Posted on 22 Mar 2021
The adoption of smart building technology has boomed over recent years and is expected to continue to do so. This isn’t much of a surprise; Building and Facility Managers appreciate the way smart building technology helps them excel at their usually hectic roles by contributing to the smooth running of buildings.
Smart heating and lighting systems have seen quicker adoption, but awareness of smart lift systems is growing. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global Smart Lift market size was $18.75 billion USD in 2019 and is projected to reach $38.27 billion USD by 2027.
Not only do smart lift systems offer insight into a previously ‘dark spot’ of building management, but the best of them can also be retrofitted onto existing lift infrastructre. This means you don’t need to overhaul your lifts to access this level of data. And, unlike new lift solutions, retrofitting your lifts with technology like the Avire Ecosystem won’t tie you into a lengthy contract with a particular lift maintenance provider; you can engage whichever provider is best for you!
Acquiring this level of data about your lifts is always going to involve upfront investment. That said, there are a number of ways smart lift systems help save money and quickly pay back that first cost.
For example, lift monitoring systems help you identify if certain lifts are being used more than others. This can help you efficiently plan your maintenance schedules, placing more emphasis on heavily-used lifts to reduce unexpected costs of part failure. They also help you to move people more efficiently through your building, signposting them to lesser-used lifts to help ease congestion in certain areas.
One advantage of the Avire Ecosystem is that it’s modular; there’s no need to invest in packages full of devices you aren’t going to use. Instead, the Avire Ecosystem means you can invest in just the data you need. And, if you later decide that you would benefit from that additional layer of data, it’s easy to add it to your existing system.
The ability to conduct real-time remote monitoring and testing of lift systems is perhaps the biggest benefit of smart elevator technology. This benefit is great for facility managers with multiple buildings and lift systems to monitor! There’s no more need to travel to check on these systems or wait to hear from a building user of a fault. You’ll know straight away.
Remote monitoring will notify you of any problems, as well as making it easy to watch your lifts operate in real time. Remote testing will help you see a fault in action for yourself. These tests can also be scheduled during quieter times for the lift so they don’t interfere with daily use. Alternatively, devices like our Lift Hawk can even run these tests autonomously in advance of busy times. Either way, it helps identify faults and gives you a chance to repair them before a period of high traffic hits.
It’s easy to see how remote testing and monitoring can increase the amount of uptime for lift systems, as any problems can be swiftly dealt with. Increased visibility of your lifts usage can also help you gauge when a lift system might be due for repairs.
For example, has a lift unexpectedly become a lot busier over the last few months? Or has it become quieter? With this data in your hands, you can help to better predict when you’ll need someone to service your lifts or when a part might be coming to the end of its life. All of this leads to increased uptime for your lift system over the course of the year, improving reliability.
Having the ability to remotely monitor and test lifts will greatly reduce wasted time. We already mentioned how a smart elevator system can save a lift engineer’s time (and fees) from attending a false alarm. But it can also save a building manager’s time too.
For example, a faulty lift can leave a delivery languishing at the bottom of the shaft while you arrange for repairs or, worse, the delivery will simply be left; a building manager would then have to arrange for someone else to move it when the lift is finally repaired. But if your lift monitoring system identifies a fault before the driver arrives, you can get in touch with them and ask them to come to you at a later time, saving everyone time and frustration.
Having the ability to quickly flag a failed lift system means that users of your building won’t waste time trying to use said lift or, worse, managing to somehow get themselves stuck inside one!
The ability to quickly flag and deal with issues will lead to increased satisfaction from users of the building, lift engineers, building owners, and everyone inbetween. There’s nothing more frustrating for users of a building when a lift is out of order, especially for those with a disability. On the other hand, no lift engineer wants to arrive at an ‘out of service’ job to find that the lift is running perfectly. And building managers don’t want to have to pay the call-out fee for that engineer!
Having confidence that any system issues will be quickly flagged means you don’t have to worry as much about user satisfaction in managed buildings.
Lift monitoring systems don’t have to involve wholesale replacement of parts or even of entire lifts! The Avire Ecosystem was designed with easy installation in mind. Its modular nature doesn’t just mean you can pick and choose your devices as previously mentioned; it also means that it can be added onto your existing lifts with relative ease.
In fact, the Avire Ecosystem has been successfully retrofitted to lifts that were installed in the 1950s. We’ve also designed installation kits for the popular lift brands, making it even easier (and more cost effective) for a lift engineer to upgrade your lifts.
These six core benefits outline how adopting a smart lift can benefit a building and it’s easier and more cost-effective to upgrade your lifts than you might think. If you want the data and control a lift monitoring system can provide, get in touch with one of experts who will be happy to answer any of your questions and help you discover the smart lift solution that suits you.
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