In recent weeks, the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), the international not-for-profit industry association dedicated to the advancement of connected home and intelligent building technologies, announced the fruits of its extensive research on "AI and Predictive Maintenance in Intelligent Buildings," with its release of a report by the same name.
Incorporating stakeholder surveys, expert interviews, and detailed market analysis, CABA says the research project set out to understand how use cases, customer environments, buying behaviors, and ecosystem interactions all impact and influence the development of these technologies.
Significant catalysts are currently pushing the intelligent building community towards widespread adoption, notes the association.
"The most prominent of these are the promised return on investment, stemming from the reduction in operating expenses, capital expenses, and unplanned downtime," concludes the new report by Harbor Research, Inc., as commissioned by CABA.
As further explained by CABA's statement announcing the new report:
Predictive maintenance can be characterized as a suite of software and platforms tools that leverage data from control and automation systems, distributed sensor networks, and external business intelligence to predict the next system ‘event.’
The growing demand for greater visibility and control around system and machine health, in conjunction with the increasing availability of emerging technologies, has led to a consistent cycle of innovation and progress in this space.
That current technology evolution—and growing industry use cases—fuels a massive opportunity for companies across the value chain.
CABA’s report summary concludes however, "For this to be realized, critical hurdles will have to be overcome and significant collaboration among different hardware, software, and services providers will be necessary."
Smart investors, smart research
Titled “AI and Predictive Maintenance in Intelligent Buildings,” the major research project concluded in December 2021 with Harbor Research presenting the final outcomes to the report's funders in a webinar presentation on December 15.
Per CABA, the list of funders for the research included: Bodvoc Ltd., Belimo, BrainBox AI, Inc., Broan NuTone, LLC, Bueno Systems, Carrier/Automated Logic Corp. (ALC), Cushman & Wakefield, Cyber Power Systems (USA) Inc., Delta Controls, A Delta Group Company, Energy Management Association, Facilio, Inc., Grundfos Holding A/S, Honeywell International, Inc., KMC Controls, Schneider Electric, Siemens Industry, Inc., Southwire Company, LLC, Steelcase Inc., Trane Technologies, and Watts Water Technologies, Inc.
“CABA was grateful to receive support for this research from such a wide cross-section of the intelligent buildings industry,” said Greg Walker, CEO of CABA. “The resulting report has good lessons for OEMs on maximizing the value of the data produced from building appliances and equipment; for software providers on the need to get a better handle on the pain points and preferences of different intelligent building types; and for building stakeholders on the development of the technology and the market offerings.”
The executive summary of the new research is freely available here for download.
The full report has been made available to the funding organizations and will become available for sale to CABA members at a discounted price, and non-member companies (regular price) after completion of a four-month embargo period.
Founded in 1984, report author Harbor Research Inc. cites more than 30 years of experience in providing strategic consulting, design, and research services "that enable clients to understand and capitalize on emergent and disruptive opportunities driven by information and communications technology (ICT)."
