Al Nabooda Chulia Facilities Management Co LLC (AN.C) is a Dubai based Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) service provider entrusted with the operation and maintenance of Mechanical & Electrical systems for leading car dealership: Al Nabooda Automobiles’ 16 prestigious showrooms, service centres, workshops and body shops.

Al Nabooda Automobiles has the world’s largest Volkswagen showroom (established in 1999), the world’s largest Volkswagen service centre (est. 2005) and the world’s largest Audi terminal with 57 Audi vehicles on display spanning more than 15,000 sq.m across six levels. The inauguration of the new AED 144 M Porsche Centre in 2015 (with 49 Porsche cars on display across three levels), has cemented it’s reputation as being a class apart from the rest and the maintenance of this impressive infrastructure needs to be equally high quality.

Smart City Pioneer Award Winners:

Urbanise has awarded Al Nabooda Chulia Facilities Management Co LLC the ‘Award of Smart City Pioneer’ for demonstrating that technology can streamline business processes, drive innovation, improve financial performance and add value to clients. By seeking out and adopting cutting edge technology, they have added value to their customers’ experience, improved their performance and boosted the energy conservation as well as the overall M&E system performance of the building and facilities they manage.

AL NABOODA CHULIA URBANISE SMART CITY PIONEER AWARD WINNER

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Baharinshah HussainGeneral ManagerAl Nabooda Chulia Facilities Management Co. L.L.C

“It is key to lay the right integrated facilities management business principles and ethical code of conduct for a long term business relationship. At Al Nabooda Chulia, we have witnessed progressive development of streamlining Clients’ needs; moving maintenance as an expense to maintenance as an investment and recognizing the value addition of service. We intend to complement our Clients to be their trusted facilities management’s extension arm while they can realign focus in their core business”.

www.urbanise.com

THE AL NABOODA CHULIA CASE STUDYThe Opportunity: As a leading Facilities Management Company, AN.C continues to re-think and improve its value-adding services through innovation and technology advancements in facilities management. As such, AN.C recognized the immense potential for using the Urbanise Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to enhance environmental and energy performance through real-time monitoring and close process management using Statistical Process Control (SPC).

The installed sensors monitor and manage light illumination to ensure compliance with brand, thermal comfort (temperature and humidity) for customer comfort and equipment optimisation. Behind the scenes flood sensors monitor sump tanks and sensitive IT installations, with vibration sensors monitoring rotating equipment – all in real time. Any anomaly in the data gathered automatically triggers alerts to the technical team. The analysis of data translates into critical business intelligence to address issues before they become a problem for the customer and an evidence based approach to maintenance which further enhances business operations and performance.

The end result is enhanced Business Intelligence, improved service levels all round and better data on which to base investment decisions and a reduction in overall client spend.

How the Technology Works:

Small wireless sensors are applied to key building systems. They detect changes across a variety of parameters, transmitting data to Urbanise’s central software platform in the Cloud in real time. If a sensor moves out of the set profile range, alerts are triggered by the Cloud platform and relayed to building maintenance personnel on their smart-phones via SMS and email. This enables the technician to identify the issue, respond and ultimately fix the problem in minutes, leaving the building’s occupants none the wiser of an issue having occurred. Sensors can be retrofitted into any building in minutes and the data is accessed from any smart phone, tablet or desktop. Using this data, the FM provider can deploy a condition based maintenance approach, minimising the cost of service provision.

Solving 4 Operational Problems with Internet of Things Sensors

1. Wastewater Frequent Overflow

Flood sensors were installed in the Wastewater Tanks to avoid overflowing of the wastewater, which had become a regular occurrence and big operational problem. The Flood Sensors wirelessly send alert notifications to the Facilities Team once the wastewater has reached 80% of its capacity. The maintenance team then schedules the tanker for wastewater removal. This process completely eradicates the risk of wastewater overflow, whilst reducing on site inspection and maintenance, which is often costly and inefficient. Customer complaints have been completely eradicated since the installation of the flood sensors.

ALERT

Flood Sensors wirelessly send alert notifications to the Facilities Team once the wastewater has reached

80% of its capacity

Maintenance Team then schedules the tankerfor wastewater removal

Waste Water Tank

2. Optimizing Customer Comfort in Showroom Common Areas

Most of the showrooms are dominated by large glass façades that are a focal design point, not only architecturally but also to exhibit the cars to passing customers.

However, during summer months when the temperatures reach highs of 50°C, the heat penetrates the glass façade dramatically increasing the ambient temperature. Temperature Sensors placed in key areas of the showrooms monitor the exact temperature of the space and facilitate timely adjustments of the HVAC system to ensure optimal comfort.

Temperature Sensors installed on the HVAC Systems monitor outgoing and incoming air temperature provided immediate results. Within a few hours of installation, data from the sensors revealed that the air conditioning units were not working as intended and needed to be replaced. This has facilitated a log-term saving opportunity for the client (reduced energy and maintenance costs) and a direct improvement in comfort in the customer areas.

3. Improving Safety in Server Rooms

Server Rooms are prone to water leakages, especially if the area is cooled by chilled water systems or if plumbing and fire fighting fixtures are placed on the server room ceiling. Consequently, Flood Sensors installed in server rooms now detect potential water leaks that could jeopardise the server room equipment and data. At the same time, ambient Temperature Sensors monitor these critical areas round-the-clock and provide real time ambient temperature data, which is used to evaluate the performance of the AC System and avoid costly equipment loss in the event of a power outage or equipment failure.

Temperature Sensors placed in key areas of the showrooms monitor the exact temperature of the space and facilitate timely adjustments of the HVAC system to ensure optimal comfort

Temperature Sensors Monitor these critical areas round-the-clock and provide real time ambient temperature data, which is used to evaluate the performance of the AC System and avoid costly equipment loss in the event of a power outage or equipment failure.

Flood Sensors installed in server rooms now detect potential water leaks that could jeopardise the server room equipment and data.

4. Ensuring Brand Standard Lighting Requirements

Maintaining a standard showroom light brightness helps ensure a consistent brand across the motor network. Lux Sensors in the showroom monitor light levels and ensure that lux levels remain consistent with brand requirements. From a cost and maintenance perspective, the sensors also serve to monitor the life cycle of the lights and the time at which they were spent on or off, indicating usage and energy consumption.

Conclusion:

Thanks to AN.C’s proactive maintenance and use of smart technology, the clients’ showrooms and service centres now also rank world-class. Their Operations and Maintenance translate into comfort and safety for consumers and ensure a conducive workplace for management.

The IoT Sensors can be used for energy monitoring and optimisation and the real time data derived from sensors gives facility managers’ irrefutable evidence that can help them justify necessary work and maintenance budgets. With good quality data and an evidence-based approach to maintenance, AN.C will now be working hand-in-hand with the Al Nabooda Automobile client to reduce the costs of Operation and Maintenance of the estate, enhancing the life of assets and their performance

Lux Sensors in the showroom monitor light levels and ensure that lux levels remain consistent with brand requirements.