Today, companies and government agencies of every type know the importance of managing their physical assets and the need to create smarter buildings. IBM is a prime example. For years, the IBM facility in Rochester, MN, had made investments in high-efficiency instrumentation and in advanced sensor and metering technology. It had undertaken a long list of conservation actions.
But even as the facility achieved significant energy savings, the need for new approaches was apparent. The company needed better ways to capture data and communicate new insights that would make its buildings even smarter
To do this, the facility management team turned to IBM Intelligent Building Management. The solution, built on a combination of IBM technology innovation, real-world experience in business analytics and optimization, and IBM’s extensive partner ecosystem, enabled the company to maintain reliability and efficiency of facilities while demonstrating environmental responsibility.
With this solution, the Rochester facilities management staff could monitor and analyse heat, air conditioning and power consumption to better manage energy use, lower costs and decrease emissions. The solution helped identify potential equipment and building problems to prevent breakdowns. It delivered greater insight into the condition of assets and produced automated notifications when assets were performing outside of specifications. When the facilities management team implemented the solution in an area of the site, not only did the energy savings on the equipment monitored accelerate by an incremental 8% from 5%, but preventive maintenance supported by the solution helped extend the life of assets.