Major contract: The telecommunications group is connecting hundreds of thousands of elevators around the world. Up to 50 percent less downtime of elevators due to predictive maintenance.
thyssenkrupp expands its relationship with Vodafone by using the telecommunications group’s machine-to-machine (M2M) technology in its elevator division. Vodafone will be providing the Essen, Germany based industrial corporation with the global M2M communication platform and special M2M SIM cards for its existing and new elevators around the world. This is a major contract for several hundreds of thousands of M2M connections in Europe, Asia, North and South America.
“The Internet of Things is creating intelligent networks across the industrial sector. We have the infrastructure and the M2M solutions to take this sector forward into the digital age and make the fourth industrial revolution happen,” said Erik Brenneis, Director of Vodafone M2M. “We’re delighted that our longstanding customer thyssenkrupp has asked Vodafone to be its communications partner for its new elevator solution.”
The Vodafone M2M technology is used to connect the thyssenkrupp Elevator’s MAX, the world’s first predictive and pre-emptive maintenance service for elevators, based on Microsoft’s trusted Azure cloud platform. Reports on the elevators‘ technical condition are transmitted to the cloud for evaluation, providing service engineers with real-time information on necessary repairs and predictions of which specific components will require maintenance, even before the elevator breaks down. thyssenkrupp is expecting elevator service disruptions to be halved as a result of this pre-emptive service concept. Currently all elevators installed around the world have a total of 190 million hours of service disruptions every year.
Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO of thyssenkrupp Elevator, commented:
“We do what no others in our sector have done before, and it is required to revolutionize an industry instrumental in responding to the challenges of the ongoing urbanization megatrend, always striving to make cities the best ever places to live. Full fledge digitalization is key to make the century-old elevator industry start a new era.”
MAX is a major milestone in thyssenkrupp Elevator’s business strategy. In the first launch period the company aims to connect some 180,000 units in North America and Europe, with the US, Germany, and Spain as pilot countries and other key countries in Europe as well as in Asia and South America following shortly after. In two years, the offering will be expanded to all continents, becoming available to some 80% of all elevators worldwide.
