile phone. Simply put, using this system, you can determine your location in a large building using only a special application on your smartphone. It also works with AR glasses and robotics, but it’s optionally.
Summing up
Digitalization and modern technologies such as metaverse, localization and navigation, AI analytics, mobile 3D mapping allow you to reduce the cost of real estate management, optimize (reduce or select the most effective) the number of personnel, minimize the consequences of breakdowns, and accelerate the response to repair and cleaning reports.
We run a few pilots with our clients and the results of optimization facility management operations via metaverse, AR navigation, 3D map crowdsourcing and AI analytics technologies are impressive. Operational costs were decreased on average by 30%.
