{"id":26140,"date":"2024-06-09T03:33:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T10:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/power-to-the-office-worker\/"},"modified":"2024-06-09T03:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T10:33:58","slug":"power-to-the-office-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/power-to-the-office-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"Power to the Office Worker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"-\"<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

Modern
\noffices consist of variable spaces that cater to personal preferences and
\nfunctional needs. The indoor air quality is typically not as adaptive to
\nvarious tasks, which can lead to suboptimal worker performance and
\ndissatisfaction. A pilot project led by Senate Properties used BIM and building
\ndata to develop an operational model that helps workers get a better grip on
\nindoor conditions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 55,000 government employees work in the 9,000 premises managed by\u00a0Senate Properties<\/a>, a Finnish, state-owned enterprise. For decades, Senate has been at the forefront of digitalizing construction and property management. They routinely use BIM both in new building projects and in retrofitting. Over the last few years, Senate Properties has developed and piloted the use of BIM for the purpose of maintenance and operations.<\/p>\n

Testing BIM as a Property
\nManagement Platform<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Esa
Esa Halmetoja, Senate Properties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe want to
\nimprove the work conditions of office users, and consequently employee
\nsatisfaction and work productivity,\u201d says Esa Halmetoja<\/strong>, Senior Expert
\nat Senate Properties. \u201cIn this pilot project, we wanted to demonstrate how to
\nuse a building information model as a platform for locating service requests
\nand performance monitoring in a three-dimensional environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilot
\nproject formed part of KIRA-digi, a national digitalization program aimed at the
\nFinnish built environment, and it was implemented in 2018. Senate Properties
\nwas joined by Granlund Oy and Cozify as data providers, and by ISS Palvelut and
\nPolkuIO as data utilizers. Platform of Trust and the VTT Technical Research
\nCentre of Finland Ltd were also involved as technical service providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of Platform of Trust is to make data flow in the built environment,\u201d says Vesa Ilmarinen<\/strong>, the Chief Impact Officer of Platform of Trust.<\/a> \u201cIn this project, we connected the conditions data model with the building information model. The solution lets Senate Properties scale up the solution according to their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The User Interfaces<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Vesa\"Vesa
Vesa Ilmarinen, Platform of Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In the
\npilot project, Senate Properties offered the users of an office building in
\nOulu a smartphone web app. Each room had a unique QR code on the wall. After the
\nuser had scanned the code, a web page opened showing information about the
\ncurrent temperature, humidity, and CO2<\/sub> level of the space. With a
\nfew clicks, the user could report back how they felt about the temperature and
\nthe air quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter
\nreceiving the scanned ID of the room, Platform of Trust located the space in
\nthe BIM model. Then, it retrieved IoT or building automation data from
\nGranlund\u2019s Metrix system or from Cozify and posted it on the web page. All this
\ntook about 20 milliseconds,\u201d Halmetoja explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the
\nuser gave feedback, this was sent through the system to a maintenance worker\u2019s
\ntablet computer. The feedback and an emoticon were displayed in the
\nthree-dimensional model, exactly where the user was at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this
\narrangement, service providers were afforded a real-time view of the conditions
\nof the property and could therefore pinpoint problems at once. Naturally,
\nbuilding users in turn expected a rapid response to their requests.<\/p>\n

Scaling Up<\/h2>\n

The user
\nfeedback from the 300 pilot users was entirely positive. Hence, Senate
\nProperties has started to equip 13 buildings across Finland with a similar
\nsystem, and plans to complete this work by the end of 2019. The company aims to
\noffer 100 buildings with 20,000 state employees the same service during the
\nfour-year strategy period.<\/p>\n

Halmetoja
\ncalculates that a mere 1 percent improvement in employee productivity will pay
\nback the investment costs in less than a year. He would also tolerate a small
\nincrease in service providers\u2019 charges as a compensation for a fast-responding
\nservice. Senate Properties intends to incorporate the requirement for a
\ndata-driven service into their general agreements with service providers.<\/p>\n

New Service Opportunities<\/h2>\n

Senate
\nProperties is able to provide a lot of building-related, real-time data.
\nHalmetoja points out that their aim isn\u2019t to find out how service providers use
\nthe data; rather, they simply want to generate value for the end user. He urges
\ntheir providers to create new business and new services with the newly available
\ndata.<\/p>\n

Vesa
\nIlmarinen agrees: \u201cWhy not take in data from other sources\u2014for example, data about cleaning, furniture, space utilization, or
\npeople flow. Sensors are fairly cheap and measurements are inexpensive. With
\nPlatform of Trust, making data flow has become affordable, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reminds
\nus that platforms such as Platform of Trust are actually all about APIs. A
\nplatform is like an invisible protocol that enables the creation of new
\nservices, as Senate Properties has just demonstrated.<\/p>\n

You can meet Halmetoja and Ilmarinen at WDBE 2019<\/a> in Helsinki in September, where they will be giving a joint presentation<\/a> on the conditions data model. Halmetoja is working on a PhD embodying the same topic.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n