As Technology and Innovation Director at Bidvest Noonan, Peter Smyth spends much of his time studying innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies. Peter’s research helps the business to achieve better outcomes for its customers, people, business, and environment.
Sharing his insights with FM Business Daily, Peter to identified four areas where innovation and technological advances are beginning to impact the facilities services industry.
Cobotics
Cobotics is still an emerging field; however, at Bidvest Noonan, we have begun to introduce cobots to a number of sites where they can add value.
These machines work alongside our people, handling repetitive and monotonous tasks such as large area cleaning. Cobots are not a substitute for cleaning teams, but they can augment them, increasing their resilience and capacity.
Cobots can offer several benefits. The cobots that we have invested in use up to 80% less water than traditional cleaning methods. They use smart mapping systems to take the most energy-efficient cleaning path and can work in the dark, further reducing energy consumption.
The data captured by our cobots support evidence-based cleaning and the development of valuable insights for planning. Significantly, by handling some of the most monotonous work, cobots improve job satisfaction for our team members and enable them to spend more time on higher-order tasks.
Dynamic Cleaning
Dynamic cleaning improves the productivity and sustainability of cleaning operations. The approach uses sensor technologies to identify which spaces have been occupied and require cleaning and which do not.
Dynamic cleaning enables teams to become more productive, with no time wasted on unnecessary cleaning in unused areas. In addition, cleaning operations become more sustainable as teams use less water, energy and materials overall.
The approach leverages real-time and historical building usage data to improve planning, enabling managers to determine the exact resourcing requirements for every period and every area of the site.
Smart Buildings
Smart buildings use a combination of technologies to improve the efficiency, utilisation and environmental performance of buildings and assets while creating a safe and comfortable environment for occupants.
Bidvest Noonan uses a range of these technologies at some of its own buildingsto monitor and manage building occupancy, powering down unoccupied rooms, spaces, or even entire floors to save energy. We only make these spaces available again when needed.
Using our digital booking system, our building users always have access to the resources they need, such as desks, meeting rooms, smart lockers and parking spaces.
The insights provided by our smart building technologies enable us to make significant cost and energy savings in areas such as lighting, heating and air-conditioning systems while providing optimum conditions for building users. In addition, the data we gather helps to improve our workplace planning.
Waste Management
Businesses have used waste compactors and balers to manage waste for many years; however, these technologies have continued to advance, and developments in recycling and regulation have boosted their use.
Modern compactors and balers such as those provided by our specialist waste handling business, Ancove, are more powerful, economical and compact. As a result, they efficiently reduce waste volumes by more than 90%; Consequently less space is required to store waste, and fewer waste collections are needed. Additionally, waste materials have become a source of revenue for our customers. They receive payment for valuable waste materials such as paper, cardboard and plastic. This is a win-win situation for business and the environment.
