Smart buildings. Besides smartphones, smart devices and smart towns, smart buildings also belong to the phenomenon of the internet of things’ utilization and ultimate optimization of all processes. Let’s take a closer look at them. Utilization of the full potential of the internet of things in smart buildings will depend on the ability of owners and operators to use the data from sensors for continuous optimization of processes’ effectivity. For this purpose, digital twins are often used.

Effective strategy of operations performance management in smart buildings is based on and falls on the ability to get information about the whole building environment in real time, and it is a way to significantly determine the resulting profitability. The valuable insight into the field of excellent people interplay, systems and things leads to the growth of potential of the internet of things and self-learning mechanisms and enables individual assets and processes to add value to the entire smart building.

Current Systems Are Far from Excellence

For utilization of operations performance management, companies need to direct their effort towards an existing building environment and gain and subsequently use the data from existing equipment and subsystems. Furthermore, it’s necessary to decide what data is relevant and to have appropriate technology for their processing.

Building operators often face quite complicated manual work systems and minimal overview of real performance and assigned roles of individual workers. These problems represent significant limitations for determining clear relations between investments and their profitability.

How Will a Digital Twin Be Applied?

Thanks to utilization of a digital twin, which represents a digital replica of all physical assets, processes, people, systems and equipment, building operators can significantly enhance the overall comfort of the building and achieve maximal process efficiency.

According to Gartner, Inc. (a leading American company dealing with research and counseling in the field of IS/ICT technologies), digital twins, which are used in the manufacturing sector, will significantly influence a whole field of projects utilizing the internet of things, including smart buildings and towns. It is estimated that until 2020, over 30% of global companies will use the technology of digital twins to improve efficiency and success of innovation implementation and thanks to that, achieve 25% increase of profit.

Where Can We Find Digital Twins Today?

  • Building operators who own extensive complexes of commercial premises use digital twins to decrease energy consumption and reduce operating costs in temporarily unused properties. Therefore, it brings massive cost savings.
  • Companies installing and operating KONE elevators use digital twins not only for improving services for customers and decreasing costs, but also for monitoring the motion of people within buildings. Thanks to that, it is able to optimize the operation of its devices, speed up the transport of building residents and save energy costs for the building operator.
  • Shared offices are more and more often used in Czechia. Thanks to digital twins, it’s possible to manage these often extensive multi-storey premises, as well as to assign them, effectively. Elevator can quickly and effectively transport the candidate to the place where the position is available, and the whole process setting in the premise will accurately match its current workload in combination with external and internal factors which affect the climate in the room. After fulfilling one floor, more candidates will be directed to another. After the users leave, the system will automatically dim lighting and adjust other parameters to reach maximum possible energy savings.