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  • Digital twins – getting the DNA Right

    Digital twins – getting the DNA Right

    The scope and depth of digital twins are far different than the asset management or facility management platforms. They do now have specified modules like the lateral ones hence digital twins are mostly referred to as products, platforms, or processes. This differentiation depends on the aspects/ use cases that have been in focus likewise the purpose to implement it.

    In the previous article, the building blocks of digital twins, and when to opt for them were discussed. In this, a deep dive into the classifications, finding out what’s suitable for your facility is being shared. 

    Digital twins could be available from basic to complex nature and organized into 3 major categories. The digital twin may use 2D or 3D simulations, a mesh of IoT devices, local or 4G networks, and another bunch of technologies such as blockchain, edge computing, cloud computing, etc. Depending on its complexity, each digital twin may have access to past, present, and future operational data and increased predictive capabilities

    One cannot reinstate enough on the fact that whatever the platform or application is chosen for developing digital twins, has to improve your decision-making ability. Regardless of autonomy, one should be in a position to reduce unplanned breakdowns, improve efficiency, and ensure a pleasant tenant experience.

    The digital twin and its ecosystem may vary in scale and complexity for size and scope. 

    As per the requirement categorising goes as mentioned below. 

    Assets twinning:

    Operational data from critical assets such as chiller, cooling towers, or elevators are continuously collected and monitored on a central platform. Design specification from the OEM is used to build the replica of the asset. Note that, it is not necessary to have the 3D model. However, It should exhibit the physical characteristics of the assets in most of the cases and could be programmed and displayed in a 2D. 

    From the digital twin of the assets, one will be able to analyze changing patterns and answer to

    • What are the failure modes? (How does an asset break)
    • What are the consequences?
    • What are the mitigating recommendations? 

    Important KPIs for a digital twin of an asset can be listed as Availability, Uptime, Productivity, Cycle Time, OEE Lead Time, and Equipment Failure Rate.

    Since the digital twin can communicate and control the physical asset it can help monitor and optimize the performance of individual assets with a greater level of autonomy.

    System twinning:

    Moving  from asset to a set network of assets, such as HVAC networks where operations of AHU and chillers are interlinked and can be affected if one of them deviates from its course. Data Inputs in such twins are extended to external factors too such as room temperature or humidity. Hence the model has to respond to all the possible scenarios where external parameters drive the change.    

    System twinning allows facility managers to operate the entire system (collection of dependable assets) to achieve a result at a system level. They combine individual Asset Twins and provide the opportunity to check how individual assets work together. 

    A network of systems:

    Twinning the network of systems optimize the operations involving asset data, building’s design aspects as well as occupancy and workflow processes. These types of twins process complex data, exchanges by harnessing real-time data, and the platform adds value by optimizing the performance to drive savings through actionable insights and predictive maintenance. 

    Facility management teams can use the platform to learn about how occupants behave and automatically predict future needs.

    The maturity metrics of digital twins  

    Scope and usability of a digital twin is evaluated based on 3 parameters

    Autonomy: 

    It can be defined as the ability of a twin to operate independently without any human interventions. For example, by predicting the cooling demand automatically changing the chiller sequence to an optimum level. 

    There is always a provision to select from semi autopilot, manual or complete autonomous mode. However, in most cases facility operators go for the semi autopilot mode where routine activities are controlled by the system while for the critical assets operator receives notifications and alters on maintenance tasks whenever an issue arises. Ultimately one holds the authority to plan and act on it at the right time. 

    Intelligence:

    Intelligence can be defined as the ability to execute multiple logics. It can also quantify based on the processing or computing speed of the system. As you go up from asset twinning to network of systems you would need higher computing capabilities as the complexity of the logic goes up when multiple systems are involved.  

    Learning:

    Self-learning ability of the system remembers historical tasks and influencing parameters to create possible scenarios and suggest optimum settings. Twins logic is based on Machine learning and Artificial intelligence which help them to automatically learn from data to improve performance without being explicitly programmed to do so. 

    There are several stages of advanced learning, however only a network of system or process twins need such ability. Asset twinning can easily be processed without self-learning features.

    As you go up from assets to network of systems, importance to feedback and prediction increase. At higher levels, machine learning capacity, domain-generality and scaling potential all come into the picture. 

    When to settle?

    The digital twin allows “What if?” scenarios to be run automatically to determine possible strategies that optimize resource usage. A critical part of decision making can be taken care of by the twins and on-site facility management teams can then review the recommended strategies to assess the impact of each recommended approach. 

    By now one would have realized that digital twins are continuously evolving in terms of intelligence and applications. There is a high chance that your first one might just set the foundation for the latest to come, hence it is wiser to focus on scalability and start with asset twinning and once you see the expected outcomes go for the entire network of systems.   

    Want to explore about Asset Performance Strategy for CRE? Attend the virtual session Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE

  • Digital twins are great but start with doppelgänger first

    Digital twins are great but start with doppelgänger first

    Out of the many technologies invented or pioneered by NASA and later popularised for industrial and manufacturing sectors, Digital twins is one such, that holds tremendous potential for the commercial real estate sector. 

    Although digital twins as a concept is well understood among industrial sectors, it is comparatively new to the commercial real estate (CRE) industry. Post pandemic we are witnessing a lot of initiatives towards the technology due to its remote management capability and connected features. CRETech companies such as Thoughtwire and Willow have even claimed that this will be the game changer and clear path forward for the smart facilities. Technology companies and service providers are promising wonders with the digital twins for every inflating market expectations. This sudden growth in interest for digital twins made us think, are the facilities ready enough for the shift? Specifically when facility managers are facing tight budgets, limited resources and other unforeseen challenges? 
    To define a digital twin, it’s a virtual representation of a physical asset that is functionally similar to its physical counterpart. A digital twin integrates all of the organization’s digital information on a specific asset or piece of equipment with real-time operating and data streaming from the asset while in use.

    Digital twin technology offers facility managers and operators a unified view of their data assets improving asset management efficiencies while saving time and money. Not to mention it also strengthens their path to achieve Net-Zero targets

    Fundamentally, Digital twins impact on three different levels 

    • Data system unification level
    • Asset/device level
    • Space and workflow level

    Data System Unification

    The digital twin utilizes the information collected from different sources such as design or floor plan data from the Building information system (BIM), real-time asset data from the Building management system (BMS), and other IoT and automation systems. 

    Standalone asset operations

    Operational data of individual assets with the context of occupancy and asset history can help to create a virtual replica of the asset that can predict different scenarios where manual or automatic interventions are required to better manage the network.  

    Space and workflow level

    Space management based on occupancy and asset capacities can be simplified with the 3D model of the facility that estimates cooling requirements and suggests different sitting layouts for optimum utilization of the space. 

    Quick assessment test 

    But before opting for the digital twins there are questions that need to be answered and a foundation that needs to be built, which is missing in most cases.  

    • What data is necessary to get started? Availability, volume, storage, and transfer-friendly 
    • Does this in line with the other system/platform Integration?
    • What do we have to achieve with this and when do we expect to see the results? Define your use cases and impact metrics first.

    Let’s assess some of the building blocks that are needed to lay the foundation for the digital twins  

    1. Data:

    As the name suggests, a digital twin is built on the availability of digital data for fault detection diagnostics to deliver precise predictive foresight. Unavailability of correct data at required intervals may hamper the accuracy of the insights.

    1. Connectivity: 

    Having data in silos would not serve the purpose, a complete access to facility-wide asset, workflow management data on a single platform is necessary. The team should ensure the enabling applications and tools are in place for end-to-end data collection and sharing.

    1. Analytics and 3D modeling :

    How to run real-time simulations or draw insights from them? What portion of the facility asset needs to have virtual footprints? 3D modeling allows simulations to be run against the physical asset.

    1. Use cases: 

    In the end, every new investment starts with the dependable use case in mind, when it comes to digital twins we find that it’s a culmination of various technologies working in synchronization,  Process optimization, facility uptime, Predictive maintenance, tenant satisfaction.

    Here we should note that, except for the 3D modeling of asset simulations, all the building blocks provide an important primer for the asset performance analytics applications. (we can call it a middle ground between BMS and Digital twins)  

    However, two aspects that differentiate digital twins from any other asset management methodologies are 

    A) Visualization – The ability to virtually monitor and assess physical assets 

    B) Simulated modeling – Test virtual models under various conditions and make the appropriate changes in physical assets on a real-time basis. 

    Now we have the idea of what is required to build the digital twins so let’s examine the step-by-step approach of the maturity spectrum to build one.

    Steps to build digital twins

    Step 1: 2D, 3D model of the physical asset – Object-based data including surface and shapes.

    Step 2: Tagging asset information such as material specifications, inspection reports, and asset management information

    Step 3: Connecting real time dynamic data – with the help of IoT and sensors, linking real time parameters of the physical asset with the digital one

    Step 4: Two-way interaction – developing the feedback loop of physical and digital assets where any changes in either one of them can be reflected in the other’s behavior. 

    Step 5: Autonomous operation and maintenance – over a period of time, digital twins evolve from a human-controlled to a system driven O&M with the help of AI.

    Organizational Objectives:

    Although the steps are not linearly placed to suggest the complexity involved in the development or the value creation, each step does address a particular use case and if we have a clear objective in mind before starting we can stop at any step with definitive outcomes.  

    If visualization of the critical processes/assets and simulated modelings answering ‘what If’ questions are on your organizational agenda then the digital twins is your answer. If not, you can comfortably settle with the asset performance analytics applications and move upward as and when the requirement of virtual twins is there.

    To conclude our assessment we can definitely say that there are a lot of things that need to be in place to lay the foundation for the digital twins. In fact, it’s not necessary for every facility to have a digital replica of its assets. But an organizations needs smart building technology solutions. If the organizational objects are being met with the asset performance analytics applications then they are in good hands.

    Want to know more about Asset Performance Strategy for CRE? Attend the virtual session Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE

  • Execution is a moat you would need to cross for a successful POV trial

    Execution is a moat you would need to cross for a successful POV trial

    Starting an analytics POV is a great thing, congratulations to you and your team for getting started! Now that you have set up your hypothesis and formed a right team to own the POV trial, let’s focus on how to ensure that it turns out to be successful and leads the way for future implementations. 

    Many great applications do not see the day of the light post trials, why? Because teams often do not put enough focus on implementation and execution of the POV trial. We can look at the implementation as the probation period for any application/technology on the shop floor. As it is the first time you are introducing it to the O&M team, you should observe how they react to it? What insights do they like the most? How does this POV help you to get the fundamentals clear?

    Based on our experience we are trying to enlist a few aspects that you should be looking for during the execution period.

    Acknowledge gaps in processes

    Although POV trials are focused on a specific use case(s) in mind they do provide hints on other areas as well. Sometimes a lot of introspective insights point towards a maintenance (or any other) activity that could have been done better or the delay in taking the actions or even an inaccurate data capture. POV trials should be able to call for basic hygiene checks.   

    Manage the initial change:

    Anything that changes the existing hierarchy of the information or action flow will have to be observed carefully. The introduction of a new application to your O&M team will make some cultural challenges as well. As your team starts using the application/platform, it will start getting various insights and recommendations on the operational behaviour of the asset, maintenance schedule, and energy usage, etc. Some of them are purely transactional in nature while others will focus on transformation aspects such as simplifying the data flow architecture or maintenance practices etc. How your team reacts to them and makes changes in the planning or operations schedules is going to be a crucial part of this POV exercise. (Perhaps this podcast on change management would help you prepare better)

    Cross validate the Insights

    Don’t just blindly trust the insights that the new application is providing you. Go back to your team and apply

    the possible reverse engineering techniques or cross calculate the legitimacy of the insights. This may take

    time but mind that this is a one time exercise to ensure accuracy & reliability of the insights and should be

    performed thoroughly.

    Be agile, get others involved as needed:

    As we realize some of the insights would call for the involvement of different teams for collaboration. For example, if a maintenance team has an insight on AHU’s performance and wants to further invest in data acquisition to be able to capture the data on a granular level then they should involve the IT team well in advance so that they can test the communication protocol, feasibility etc. and make the appropriate changes in the data flow architecture. 

    Similar to this there will be numerous occasions where an implementation team (the one which is responsible to take care of the POV trial) will have to communicate with IT and maintenance teams. The success of the trial greatly depended on the inter-team communication. 

    The trial should be able to align the individual objectives of the different departments with the organizational goal and if it can do that then there couldn’t be a better win than that. 

    If you like this article and found it insightful enough to share it with your peers then don’t hesitate a bit! Are you planning to introduce an asset performance management application to your O&M team? Not sure how to start an asset performance analytics trial? no worries refer to the previous article.
    Want to know more about Asset Performance Strategy for CRE? Attend the virtual session Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE

  • Reliability Centered Maintenance – Will Post Covid-19, Facility Management Leaders foster to it?

    Reliability Centered Maintenance – Will Post Covid-19, Facility Management Leaders foster to it?

    An experienced O&M engineer would know what happens to the HVAC setpoints and scheduling when a sudden change in demand occurs. Reasons for the demand distortion could be anything – unexpected weather changes or inflow of the occupants (activities by tenants that influence office asset functioning) reflecting on the cooling demand of the building. Now imagine, if the uncertainty of the demand continues for quite longer than usual and the O&M team is not prepared enough to overcome the cause and action scenario, then it results in, 

    • Degradation of Asset’s health 
    • Improper scheduling, increasing energy and resource losses
    • Discomfort to tenants caused by mismanagement

    And all these continue until building operations are back to normal.

    Since the pandemic, most of the facilities have faced a similar fate due to unexpected challenges, crumbling their maintenance strategies. Although there is reopening in most parts of the world, facilities are still failing to reach previous occupancy levels. According to this article on mint, office occupancy in America has slashed by 50% even after 6 months into the pandemic. There are speculations on how covid has permanently changed some of our perceptions and practices to operate and maintain a facility. One thing that still remains unchanged or rather has become the centerpiece of most of the discussions is the reliability in the O&M. Facility managers know that the uncertainty in the CRE operations will remain there for quite some time and hence need to explore innovative and reliability-centered maintenance practices which can adapt with the changing demands.    

    In Reliability Centered Maintenance Observational data is combined with operating principles to create models in order to understand the behaviour of the equipment, optimize its performance and minimize the life cycle/operational costs.       

    Two critical components of reliability-based maintenance that differentiate it from the rest.

    • Possible modes of asset failure are listed and well documented with reference
    • Asset behavior is closely monitored for signs which indicate imminent failure  

    Now, obviously, Reliability Centered Maintenance as a program would require a lot of asset-specific data and focus on the operation of the individual components which otherwise would not be possible or feasible to collect and monitor. However, if we keep the governing principles of RCM straight and apply them while designing and strategizing asset performance analytics, could reap the benefits of both methodologies.

    If we look closely at the steps to implementing RCM and try to correlate them with the asset performance analytics we can come up with a unified approach that is focused on individual assets as well as the network.

    Steps to a unified approach 

    Step 1. Noting down the functions and desired performance standards of each assets

    Corresponding in APA: Sensors and other data acquisition infrastructure can capture and record the critical parameters on a real time basis.

    Step 2. Possibilities of asset failing to  operate and possible failure modes

    Each asset will have an audit trail which maintains history of operational behavior, including events of abnormal conditions and the rectifying actions taken 

    Step 3. Listing  the causes of failure and their consequences

    Historical data of asset related parameters, system recommendations and the maintenance log filled by the technician can be automatically assessed and come up with the root cause analysis 

    Step 4. Preventive measures to overcome the failure

    Adopting to Predictive algorithms which can forecast events of similar conditions (asset operations, external factors and the reaction of the network elements) in the future and recommend corrective actions

    This way one can implement reliability-centred maintenance principles with the right asset performance analytics strategy making RCM a dynamic practice rather than one-time exercise.   

    Additionally, we can reap the benefits of Life data analysis which refers to the application of statistical methods in determining the reliability behaviour of equipment based on failure time data. 

    The journey from asset breakdown to repair with APM:

    1. An issue has been identified:

    Air Handling Unit 208 is not working properly, hence the respective cubical is not getting enough cooling.

    1. FDD in the background

    Analytics application senses the abnormal behavior and checks with

    • AHU’s operating parameters
    • Historical data (audit trail)
    • HVAC network parameters
    1. Identified new failure mode

    Since this abnormality does not come under-listed failure modes, the application enlists a new mode of failure and recommends the action.

    1. The notification has been sent to an operator

    An operator inspects the air handling unit and takes the corrective measures 

    1. Restored cooling

    Actions on AHU reflect on operating parameters and restore cooling in the cubicle. The root cause has been identified with the help of a network of parameters. Preventive measures have been notified to an operator to stop similar failures in the future. 

    By this, RCM with asset performance analytics being a unified approach becomes one of the actionable items by FM leaders post Covid-19 and will they foster it?

    Want to know more about Asset Performance Strategy for CRE? Attend the virtual session Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE 

  • Net-Zero Buildings with Data Analytics – The First to Last Mile Activity to retain and sustain it

    Net-Zero Buildings with Data Analytics – The First to Last Mile Activity to retain and sustain it

    Net-zero means keeping a balance between self-reliance for generating carbon-free energy and accepting accountability to track and consciously consume resources which are responsible for the carbon emission. Not all the existing buildings have the liberty or feasibility to produce carbon-free energy at the point of consumption but they certainly manage and control their operational energy consumption during the lifetime of the building. 

    According to the UK Green building Council (UKGBC) defined target trajectory for operational energy efficiency for commercial offices, to be net-zero carbon by 2050, we need to reduce our buildings’ operational energy use intensity by more than 60%.  

    Most of the organizations that have committed to become net zero by 2030 have a large portfolio of commercial buildings. Renovation or refurbishment of the facade can help to save energy on design aspects such as better daylight utilization or improved self-cooling cycles, with the use of sustainable material they can further reduce lifecycle carbon emission. However structural changes come with their own challenges, they are hard to carry out in older buildings or buildings that are in close proximity. 

    The one more way to improve operational efficiency, which has always been staying away from the limelight is the Building analytics. Building Analytics is nothing but closely monitoring a building’s critical assets and taking proactive actions to improve asset’s health, utilization and ultimately maintain optimum operational efficiency.

    Analytic solutions, sits on top of the building’s data management system. Other data assets like CAFM or CMMS and a lot of other data monitoring layers into it before it reaches the analytics layer. The complexity and scale of integrating multiple technologies and solutions need a unified approach which is not possible without the digitalisation of critical infrastructure. Forward-looking businesses all over the globe have been going through a complete re-designing of their business processes, digitizing their operations, in order to create better products and services, drive efficiencies and become more profitable while being more sustainable. Although the term Digital transformation has become instantly popular after COVID crisis, its implications have still remained less explored. 

    With the lingering uncertainty towards future work, surge in interest and viability of digital technologies in the commercial real estate(CRE) market globally, and the commitment towards net-zero targets, we are at the juncture to see a complete facelift to the way facilities have been managed and controlled around the globe. 

    Where does Building Analytics fit?

    According to an article published by World Economic forum, path to Net zero carbon buildings is driven by four major trends: Decarbonization of the electric power grid, Electrification of building space and water heating, Efficiency improvements to reduce energy demand, and Digitalization to provide needed flexibility in meeting the needs of building occupants and the energy grid. While decarbonization is not in the hands of facility operation teams, they can certainly attain rest of the solutions. Needless to mention, data analytics play an important role in achieving efficiency inoperations with the help of digitalization.     

    Analytics, not only provides answers to what went wrong in the past but also suggests ways to mitigate similar challenges and improve resource efficiency. It provides a wide range of insights todescriptive, prescriptive and contextual ones. Despite all of these benefits, we rarely come across a facility which has fully leveraged its data resources and have delivered an effective solution for multiple use cases. 

    So, what’s stopping facilities to make sense of building data?

    Siloed and too much of Data 

    Although the Data is key to optimising decisions for low/no carbon buildings, unstructured and unorganized data has now operational value. In most of the facilities data has been generated and stored in silos and there are building automation systems, building management systems, computerized maintenance management systems which operate in  isolation. Problem does not start with the data storage, it starts with legacy systems which do not communicate or share structured data over different platforms or tools.   

    Lack of interoperability:

    There is very little freedom for a facility manager to create the technology stack of his choice as most of the asset specific applications operate within the predefined conditions. Traditionally, building portfolios have independent infrastructure and disparate automation systems. Most of the systems are proprietary in nature and need dependency of BMS service providers for changes, integrations or improvisations, making it difficult to integrate with the other applications.

    How Facility Management teams can get started for Net-Zero Campaigns? 

    Centralize data:

    Centralize all sorts of Building data to manage and share information that drives operations and maintenance workflows. Once all building data is centralized, it’s possible to get an end-to-end view of the entire portfolio. This holistic view allows us to understand, evaluate, strategize and plan for the performance dynamic benchmarks. The application of real-time data analytics on top of these consolidated data-sets can unlock powerful insights for multiple stakeholders. With centralized data, creating a report and keeping track of KPIs becomes incredibly flawless.

    Open architecture: 

    Opt for an open architecture based platform which can bring together real-time information with advanced technology across multiple sources in one place (such as BMS, BIM, CAFM and other sensors) and keep it connected. This real time data on asset functionalities can be interrelated with design and external influencing factors to provide insights on how the asset will work in different circumstances and scenarios. Real time data analytics, numerous insights for facility managers as well as the operators.

    Build as you go:

    Once the data has been centralized,can add up different tools/applications on top of it to explore various use cases.  

    What does this mean for Facility Management firms?

    • Strategic Involvementwith Client’s Net-Zero Initiative:

    With the current economic conditions companies want to reach net zero targets keeping the cost of the initiative in check. Not to mention, but they would also want to accelerate the speed, which was almost stagnant due to the COVID Crisis. This could be seen as an opportunity for the facility management teams to engage with clients (CRE building owners or tenants)and provide them with solutions and tools to make their net zero journey faster, smoother and cost effective. 

    • One more reason to strengthen digital aspect:

    With more clients committing net zero targets, FM firms would need to now strengthen their focus on digitalization specially on hard services (something that’s always missed the due credit) 

    • Initiatives to keep CAPEX in check: 

    Asset specific, performance based contracts should be seen as an opportunity to demonstrate value analytics and preparedness to net zero campaigns. More contracts of similar nature can be seen in recent times as attention will shift to meet the emission targets.

    • Finding better margins with performance contracts:

    Changing contracts could make Facility management firms review their business strategies and explore new revenue opportunities. 

    To be able to meet the net zero targets, facility management teams need to maintain the operational performance standards, and that means ensuring the improvised facility on energy performance over time, by setting minimum energy intensity benchmarks. Building analytics helps facility managers explore the hidden potential of their data and provide much needed push towards resource and ultimately operational efficiency.

    To know how forward-thinking facility management companies are planning for the Net Zero Campaign from Industry Experts, REGISTER HERE for the global virtual event organised by UNISSU and sponsored by Xempla

  • What are the 2020 CREtech Thoughts on Aiming at The Race to Zero Campaign

    What are the 2020 CREtech Thoughts on Aiming at The Race to Zero Campaign

    Recently the world has witnessed many climate-driven disasters like wildfires in Australia & California, floods in Africa, cyclones and heatwaves in India. Amidst all of these, there are a couple of announcements that came out surprisingly well for the environment and future businesses. In October the EU passed the bill that makes net-zero emission 2050 target, into law. With that announcement, Europe became the first continent to aim for carbon neutrality by the end of 2050. Besides the EU, one of the recent reports published by the new climate institute, the number of commitments to reach net-zero emissions from local governments and businesses has roughly doubled this year, that includes some of the leading businesses and companies with combined revenue of over $11.4 trillion. Vowing to net-zero carbon emission, the biggest and leading companies like KPMG, JLL, Capgemini or even Siemens have committed to carbon neutrality or net-zero by 2030.

    Net-zero as a term has been there for quite some time. Describing it with emission of carbon footprint it can be described as the reduction in the demand for energy and materials to a level that can be met solely by resources that do not emit greenhouse gases. In simple terms, it is a function of resource consumption during the design or construction and the operational phases.

    What does net zero mean for CRE?

    As per the Paris Agreement signed in 2016, most of the private and public listed enterprises have committed to achieve carbon-neutral or carbon positive, science-based targets between 2030 – 2050. As a known fact, buildings are responsible for almost 40% of the world’s total direct and indirect CO2 emission, in fact buildings in the USA emits over one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than any other sector of the economy. 

    Evidently, a larger part of the net-zero commitment comes under the commercial building spaces and supply-chain (warehouses to mobility). Companies in the IT, retail, consumer goods manufacturing and financial sectors are focusing on developing a portfolio of net-zero carbon buildings and also ensuring, new buildings to operate at net zero carbon by 2030 and existing buildings by 2050. That’s a humongous task considering that almost 80% of the buildings for 2050 have already been built.

    JLL was the first property consultancy in the UK to sign the WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (NZCB) in 2019. Later they went ahead and announced a global net-zero carbon building commitment which covers a portfolio of 460 buildings with a total floor area of 474,967 square meters. 

    Eventually, if developed economies want to follow the path of net-zero carbon then they will have to focus on the buildings, specifically commercial real estate, where most of the resource consumptions can be controlled and monitored in a better way. 

    Where can commercial buildings apply brakes on carbon emissions?

    Carbon Emissions by the buildings can be seen in two phases

    1. Design and construction phase (short and one-time)
    2. Operation

    In most of the cases, carbon emission during the construction phase makes a significant contribution – between 30% to 70% of a typical building’s total lifecycle emissions considering the selection of the raw material or any resources used for construction, and design aspects of the building being the most critical part of the process. This type of emission is termed as embodied carbon emission. Since most of the portfolio of net-zero committed businesses consist of existing buildings, the focus is on the emissions that happen during their operational phase. 

    Building’s operational aspects that are associated with unwanted/extra resource consumption

    • Operational efficiency: Inefficient assets, lack of monitoring & control systems, and the mismanaged workforce leading to higher energy consumption
    • Asset life cycle: Poorer maintenance practices can severely compromise the asset life cycle ultimately leading to uncontrolled energy consumption or new asset installations 
    • Demand management: Not knowing the incoming demand inflow could lead to mismanaged assets and their capacity. This could cause higher energy losses due to unplanned chiller sequencing.  
    • Tenant’s behavioral aspects: It has been observed that the environmental aspiration and comfort expectation does not go in hand causing higher resource consumption than the expectation. Misaligned priorities and improper communication on sustainability goals make policy or the implementation weaker.    

    Net-zero turning into reality or a chase to the Race to Zero campaign?

    Initially, net-zero emission targets were more aspirational than practical in nature and there was no technology blueprint or policy framework available to support them. But the recent market-driven approach, climate-conscious thinking is not only enabling faster adoption of such practices but also motivating enterprises to race to net-zero.          

    Changing perceptions:

    • Awareness of operational environmental impact is increasing among some commercial occupants, particularly larger organizations with internal sustainability commitments. Although it will take time for mid-size businesses to adopt carbon-neutral practices, certainly we can see the change in perception.  
    • There is this constant fear that the Carbon intensive assets may become “stranded” if action is not taken to decarbonize them. Currently, the market is not yet accounting for carbon intensity in property valuation, still property management firms and owners need to be aware of this risk/ opportunity.
    • As the scope of sustainability reporting is expanding, the importance of facility lifecycle data (Asset + Material) to analyze and optimize lifecycle and carbon emissions is also growing.

    Performance Contracts:

    • Transforming existing facilities to net-zero requires a planned approach and strong partnership between owners, occupants, and facility management teams. Digital tools and mobile applications have been strengthening communication and improving operations and team productivity.   
    • The long-term business plan for an asset lifecycle maintenance is aligning with other business objectives. Value of resource performance is increasing as O&M contracts are turning to performance-based.

    Digitalization:

    • A data analytics-driven approach to operation and maintenance is demonstrating significant value addition over the conventional approach helping to improve energy sustainability
    • Cloud applications, open data infrastructure and API based approach to select a relevant application to manage asset performance is making it easier to try or scale. 
    • Efficient systems combined with operational tools/applications to allow operators to choose how they will maintain net-zero performance. 

    These three drivers are setting up the ecosystem which is required to race for the net zero, a solid market driven approach to go for sustainability, supporting technologies such as IoT, data analytics and change management.

    Asset performance analytics – Enabling the Race to Zero Campaign:

    As far as achieving net-zero is concerned, the ability to harness renewable energy would always help to meet the carbon-free energy demand. But that comes with constraints of space for PV cells, geographical location for the good wind, and time for adoption and implementation. 

    On the other hand, focusing on the existing buildings to better manage or reduce energy consumption in a data driven way makes a great approach to the race. In Fact, It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that almost all the emission that happens during the operational phase can be monitored, controlled, rectified, and reduced to achieve net-zero or carbon positive status, and the first building block towards net-zero journey is to have the access to facility O&M data.

    Convergence of data from the assets to insights. represented in a pyramid shape

    From the data flow pyramid we realize that to access any of the use cases, we would need to climb up 4-5 steps, and in that process, we would be able to lay the foundation for multiple digital transformation initiatives.  

    Asset performance management – Leading Facility managers one step closer to net-zero buildings:

    1. Predictive maintenance: With the right asset performance data facilities one can move to proactive maintenance practices reducing the unexpected breakdowns and cutting down operational cost. Of course, that wouldn’t be possible without unified energy and asset data strategy.
    1. Fault detection diagnostics: Buildings generate tons of data & insights through BIM, BMS, workplace management applicants such as CMMS, CAFM. Correlating with the team with such insights to make sense is not an easy job to get it done and hence finding the operational irregularities without having a strong FDD engine on the analytics layer is next to impossible. An in-house FDD improves the operation and maintenance team’s responsiveness to anomalies and energy leakages.  
    1. Energy forecasting: As discussed earlier, demand management and tenant’s behavior aspects can affect the energy utilization. Hence understanding tenant’s consumption patterns, comfort metrics and predicting demand peak can help O&M teams to prepare for it.   

    There are a couple of other use cases(asset life cycle management and tracking) that could help facility managers to improve the utilization of the asset and monitor the life cycle of carbon emissions.

    As we realize, with every step a facility goes closer to net zero, it increments the importance of stopping every cubic meter of carbon release into the environment, which can’t be reached without having a data driven portfolio operations and a 360 degree asset performance management strategy. It has to be a synchronized effort of digital initiatives, well equipped O&M teams and conscious tenants taken together.

    Aiming to net zero is an ambitious start, but the planning and implementation should take the center stage and that’s where the actual race starts involving skill management, digital and commercial aspects of the facility operations.
    Stay tuned for upcoming blogs and explore the 360-degree approach to the race to Net-Zero Campaign. 

    Want to start the APM journey and stuck on planning? This CXO’s handbook will guide you to plan, execute, and evaluate Asset performance analytics trials. 

  • How to plan for the Asset Performance Analytics PoV trials

    How to plan for the Asset Performance Analytics PoV trials

    Starting an Asset performance management (APM) PoV trial is considered as the first dedicated step towards digital transformation hence doing it right is very critical for the steps that follow. Primarily there are three aspects one needs to consider before starting the implementation. Here is the quick checklist to know whether you are on the right track.

    A. Set your Hypothesis:

    • Yes, it would be a ‘hypothesis’, and getting it right is necessary. You should have a basic idea of what you are expecting as an outcome, but since it is a Proof of values, you are more likely having the bandwidth to experiment with it to find what works for the particular site and what does not just make sure you are somewhat aligned to the overall long term business goals. 

    Although this would be a trial and you may not invest much in terms of money but your time, resources, and efforts would eventually be needed to make it successful and hence you should be very careful about having the right strategy in place.

    B. Someone has to OWN it

    • Strong leadership is one of the key attributes of a successful PoV trial. Find the right person who can Own the entire POV implementation. S/he should take the responsibility to track the success metrics and see whether the objectives are being met or not.

    According to the Gerhard Pilcher, CEO of elder research A data analytics project is likely to fail if you conduct it without involving the stakeholders, and then upon completion tell them, “Here’s what the data shows. Now make use of it.” 

    C. Finding an Ideal site:

    • Evaluate potential sites based on various aspects such as data quantity & quality, number of assets and maturity of the IT infrastructure, contractual obligations, contract renewal status. if possible consider the best and worst site in your portfolio.

    According to KPMG’s 2019 Global PropTech Survey suggest that while 58 percent of firms have a digital strategy (a number that is increasing), only 25 percent have a data strategy.

    • Having a diverse selection of sites would allow you to test the reliability, scalability, and adaptation of the platform/application according to the different conditions. But make sure you can provide the necessary data to get the insights out of it.

    D. Choose multiple vendors

    • We highly encourage that you choose at least 2 vendors or partners for your trials or PoV projects. They could work on the same site or different sites. As you intend to scale your efforts, it makes sense to have options available.
    • The success of any PoV depends on how it delivers the expected performance outcomes. Since you are not just testing the effectiveness of the application but also verifying how your teams are engaging with it and extracting maximum value out of it, hence it is important to examine every aspect of POV implementation carefully.

    Again, do remember that you will never get 100% of what you are looking for, PoVs or trials are to achieve some sense of confidence and pave way for future investments and strategy.

    Alright, once you have all these points well in a place you can start the execution part but how to track or evaluate the progress? Well, we will cover that part in the next blog of this series. 

    If you like this article and found it insightful enough to share it with your peers then don’t hesitate a bit!

    Want to learn how leading Facility Management companies are Scaling Asset Performance Management Analytics? claim your copy of this handbook about how to plan, execute, and evaluate Asset performance analytics trials.

    If you have any suggestions or want us to talk to our facility management team on what’s inevitable in digital transformation, then feel free to write to us at [email protected]

  • Is your Operations and Maintenance team missing out on the digital transformation initiatives? Here is how to plan for it

    Is your Operations and Maintenance team missing out on the digital transformation initiatives? Here is how to plan for it

    Fear of missing out (FOMO) phenomena is generally associated with the millennials of the social media age. It’s a feeling of lagging behind in the competition, missing out on something important although not knowing what it is exactly.

    Nowadays whenever we come across a blog post on CRE Technologies or Operation & maintenance best practices we often get the feeling that there is so much happening around digital transformation which of course has only accelerated post COVID but also there are other factors that have contributed to this growth. And then from somewhere, this FOMO pops into our mind and we start thinking, are we on the right track? Are we doing enough to reduce Operational cost? What insights am I missing on? How to optimize BMS data? How can I introduce predictive analytics to reduce reactive calls? Well if you’ve ever been to this situation then trust me you are not alone!

    Facilities management is shifting from a low margin, labor-based business to a sustainable technology-driven one and as a result margins are shrinking, more contracts are being signed based on performance targets which have made FM to add digital thinking into their DNA. Let’s look at how to optimize your asset performance management.

    Set up your goal:

    First, identify what you want to drive from the transformation? What should the end result look like? Satisfied tenants? reduced reactive calls? Reduced unplanned breakdown? Gain a single view of all aspects of the facility? Most of the O&M teams find cost efficiency, energy management, and operational risk management as key baseline goals to achieve from digital transformation. Accordingly, plan for the budget, involve stakeholders who will be responsible for the transformation, and finalize a tentative timeline for each step.

    The implementation roadmap should describe short and long-term expected business outcomes, scalable solution architecture, and strategies to address essential needs and gaps, such as data or system integration.

    Asset Data and IT infrastructure:

    Once you zeroed down on the expected result start thinking about how you will get there? What data is important and which applications will help you to deliver expected use cases? Do you have the dedicated IT team to support this transformation? Or which part would you like to outsource? This exercise will also determine which solution would be ideal for you on-premise or cloud-based. You will have to finalize this before you take the first step as your entire journey could crumble due to the weak IT strategy.

    When it comes to data different sources could provide you valuable insights when interlinked. There is the performance and energy data of the assets, then there is data on how people are interacting with building services (such as work order, occupancy related information) that could draw interesting insights if clubbed together. One should refrain from analyzing them in a silo! I repeat do not keep them in a silo! This is a sweet spot where your operations, energy, and maintenance team can collaborate.

    According to the report on smart spaces by cognizant “Many organizations have limited visibility across their real estate portfolio, with data about the status and maintenance of key processes and systems (such as HVAC, power, safety, and security) locked in siloed systems.

    If you have invested in BMS then ensure you’re utilizing all the functionalities and most importantly extracting the asset data to be assessed independently. 

    Connecting building infrastructure assets to a BMS allows for data analytics, asset optimization, and performance and cost efficiencies _ research done by mitie technical services.

    That can be further amplified by allowing third-party applications to inspect and analyze the data. The more open your data architecture is better for further integration and scalability.

    Start small think big:

    Considering the whole pandemic situation, we don’t have the liberty to take more time for brainstorming and come up with a comprehensive plan. We have to act NOW so start with the pilot projects, breakdown your transformation journey into small steps that align with your current immediate business needs. allocate a budget and team to monitor the progress. Do not shy away from taking a demo of an application even if it comes into the third or fourth step of our journey, that will only help you understand whether you are on the right track or not.    

    We hope this article would help you reduce that FOMO and show you ways to lead digital transformation at your facility. If you like this article and found it insightful enough to share it with your peers then don’t hesitate a bit! If you have any suggestions or want us to talk to our facility management team on what’s inevitable in digital transformation then feel free to write to us at [email protected]