The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search
Published by drose, 2018-08-10 12:39:58

Smarter Buildings, Smarter Workplace

Smarter Buildings, Smarter Workplace

SMARTER BUILDINGS,

SMARTER WORKPLACE

Sensor-based technologies connected by the Internet of Things (IoT) and integrated
with building automation technology and Integrated Workplace Management Systems
(IWMS) has transformed our view of ‘smart buildings.’ Today, smart buildings can not
only improve operations, equipment performance and reduce energy costs, they can
also provide real-time insight into how efficiently space asset are utilized by the
building occupants.
When that building is an office and those occupants are employees, you have more
than just a smarter building. You have a smarter workplace.

This whitepaper examines the technology, benefits and challenges of gathering and
making sense of the vast amount of data produced by a smart building and how that
information can provide insights which lead to better decision-making.

What Makes a Building Smart?

Not too long ago, much of the conversation about
‘smart buildings’ centered on high-performance
building services and components that made the
building occupants more productive, while
minimizing energy costs and mitigating
environmental impacts. Certainly, these are still
critical features of smart buildings. But the IoT has
completely reframed the discussion about smart
buildings.

Today, objects embedded with sensor technology
and built-in wireless connectivity are giving
buildings a ‘brain’ that controls the building’s
automatic functions, directs its voluntary actions
and supports learning. IoT-enabled sensors
provide feedback that can help you optimize
space utilization and improve asset performance
in your smart building. 

Smarter Buildings

Space

Now that workers are so highly mobile and the workplace is evolving to
reflect that new normal, tracking actual utilization of space is a
challenge. With hoteling, shared space and workplace neighborhoods,
how can organizations manage space when its employees rarely sit in
the same place day-to-day?

Sensors can be used to map people’s movements and count bodies in
offices, conference rooms and hallways. They can detect when a chair
or a desk is being used. They can automatically turn lights on and off
and adjust HVAC settings based on real-time occupancy data.

All this data can help your organization
understand exactly how space is being utilized.
This includes discovering what type of space is
preferred not only by the employees themselves,
but by the organization to meet specific
functional and employee-centric requirements.
You can see where people are (and are not)
congregating and visualize space trends over
time.

Smart buildings help you determine if you have
the right kind of space for your business and
formulate strategies to unlock relatively unused
space. By utilizing space better, you not only
improve employee satisfaction, you may save
money by downsizing your space or by avoiding
the unnecessary construction or leasing of new
space. 

Assets

Assets in smart buildings can also be
integrated with the IoT. This includes furniture,
fixtures, office equipment, as well as Building
Mechanical Systems (BMS) and components
such as heaters, pumps, chillers and so forth.
There are all kinds smart office furniture,
lighting and other building assets with low
power consumption technologies such as
Power over Ethernet (POE) wireless devices
that can sense when people are and are not
using the asset and react accordingly. Smart
furniture and lighting with embedded sensor
technology can learn personal preferences
over time and adjust their controls accordingly
(taller chair height, brighter light).

Sensors for a building’s mechanical equipment have been standard for many years,
but generally without built-in Wi-Fi/IoT connectivity. Today, IoT-enabled HVAC
systems with smart thermostats and sensors can monitor and provide feedback on
the system’s operation. They can automatically adjust heating levels based upon
exterior conditions, they can provide real-time energy reporting, and they can flag
out of spec equipment performances. The underlying goal of these smart systems is
to improve the performance of building assets.

So, What Makes a

Workplace Smart?

A smart workplace is created when employees
are valued and engaged. A positive,
employee-centric workplace drives the
success of the entire organization because
motivated employees provide a better
experience for your customers. 

Employee engagement is influenced by a
range of factors such as open communication
and collaboration, innovation incentives and
rewards, and employee health and wellness. A
smart workplace promotes these positive
influences.

A workspace can be purposely designed and equipped to enhance
efficiency, thus improving overall productivity. Office environments that
support a high-level of openness and collaboration enhance the mutual
A weoxrkcshpaancgeecaonf ibdeepaus,rpleoasedliyndgetsoiggneredaatnedr ienqnuoivpapteiodnt.oAenwhoarnkcinegefefnicviiernocnym, tehnuts that
impromvainkgeos viet reaallspyroadnudcntiavittuy.raOlfffoicreeemnpvilrooynemeesnttos tmhaotvseupfrpoomrt oanheigghr-oleuvpelooffpoepoepnlneess
and ocor lolanbeodraetpioanretmnheanntcteotthheemnuetxutarl eemxcohvaensgbeaorfriiedresatsh, aletamdiingghttotygpriecaatlelyr ikneneopvaatinon.
A workingoregnavinroiznamtieonnt sthilaotemd.aAkecsciet sesatsoy annadtunraatlulriaglhftoar nedmpalohyeeaelsthtoiemr pohveysfircoaml one
group of people or one department to the next removes barriers that might typically keep
environment improves the physical and mental well-being of employees,
an organization siloed. Access to natural light and a healthier physical environment

giving them more energy and making them more productive.
improves the physical and mental well-being of employees, giving them more energy and
making them more productive.

Smart Building Technology

There are a lot of emerging Cameras that can count people and
technologies for smart buildings that track movements in and out of spaces
are being implemented in newly for space utilization data. Systems
constructed structures as well as that can track water usage, monitor
existing spaces. The advent of low air quality or buy energy from the grid
power technologies, POE and blue when it’s less expensive and store it in
tooth devices, and LED lighting batteries on-site. Building and access
systems are enabling the easy control systems that facilitate
implementation of these technologies employee services and increase
—even in existing buildings.  These security..
technologies include building
equipment that proactively reports INTELLIGENT
when a failure is about to occur or LIGHTING
how much energy is being used

At a more granular level, this translates into PEOPLE
technology that enables smarter buildings and SENSORS
smarter workplaces such as Wi-Fi networks, physically
wired networks, access control systems, people
sensors, furniture systems, desk and chair sensors,
intelligent digital lighting and more.. Technology for
assets include asset location and monitoring devices
and building control notifications. And for employees,
room and desk booking, indoor wayfinding, visitor
management, and smart kiosks. To get a deeper
understanding of smart workplaces, let’s drill down
into a range of devices that are already widely used
to solve specific problems: room booking, badging
systems, desk booking, lighting sensors, people
sensing cameras, building assets, geo-tracking and
furniture sensors. All of these have Wi-Fi connectivity
and require very little power (in fact most use POE).
So, no wires or cables are needed, and their
installation often doesn’t require electricians.

Room Booking

Sometime called ‘digital signage,’ room
booking provides visual, real-time availability
notification of reservable space. You don’t
have to physically hunt for space and you can
make instant reservations or extend an ongoing
meeting (if the space is still available). Digital
signage integrated with building sensors can
detect, for example, when someone enters a
conference room and automatically log them
into the meeting. Digital signage can also
display company announcements, staff
directories, wayfinding maps and so forth. The
screens are light enough that they can be stuck
onto walls and doors, so installation is quick
and relatively easy.

Desk Booking Badging Systems

Similar to room booking, desk booking is Badging systems are already ubiquitous in the
an employee-facing tool for hoteling or workplace. But the ability to take these
desk booking. It provides visual badging systems and integrate them with
availability notification and manual or space tracking systems is new, enabling
automatic check-in/check-out for companies to track the flow of people in and
reservable workspace. It involves a small out of rooms and spaces. This gives you real-
device that sits on a desk and broadcasts time occupancy data to optimize space
the availability of that reservable space, utilization. For example, your facility has a
allowing employees to reserve work conference room that's designed for eight,
space on an as-needed basis. Like room but the average utilization over a six-month
booking, desk booking can provide real- period is only 2.2 people per hour—a huge
time and historical space utilization waste of space that should be addressed.
data.  Since badging systems are already in use in
most organizations, this occupancy data is
practically free.

305-985-3865  | 1116 WARNER STREET BIG PINE KEY, FL 

Buildings Assets & Equipment

Many modern Building Automation Systems (BAS) have the ability
to provide a tremendous amount of date to facility teams about
their operation.  Many of these systems can require significant
resources to implement however that should not discourage
teams from taking advantage of new sensor based technologies
such as Smart meters which can easily be attached to building
assets, from roof top chillers to printers, enabling organizations
to track energy consumption and optimize their energy usage.
These smart meters monitor and measure energy consumption at
the device level and use Wi-Fi to transmit that data to your
Integrated Workplace Management System. This allows you to
actively monitor the performance of equipment and report on
their energy usage over time. The meters just clip on to the asset,
so no retrofitting is required, even for legacy equipment. 

Geo-Tracking

Geo-tracking provides real-time location capabilities to track
the location of assets or people within a facility. The technology
uses Wi-Fi access points to triangulate and track laptops and
other mobile devices. It can also locate people if they have a
detectable badge, or a phone or other mobile device linked to
their employee identification. Most facilities already have access
points to enable wireless connectivity, as well as some sort of
wireless badging system for employees. Therefore, the addition
of geo-tracking capabilities is very IT friendly and provides
occupant flow and concentration data as well as asset security.

Furniture Sensors

Furniture sensors are typically used to measure the amount of time an employee is sitting
at a specific location. These little battery powered devices are stuck beneath chairs and
desks and wirelessly broadcast real-time occupancy data. The devices use heat and
vibration sensing to detect the presence of workers and can provide excellent visibility into
actual space utilization over a given period. Since they are battery powered (and
eventually those batteries wear out), organizations tend to install these devices for a finite
period of time as part of a utilization study.  

Benefits & Challenges

While smart building technology and IoT-enabled sensors offer more efficient ways to work
and provide organizations with new possibilities for better utilization of space and assets,
they also come with challenges. The technology never sleeps—providing millions of pieces
of information and disparate data about facilities to real estate teams. This can make it
make it impossible to interpret.
Computer software for computational data analysis is necessary to make the data useful.
For the facility and real estate industries, IWMS solutions perform this analysis and allow
organizations to make sense of the data and quickly identify trends, problems and
opportunities in their facilities. 
For example, interactive maintenance dashboards provide a visual approach for tracking
energy use, maintenance programs and equipment performance across the portfolio in
real-time. By using the incoming operational data, dashboards help your facility team
visualize performance issues—such as a motor with energy spikes that may be a precursor
to equipment failure—and generate preventative maintenance service requests.
Dashboards can also provide historical charts and graphs of equipment performance
including energy usage and costs to inform facility-based decisions.
Similarly, sensor-based heat maps allow you to view space utilization over time, with
people density represented by color. A time slider lets you slide forward and backwards to
understand how space usage (and people density) changes throughout the day or week. 

%

Beyond the problems associated with human interpretation of all this data,
there are several other issues that facility team face when implementing,
managing and maintaining a smart workplace. These revolve around data
privacy, corporate asset policies, IT challenges and sensor power and
connectivity issues.

Visible sensors and screens may make people uncomfortable in their
workspace if they don’t understand the purpose of these smart devices. This
can be remedied by simply providing a clear description for employees and
visitors as to the purpose of the data collection. The organization is not
tracking individuals to spy on their work or invade their privacy. It is just trying
to get an accurate portrayal of space and asset utilization to improve the
workplace. In addition, the devices should work together as a whole to improve
the workplace. Corporate policies should be put in place for purchasing and
installing the devices, as well as policies for how Bring Your Own Device
(BYOD) versus institutionally issued equipment (mobile phones, for instance) fit
into the picture.

Facility teams need to understand the IT issues surrounding these devices,
mostly in the realm of hardware infrastructure, signal access requirements and
sensor power/connectivity. For example, the Wi-Fi triangulation needed for
geo-tracking may require you to fix dead spots in your W-iFi network. Even
though many of these devices are low power, they still need to be powered
somehow either by POE or a battery. Changing one battery is simple, but
changing a thousand of them might turn into a preventive maintenance
problem, especially if they all start dying at the same time. Lastly, even though
you don’t need a licensed electrician to install most of these devices, someone
must do it and it has to be done correctly. 

Conclusion

When devices can sense your
workplace environment and
effectively communicate that data,
they become valuable tools.
Merging this IoT data with IWMS
can help you understand space
utilization, improve building
operations and maintenance and
enhance employee engagement—
delivering smarter buildings and
smarter workplaces.


Click to View FlipBook Version