The Power of Data-driven Solutions: How Innovkez Increased Facility Management Efficiency for their Clients in Singapore

The Challenge

The main challenge faced by Customer A, a facility management company, was the shortage of manpower to provide reliable and efficient services to their end customers, particularly in waste bin emptying and toilet cleaning. This led to contractual service level performance shortfalls and penalties imposed by the end customers, which significantly reduced Customer A's income.

To overcome this challenge, Customer A needed a solution that could help them monitor the waste bin fill status throughout the shopping complex and ensure that the toilets were clean, and consumables replenished timely. However, the traditional manual monitoring methods were time-consuming, inefficient, and prone to errors.

Therefore, Customer A decided to use the services of Innovkez in IoT technology to automate the waste bin and toilet monitoring process, which could help improve their facility management services and reduce the shortfall in contractual service level performance.

However, this approach also presented several challenges. The main challenge was the infrastructure and wiring requirements constraint, making implementing the solution using traditional methods difficult.

To address this challenge, an IoT solution that could operate wirelessly and transmit data over a long range without the need for complex wiring infrastructure was needed. They decided to use LoRaWAN technology, which provided the long-range and low-power wireless connectivity needed for the solution.

Furthermore, they needed a reliable and cost-effective LoRaWAN gateway that could transmit data from the sensors to the cloud platform. They selected the RAK LoRaWAN gateways due to their price, features, and availability of LTE data transmission, which allowed for easy deployment of the solution in indoor applications.

To solve the challenge of manpower shortage and improve facility management services, Innovkez proposed an IoT solution that involved the deployment of LoRaWAN Waste Bin sensors in the largest and second-largest shopping centers in Singapore, as well as in a Class A office building in Singapore's Financial Center.

A total of 120 waste bin sensors were deployed to monitor the fill status of waste bins throughout the shopping complex. The sensors transmit data via LoRaWAN through the RAK7268CV2 gateways to a cloud platform that processes the data and pushes out relevant service notifications to cleaners via mobile apps. These hourly heartbeats, as well as bin full status data, help ensure that waste bins are emptied in a timely manner, thereby maintaining the cleanliness of the waste bins, particularly for bins located at hawker centers and eateries. The system also ensures that the toilets are clean and that consumables are replenished on time.

The visual platform provides key users, such as end-customer building facility management support teams and Innovkez’s support teams, with a visual dashboard of the status of the various sensors, including bin fill sensors and toilet paper level sensors, soap level sensors, and more. The mobile app pushes out notifications to the relevant cleaners, informing them of the exact location where the bins or toilets need cleaning.

The cleaners acknowledge the notification and report back to the system when the task is completed, using an electronic checklist. They can also report any other matter or request additional work to be done, such as reporting a damaged soap dispenser. The integrated facility management system has various modules, one of which is an electronic job/work order management system with checklist and reporting features.

Due to infrastructure and wiring requirements constraints, the LTE version of the WisGate Edge Lite 2 was used, which was more suitable for indoor applications. This solution allowed the gateways to be hidden inside the false ceiling, away from public view, as the customer did not want the gateways to be visible.

This requirement, coupled with the challenging indoor environments (multi-basement levels, water fountains, glass panels, concrete/steel structure), necessitated the use of many gateways to ensure adequate signal coverage.

Outcome

The implementation of the IoT solution resulted in improved facility management service levels. Similar solutions were deployed for Class A office buildings in Singapore's Financial Centers. Various projects are also in the pipeline, including the deployment of waste bin sensors at office buildings and higher education institution complexes, restrooms monitoring, and power consumption usage monitoring via LoRaWAN power meters or RS485 Power Meters connected to Modbus-LoRaWAN converters.

RAK LoRaWAN gateways, namely the WisGate Edge Lite 2, were chosen due to their affordability, ease of use for indoor applications, and availability of LTE data transmission.

The visual platform provided by Innovkez allows key users to have a visual dashboard of the status of various sensors, and the app pushes out notifications to relevant cleaners to perform maintenance work. The integrated facility management system has various modules, including an electronic job/work order management system with checklist and reporting features.

The successful implementation of the IoT solution in Suntec City and Vivo City shopping centers has helped Customer A maintain their service level agreements and avoid penalties, thus increasing their income.