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Cloud Monitoring: Smarter Elevator Maintenance · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: predictive maintenance as Anthony uh said it, you'll be able to predict when there's uh when there's gonna be a shutdown.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: So if we think about it, downtime just uh on its own, it's not definitely a bad thing.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: Unplanned downtime, that's really the one that uh that's causing a disruption in the building.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: So if we're able to gather data from the elevator, analyze that data, we can really make smart decisions of when maintenance should be done, when different components should be repaired and scheduled for repair.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: If we can detect when there's different kinds of components especially overheating or creating excessive vibration, that will definitely give us an indication that repair should be done there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: And even if we don't consider just predictive maintenance, just usage monitoring will give us enough data to create a much better experience for the passengers and much less disruption in service in the buildings.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Elevator Tools and Tech, a special series from the Elevator Careers podcast where we spotlight the latest innovations, tools, suppliers and technology driving the vertical transportation industry.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: In each episode we sit down with the creators, engineers, and solution providers who are helping elevator companies work smarter, safer, and more efficiently.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: This episode of Elevator Tools and Tech is brought to you by Cloud Monitoring, a cloud-based remote monitoring system that offers hosted all-in-one monitoring of your equipment 24 hours a day, seven days a week and accessible from anywhere.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Learn more at cloudmonitoring.us Now let's dive in.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Hello I'm Matt Alred, the host of Elevator Tools and Tech, and today we have with us Angelo Motola, president of CloudAelectronics and CloudAndrols, Bali Harmouth, managing partner at Cloud Monitoring, and Anthony Marcesi, Vice President of Technical Services at VDA, a member of the VDA New Product Committee.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're talking about intelligent elevators integrating AI and IoT for smart urban mobility.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a continuation Anthony and I actually have a had a conversation just a couple weeks ago about this this very topic and uh Anthony I just want to invite you to to talk about some of what really sparked this conversation.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah Matt hey it's great to be back um and I'm thrilled to be uh with uh such innovative guests today so uh real happy to be here but uh yeah my last um appearance um you know we talked about how um I'm part of this committee uh for VDA and I have the privilege of getting introduced to new products and companies in the industry ahead of the curve.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what we do at VDA is uh we write specifications to include these technological advances to our clients and uh recently we worked on one which uh included these these technological breakthroughs you know being able to monitor uh machine room sound and temperature levels um hoist machine vibration brake coil temperature main power itself the feed monitoring the line car top sensors to monitor ropes and and uh door operation uh water intrusion uh in the pit you know we're monitoring uh run by uh clearances and and you know elevator rope stretch uh comp shifts and then of course in the hoist way um air velocity uh you know that's measured and and important as well so um you know at VDA we have this this great program and service that we provide to our clients called verify where um periodically quarterly for instance we'll meet to review the elevator performance and track inspections that have occurred and the deficiencies that have been written up you know and will also require call-ups call-offs submitted by the maintenance companies where we'll categorize the type of shutdowns that have occurred and I'm hopeful with the direction that we're headed with the use of new technology that you know one day uh all this data that we're harvesting you know in the new installations that these can be uh instruments for predictive models which will allow us to be proactive on uh maintenance and troubleshooting so uh you know elevator control manufacturing as uh part of the foundation of my career this really excites me and uh I'm I'm happy to uh be able to open the pipeline of technology to the end users of my clientele it's uh it's an exciting time awesome no thank you and and I could tell that from our our conversation that you you were very excited and so obviously we we've invited Bali and Angelo to uh to enlighten us on some of this and I know you guys have been working on this for for a long time and speaking about it and uh you know here's another chance to to talk about it again but uh we're I'm excited to be able to to you know talk a little more in depth so um let's start with the kind of the big picture what exactly are intelligent elevators and how do ai and IoT change the game for building owners hey man thanks for uh thanks for having us this is uh indeed a very intelligent topic and it's right in our wheelhouse so this is what we uh breed every day uh and we kind of love this idea of uh creating intelligent elevators so if you think about it what's an intelligent elevator so it just represents a fusion of uh AI and uh IoT technology that's uh uh that's utilized in the elevator space in the vertical transportation industry that really has the benefit of really creating a different aspect for the elevator the way it's perceived by the by the customer by the by the tenant by the passenger in the elevator if you think about elevators well you had traditional elevators and now you're gonna have intelligent elevators like it's uh it's gonna be night and day uh if we can leverage these technologies and really create that predictive maintenance that traffic management that personalized service that can be provided for the passengers uh just by utilizing technology yeah yeah yeah even in my own life I'm seeing that you know the uh you know AI is is changing the way that so much is done and I'm probably a very late adopter but uh you know just anything from writing a resume so you know I know that it can change a lot about uh elevators.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Let me ask this question.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: What are are some of the common elevator problems like downtime or long wait lines can these smart systems actually solve those problems?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah if knowing what the problems are with the cloud monitoring if it's a uh door problem or if it's a brake problem we can get to it ahead of time before they actually fail and shut the elevator down.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So with the cloud monitoring we'll see those faults are coming in and we can take care of it before it becomes a problem or shutdown.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So probably save a lot of money in the process then right yeah uh to add to that you know we could we could head off potential shutdowns that are about to occur.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But furthermore, you know of course uh these are mechanical devices with normal mechanical wear and tear.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So to be able to anticipate this so we could shut down or plan elevator shutdowns when these repairs need to be made that that it's occurring at a surprise at the wrong time for a building uh when they need the elevator service the most and also uh to be able to uh predict ahead of time to get ahead of the inspection services that that need to be provided you know to cut down on that on on what will be found in an inspection so if if we could get ahead of that uh repair it before the inspection occurs obviously that's that's gonna save the uh the client money in the end absolutely yeah well I mean predictive maintenance sounds promising can you explain how it works and what kind of ROI a building owner might expect yeah so predictive maintenance uh as as I alluded to that it's gonna be part of the intelligent elevator so with predictive maintenance as Anthony uh said it you'll be able to predict when there's uh when there's gonna be a shutdown so if we think about it downtime just uh on its own it's not definitely a bad thing unplanned downtime that's really the one that uh that's causing a disruption in the building so if we're able to gather data from the elevator analyze that data we can really make smart decisions of when maintenance should be done when the different components should be repaired and scheduled for repair uh if we can detect when there's different kinds of components especially overheating or creating excessive vibration that will definitely give us an indication that repair should be done there.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: And even if we don't consider just predictive maintenance just usage monitoring will give us enough data to create a much better experience for the passengers and much less disruption in service in the buildings.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's basically that's the one that uh majority of the buildings are really complaining about disruptions.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Sure sure well and that kind of leads us to the next question.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Angelo uh I'll I'll point this one at you how how does this technology improve the everyday experience for tenants or guests in a building?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: What it does it doesn't uh the elevators won't shut down and they won't have that interruption.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: We can schedule at a time when the elevator is not being used and go in and do the repairs uh or schedule the mechanics to go to the repairs when the elevator is not in use uh late in the evening or very early in the morning so the tenants are not uh uh inconvenienced by not having service.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: So they may they may not even know the only time they do know is when it's super painful, right?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: They get home from work or they're showing up but you know whatever and they just can't use the elevator at all or it's you know maybe they gotta do more stairs than they want to.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely and and the other thing is like just by us constantly monitoring like the ride quality uh aspect of that elevator which only gets monitored from time to time uh if somebody gets called in into the elevator we can do that uh 24-7 so we can really see the trend on the ride quality how uh it's it's getting worse and worse and we can just put a threshold on that trend and create a warning level uh and just by that being fixed that's gonna give a way better ride quality to the passenger so that's gonna be something that's gonna improve the experience for the tenants not even talking about the wait times if we consider intelligent elevators how they are constantly connected we have a back end system that's uh that's aware of usage throughout all the elevators we can pinpoint if there's uh dispatching uh problems in the building why one elevator gets 5,000 calls a day and the other one only 2,000 and they're in the same bank.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: So this way they're not going to be used at the same rate if you just use a regular maintenance cycle on it they would probably allocate the same resources for all the elevators in the bank where in the reality one it's overused in the whole bank.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: So just by being able to leverage that data you can make these smart decisions and improve the experience for the for the passengers.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah that makes a lot of sense that uh you know something like usage maybe it's just not being watched at all right and so with these systems not only you're seeing the the heat or the vibration you're also seeing hey this was you know this usage is is a little out of whack we can fix that yeah it's for the building it's painful enough just to be able to uh work with multiple systems and uh check the paperwork and uh follow the paper trail for for all these uh different uh critical equipment in the building they're really not gonna be able to watch the usage or uh ride quality or noise levels or temperature levels or excessive wind in the chaffway so they'll never know these these things until they'll really cause a disruption in the building.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: For sure well and I and I'm sure one of the people that feels it the the most intensely has got to be the facility manager and they probably have they're juggling multiple systems.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: How does integration with building management platforms actually work so I imagine they have multiple systems they're they're looking at yeah I think uh best case scenario they already have a system that they need to manage or multiple systems.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of times they uh don't even have systems in place and they still do uh things um on paper so in case they do have multiple systems what's the best solution the best solution is to find something that's really gonna consolidate all these platforms bring all the data all the information into one platform and uh just create an uh enterprise level asset management platform so we really can do that through our platform so our platform started as a monitoring platform but uh it was driven by the customer into this direction where we needed to include items related to inventory management or maintenance control program or dispatching so this really is a pain point for uh for facility managers building owner institutions that multiple systems they really do eat up uh a lot of man man time and uh and it's a laborous experience for them.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure I'm sure well and it sounds like you can you can help them whether they have just a pen and paper you can give them a system to start with or if they've got multiple other systems you can integrate directly with whatever other systems they're monitoring.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah yeah that's uh that's very accurate.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah yeah um so Anthony I want to just ask uh energy efficiency it's got to be a big deal for both sustainability and cost.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the measurable gains that are possible with intelligent elevators?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: So um as far as you know we what we install nowadays compared to um geared machines you know we're putting in now gearless machines with um regenerative drives so um that's basically uh pumping energy back into the building uh for energy savings by you know by being able to uh be more precise in the operation for instance um the uh monitoring uh the wind speed you know so for as seasons change uh pressure will build up and uh it'll inhibit doors from fully closing and operating multiple times so by being able to monitor uh these type of situations you know less door operations just um less less is being used in order to complete uh an elevator run from floor to floor yeah I love that it's uh it's something I honestly hadn't thought about that that the wind's gonna affect it but just being able to watch it and see what's going on um definitely helps there what also can help in in these kind of situations like a lot of buildings they might have uh line voltage powers or issues so just simply monitoring the tree phase going into the building uh being to being able to detect brownouts uh in the building and uh you could see excessive usage from the elevator so just the the excessive power usage from the elevator could be an indication that there's something wrong with that elevator that could be related to uh bearing lack of uh lubrication on the bearing rope issues probably anthony can uh elaborate more on uh on these kind of things that are really affecting the the energy usage of of elevators so we can offer the technology to be able to detect these kind of excessive power usage on the elevators and uh probably Anthony knows much better what's leading up to uh excessive energy usage on these elevators related to these mechanical issues yeah certainly you know as time wears on again these are mechanical devices with natural wear and tear so you know by being able to pinpoint these these issues going on um you know and getting ahead of it it'll allow for uh you know greater efficiency for the equipment greater efficiency is just less power consumption you know um it's just you know it's flat out just physics you know for sure yeah absolutely so uh what what kinds of risks like overheating vibration voltage spikes can can these smart sensors catch i mean you kind of talked about that volley with the the brownouts but so it sounds like the even the energy or the electricity rather coming into the building is something that can be monitored correct yeah absolutely so uh we kind of advise all clients to have like the basic set of sensors that should be deployed around the elevators and uh one of them it's uh automatically monitoring the temperature and the humidity in the machine room so um those kind of kind of environmental factors are really affecting the uh the life expectancy of the equipment in the motor room and uh 99% of the time uh that monitoring it's uh it's non-existent in in motor rooms sure so that could be one thing vibration absolutely anything that's related to vibration sooner or later will lead to um will lead to a shutdown so by placing intelligent vibration sensors on the machines on top of the car you're able to detect um misalignment you're able to detect uh bearing degradation uh lack of lubrication bearing uh overheating um anthony mentioned uh in the beginning uh monitoring temperature of the brake coils monitoring vibration on the door operator water water it's always an issue doesn't matter if it's uh in the elevator pit or if it's uh down the shaway by uh just simply deploying water detection devices you can prevent that elevator to really on really going into the elevator pit and uh and creating excessive damage for both the cannon weight and uh and the elevator cab if we're talking about power as we were talking about before the main line coming in we do have a couple buildings where it's really uh they need to control the usage of the elevators especially on the summertime when they have multiple banks and uh the city requires them to shut down one or two banks in the building or switch to generator power so in this case it's essential for us to monitor the the incoming main line to monitor the main line coming from the generator to uh help them do the the transfer transfer from the main line to the generator power bring these elevators back in service so all this without properly monitoring the the units would not be possible right that makes sense so there's uh over 30 types of sensors that we uh really can deploy around uh critical assets and if we just talk about elevators these are like the the most important basic sensors that uh would be a no-brainer to be to be included with any uh elevator modernization or new construction for sure for sure let's let's talk for a second about you know some of the concerns that uh perhaps you know building owners have i'm I'm curious how do you address concerns about cybersecurity or privacy when elevators are now connected to the internet yeah that's uh that's a super important topic ten years ago when we started uh developing this technology and uh deploying it for elevators customers were super hesitant in adopting this technology everybody was scared when you mentioned that oh we're just gonna kinda uh connect your elevator to the cloud but as we see that right now there's uh provisions in the elevator code related to cybersecurity uh whenever there's an elevator connected to the to the internet so for us it was a big challenge and uh us by working with city state federal uh agencies their cybersecurity uh requirements are super stringent so it took us a couple of years multiple cybersecurity consultants and multiple iterations to rework our whole thinking around uh cybersecurity how we apply it in the uh in the elevator space how we can really uh mitigate breaches how we can really limit control that's being uh given over remotely connected elevators these are topics that were extensively uh touched With these uh with these um city-state agencies, which commercial buildings were really not applying years ago.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: But what we saw as a trend in the last one or two years, even smaller clients, they really do raise that question like, how is your cybersecurity?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: What do you do?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: How do you handle if somebody uh breaches the system?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like what controls can you cut down?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, who owns the data?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's the that's the other big question that always comes up.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Who who owns all the data that comes from the elevators?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Is there any uh sensitive data that's being sent from the elevators?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: So the elevator industry uh really got uh educated in the last last couple years related to IT and cybersecurity needs.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know who really drove this uh this trend.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: It might have been the the consultants because they are the ones who are really representing the the buildings and sending the direction for these new technologies and um how really code is enforced on it, even sp related to the cybersecurity aspect.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it sounds like obviously a lot of a lot of concerns, a lot of questions.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, technology as as we see is just growing rapidly.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's being deployed in places that we never ever thought it would be, could be, should be, and and boom, here it is.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: So figure out how to make it safe.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're still behind.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: We're still definitely behind, especially in the elevator, uh elevator world, uh compared to other technologies, compared to uh other critical equipment, where they're probably 10 years ahead, especially on the predictive maintenance uh aspect part of it.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: We really were pushing for for this technology to be adopted on the on the elevators because we saw the benefits that really facilities got once they applied it on the other critical equipment.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: So just to clarify, you're saying that as an as an elevator industry, we're behind in adopting some of this equipment that maybe people in the the generator industry or the power you know production industry uh uh have already been doing.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um just curious, what what do you think is driving that?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um what's uh unfortunately, unfortunately they are, probably because other critical uh equipment.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: I don't even know if they really consider the elevator as a critical equipment in uh in a building where they uh they do for a pump or a generator or uh or a chiller, and uh probably repair cost also for that equipment, it's it's much higher than uh than elevators, and that's why they were more open to adopt these kind of technologies.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: But they definitely moving in the in the right direction, definitely not fast enough.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: So we think it's super important for uh facility managers, building owners, consultant companies to really be uh up to date with whatever technology is out there and how that can be applied to the to the elevators.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, elevators aren't inexpensive by by any means, right?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, and especially as you're showing what can be done, uh it sounds like it yeah becomes more and more of a no-brainer.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why are we not paying attention to this?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we not elevators are the heart of a building?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: They move people in and out of it, and I should be one of the most important things.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it always gets pushed behind a little bit.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Is this ever a concern, Anthony, that uh consultants hear from building owners?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: Do they ever uh approach consultants like, oh, what new technologies out there?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: Can you help me with this kind of issues?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: We do have a certain demand on us.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the the savvy people who are in operations uh running a building, um, and perhaps it's because of other technologies that they're using with other equipment.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the they draw the analogy and they say, well, what do elevators have to offer?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's a question that's asked often.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I obviously this is technology that I'm looking forward to.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, in favor of um whatever I can do to open up that pipeline and reaching out to technology companies like Cloud or Electronics and Cloud One.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's talk for a minute just about the numbers.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how does the subscription model work?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: How does that compare to traditional maintenance costs?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the offsets, if you if you will?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so definitely the these cloud-based systems are always uh subscription-based.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: If we're talking about cost, cost is negligible.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: So if you compare the cost of uh monitoring to a regular service contract and the ROI that you would get by applying monitoring to the uh asset, it should be an it should be definitely a no-brainer.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: But it I still think that it should be kept uh totally separate and discussed as a separate topic from from uh from traditional maintenance cost or traditional maintenance contracts.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: So um by adopting this technology, you definitely uh could be exposing things that are overdone or undone based on what the maintenance uh requires.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: So associating the cost of monitoring with the maintenance cost um should not be should not be done.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: So this should be handled separately totally by the facilities, by the by the building owners.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: And um, if we just uh create a hypothetical scenario that you have an elevated outage that could have been prevented by monitoring that uh that unit, if you put a thousand dollars for monitoring for uh five years on that asset, and your repair cost it's$20,000 that could have been prevented, like we can automatically see the the big difference between the cost that it can really prevent and uh and the ROI by applying technology.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it sounds like it pays for itself, right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Especially if you're talking overtime, you're talking downtime, you're talking, you know, all of the headache, the stress, the pain, you know, that could go with an unplanned, unforeseen.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: One time a mechanic goes to the job to figure out what's wrong with it, that one time would have paid for the cloud monitoring almost for the whole year.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh well, Molly, you told us uh, you know, in another conversation about a client who forced the elevator company to work with cloud monitoring.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm curious, how did that come about and what are some of the benefits they're experiencing?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this uh these kind of setups uh started happening more and more often uh lately.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Unfortunately, the building owner were uh was more aware of the technology that's out there than the actual elevator company that's servicing the the equipment.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: So, like in in this kind of setup, uh it was uh it was a high-rise, high-speed uh building with multiple elevators in there, where uh where they've been having issues from the very beginning since the building opened up, uh them not being able to run the cars at full speed.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: So, because of excessive vibration that they were experiencing in the elevators, and that especially in winter months.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: So, whenever uh there's colder temperature out there, whenever there's uh excessive wind around the building, what they saw that the elevator was creating excessive vibration, they needed to slow down those cars.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: So, in this kind of setup, our approach was to go there and uh deploy different kinds of sensors around the building.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: So, first, what we did uh we ran on top of the building, so we deployed uh ultrasonic anemometers just to be able to detect wind speed and direction around the buildings together with barometric pressure.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: And the next one was us deploying vibration sensors both on top of the elevators and both on the machines in the motor room.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: And what that proved that there is excessive vibration whenever there's excessive wind outside of the building.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: The next step was that us going in there and deploying uh air velocity anemometers inside the elevator shaftway.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: And what we saw after months of monitoring and uh data collection and analysis that there's a direct uh correlation between barometric pressure, outside wind uh speed with the stack effect that's really being created uh for those elevators.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: And um that stack effect really created excessive vibration uh on the ropes that could be felt on the ride quality in the cab.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_03: That vibration got propagated all the way to the machines inner motor room.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: So we saw these uh these patterns on four different cars, and what ended up being is that we detected that there's not proper uh ceiling around the doors and in the lobby, and uh there's excessive uh airflow through the lobby, um, tenants leaving uh doors open on different floors that really create uh the excessive of uh stack effect uh in the building.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: So there was really nothing wrong with the uh with the elevators, but the elevators were the ones that uh people were in and they were experiencing these issues.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so once once you identify the the airflow and this wind tunnel that's that's being created, were you able to then prescribe some some I guess measures that could could kind of bring down that that vibration?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_03: They were able to uh uh create extra seals around the the hallway doors, uh break the airflow in the lobby, making sure and enforcing with uh tenants on the multiple floors to keep the the hallway doors closed, and that really made uh made a great impact on the whole thing, and they were able to speed up the cars.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: So this is just one scenario where where we can really apply technology to pinpoint issues, uh create like a forensic level analysis around the elevator and uh prescribe solutions uh for them.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, they would have not been able to uh to solve this problem, and they were not able to solve this problem for for years until until they had data that really um spoke volumes.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So let me ask the I mean it it sounds like you know, and we we've kind of heard it said here, right?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's a no-brainer, a pace for itself, you know.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: But uh but I've also heard that hey, this is a controversial controversial subject.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: It it brings a little bit of transparency, whether you like it or not, I think is what you said, Bolly.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious from the three of you, uh what's uh what's behind the the controversial uh nature?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: How would you speak to that?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're kind of going it against the uh if the elevator contractor is not doing uh the proper maintenance, is not uh doing what he's supposed to be doing, the proper um uh grease in and oil in and doing what needed to be done to make that elevator run smooth.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now you could be going against the service company.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's why uh for us it's better that the building owners or management companies uh uh order the cloud monitoring and they pay for it.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: This way they can control their equipment and uh see if this if the service company is providing the right service for them.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds like they're the ones that are gonna benefit too, right?
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the maintenance contractor that's gonna be a lot of people.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: It really benefits both of them, you know, because now if they have cloud monitoring on there, the uh elevator company can see what is actually failing on the elevator or needs to be repaired.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or uh if they look at the usage of that elevator, they could determine which elevators need to have more maintenance done versus one that's not being as frequent.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that there's a lot of positive things that an elevator company can use to their advantage by doing the monitoring and and paying attention to it.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's about uh uh adapting to a new business model, you know, moving with the times.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Recently it was I had discussions with an elevator owner.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, during these summer months, uh we have grid issues in New York City.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: And elevators, you know, go down frequently because of low voltage, and uh it all hits at once.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the discussion was that, well, geez, you know, a lot of times I uh and this is union labor, so you know they have these contracts in place that they're responsible.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a no no-billing type of arrangement, and they're sending men just to find out that, well, the the heat wave hit a little early in June and the building didn't turn on the air conditions in the machine room yet.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, had we in these cases, if if temperature was being monitored, um, you know, and and this is something that popped up on their dashboard uh in their organization that hey, whatever X, Y, Z address um is going into an overheated condition, you know, it would be a heads up then to the building.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you guys uh check what's going on with your your air conditioning because we're seeing levels that you know exceed the tolerance of uh you know the equipment's operation.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in that case, it would have been great had he known that because and and and and then on top of it, because of the low voltage going on, now you know his men are worn thin, they're going to unnecessary calls.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's like a perfect example.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I know that my grid provider, I may be at work and a storm may be coming in, and I'll get a text message from our utility company that, hey, service is gonna be an issue in the area.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's giving me the heads up that I know that it's pointless to be making the phone call because uh I see that they're on top of it.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if these if this was in place and the elevator company was sending out a proactive signal, hey, we realize you're you're experiencing lower power right now, and you know, we're working uh throughout the city trying to, you know, restore service to elevators, you know, in a case by case, like this would just help alleviate a lot of the pain and suffering throughout, not only from building management, but from operations within the elevator company, you know, rather than having a dispatcher up all night expending all of this aggravation.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: So these are ways that that can help them.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then not to mention uh again, some of these contracts that they have, it would do them better because of the fact that they're responsible for the repairs to head it off and take care of these issues before they grow to be greater issues and more costly to the company because they can't bill for it.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, um you could look at both sides of the coin, and I just think at the end of the day, um, you know, technology is just benefiting us as time moves on.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like a win for everybody.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Bali, what do you think about that?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_03: I I agree.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: This this is where like transparency would really benefit uh uh would really benefit everybody.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: So when I said that uh it it will create transparency whether you like it or not, this is the best case scenario where um this really proves that uh everybody was doing the right thing and it was just lack of uh data, lack of information that was uh causing all the disturbances, which could have been prevented with the with monitoring.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_03: The other thing with transparency, and for you to be able to create transparency, you have to create a system where everything is objective.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: So you leave no room for interpretation, and for you to be able to do this, you need to have super clean, accurate data that cannot be altered by anybody.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that's where technology comes in play.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: So deploying sensors, connecting directly with elevators, and just having the asset uh relay that uh that data back to the back end and analyzing that data.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody really ever interferes with the with the data, and then it will always tell the truth, and that will create that uh transparency, which majority of the time it's beneficial for everybody.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: There could be cases when uh it could uh really incriminate you if you're really slacking and not doing the proper maintenance.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: Just by leveraging this will definitely uh create a better feeling for both the service provider, both the elevator owner, and then everybody will always speak the truth.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and it sounds like even if even if a company's not doing the right thing, well, hey, there's a kick in the pants to to start doing the right thing, right?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a limitation to step up.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: So um, last question.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm managing a building today and want to future proof it for smart cities, tenant expectations, money saving, where should I start?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: Where should you start?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think you as a building owner, you definitely have uh a consultant company that's advising you what technologies to adopt for your elevator.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that should be the first step uh for building owners.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_03: They should definitely uh inquire from their consultant company like what's out there, what's gonna be the best RY for me?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: What's gonna really increase efficiency in my building?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: What's gonna create better user experiences?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: What's gonna tailor user experiences for my tenants in the building?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then yeah, they can also do their own research and uh see technologies out there, what sensors can be uh deployed, what AI algorithms can you uh really apply to these mechanical assets uh that are serving your vertical transportation needs.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: But definitely uh the first step should always be subject matter experts, which in this case would be uh would be consultants, would be uh technology gurus like uh like Anthony, who like really love technology and we're 100% sure that they will always advise them to do the right thing and pick the per the perfect uh application for these elevators.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: What what if they feel like maybe they're not getting enough for the right answers or they you know how can they get a hold of you and and Angela?
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's the big question.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, we're always just an email or a phone call away.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: They can just simply go to cloudmonitoring.us and uh hit us up.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: We're more than happy to help them, advise them, guide them in the right direction, and uh apply our multi-year experience by leveraging these technologies for the vertical transportation.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: A smart guy once said it uh it was Bill Casey.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: You don't work for the elevator company or for the building owner, you work for the elevator.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh you gotta make that elevator right.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people use it every day, and you want to maintain that elevator, do the right thing.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: So as long as you can provide that, then you're golden.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you all again.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: I I appreciate you being with me today.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a lot of fun and wish you the very best.
• 42:28
  unknown: Wow.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your time, Matt.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, Matt.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having us.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Always fun.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks again for listening to Elevator Tools and Tech from the Elevator Careers Podcast.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: And please remember to visit Cloud Monitoring to learn more about the benefits you can receive from their remote monitoring systems.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: You can find them online at cloudmonitoring.us.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, stay safe.