Abstract
Global warming affects everyone, and the effects will be more dangerous all over the world in time. Therefore, it is very important to use our world's limited resources and to prefer the renewable resources such as solar energy and wind energy. In this study, the authors consider an elevator system, which includes a solar-powered and conventional one with some new Internet-of-Things (IoT) features. The elevator may be operated by both electric energy and solar energy. Solar energy, as being a renewable energy source, leads to various benefits. Internet-of-Things-enabled elevator has a global system for mobile communications (GSM) module to send messages to pre-specified receivers in case of a power failure. The target performance measures are defined, and the advantages of the solar-powered smart elevator are explained.
TopBackground
As the product life cycles become shorter, continuous improvement in the new product development is getting critical for firms. New product development (NPD) consists of the activities of the firm that leads to a stream of new or changed product market offerings over time. NPD process is a long and dynamic period which includes creating a new idea and converting it to a commercialized product. Kotler classifies eight NPD phases that are idea generation, idea screening, concept development and testing, market strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing and commercialization (Kotler, 2011).
There are various studies regarding implementation of IoT in elevators. According to IoT Business News (2019), IoT in elevators is expected to boost in the coming years due to the increase in adoption of new information technology solutions and increase in number of high-rise buildings. They also report that, based on a new market report titled IoT in Elevators Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018 – 2026, published by Transparency Market Research, the global IoT in elevators market is expected to reach $ 50.76 billion by 2026. In the aforementioned report, ThyssenKrupp AG, KONE Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, Schindler Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Elevators are indicated as the key players in the IoT in elevators market. According to ComputerWorld’s article (2018), ThyssenKrupp launched its cloud-based predictive maintenance solution in the Microsoft Azure cloud in late 2015 which connects 120,000 elevators; Otis launched its connected elevator system in May 2018; Schindler launched its IoT platform, namely Schindler Ahead, in partnership with GE Digital and Huawei in 2017; Kone launched its 24/7 Connected Service in July 2018.
Proud Green Building (2019) mentions that modernization of the elevators, rapid urbanization, the increasing geriatric population, the emerging trend of green and intelligent buildings encourage the installation of energy-efficient elevators. Based on the same source, the global elevator market is expected to grow 7.4% and reach $330.45 billion by the end of 2023. Delsing (2017) states that the share of elevators corresponds to 5% of total electricity consumption in buildings and there are 4,800,000 elevators operating in UE-27 countries, so there is a huge potential in terms of energy reduction through this number. According to the book, elevator companies have focused their research and development on development of intelligent, sustainable, safe and energy-efficient vertical transportation systems.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Renewable Energy: A type of energy which is obtained from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, and geothermal heat.
Smart Building: A smart building is any structure that uses automated processes to automatically control the building's operations including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, lifting, security, and other systems.
Cloud: Virtual data storage servers available over the Internet which are supported and coordinated by cloud computing providers. The stored data can be retrieved on the cloud via Internet connectivity.
Data Mining: The method of investigating and identifying patterns, trends, correlations and establishing relationships in large databases to derive useful information from raw data and to forecast future outcomes. Data mining is the analysis step of the “knowledge discovery in databases” process and it can be used for Business Intelligence.
Internet of Things (IoT): A network of connected devices that can collect, send and receive electronic data and enable remote monitoring over the Internet without human intervention. The data is analyzed and transformed into useful information. Actions can be taken by learning from a process by the help of gathered data.
Lean Manufacturing: It is an approach to eliminate every type of waste (Muda) in manufacturing and service companies. Taiichi Ono is inverter of lean techniques in Toyota. It is also called TPS (Toyota Production System).