For a few years now, the Building Automation Systems (BMS) industry has been experiencing a growth in demand and, with it, the industry is being affected by a shortage of one of its most valuable resources for the success of its operation: technicians. To meet the actual demand, today’s experienced BMS technicians are ending up with an incredibly high workload. This has resulted in complications in the projects’ implementations, in higher costs associated with the projects, and a greater propensity for errors and gaps in the commissioning and verification phases.
Now let’s look at it from the point of view of the clients and tenants of the buildings. When the controls contractors’ labor force is not enough, the company will tend to deliver projects with delays. This will surely give a perception of poor service, in addition to the fact that delays generate an inability for companies to occupy their spaces and generate income, causing economic strain. In the end, it’s a domino effect and everyone loses.
How can the industry overcome this situation? It’s a question that many controls contractors have asked in recent years, and there is still no clear answer. That is why, at CUBE, we have set ourselves the task of developing a tool that helps counteract the detrimental effects of the shortage of BMS technicians by boosting the power and time of the talent you already have. This is how CUBE|Box was born! A hybrid product, being both hardware and software, that came to improve implementation processes, services jobs, and projects in operation.
Let’s start by making it very clear what the CUBE|Box is.
The solution connects the design and implementation phases of a BMS (Building Management System) project by applying AI, Auto Commissioning, On-Going Commissioning, and Fault Detection to eliminate the complexity of the commissioning process and to elevate the revenue on every project. The hardware gets connected to a BACnet network using UDP/IP communication and the software extracts the data from the BACnet network and sends it to a cloud server that compares the implementation in the field with the design.
The solution also benefits from Business Intelligence technology integrated into the software to provide project managers with better visibility of the project.
And how can that definition be translated into benefits for a company working with CUBE|Box?
The hardest part of a controls job is the verification that the system was, in fact, installed and working as designed. As we all know, this process is laborious and requires experienced technicians; therefore, this is one of the great benefits of CUBE|Box, as it uses the information extracted from the BMS and compares it with the data used to design the project.
This innovative product reduces costs and expenses by helping to achieve ambitious goals such as: streamlining the work of technicians, increasing the motivation of project coordinators and participants, contributing to a more efficient decision-making process, giving staff time to be more creative and participate in more projects, and increasing the opportunity to generate more revenue.
The solution is designed for controls contractors to get the commissioning process and verification phases done sooner, and with fewer specialized staff, optimizing the time your technicians need to spend on every project. It also allows them to participate more actively in the continuous improvement of the commissioning process and feeds their analysis for decision-making related to future implementations.
Likewise, CUBE|Box makes controls contractors more reliable and competitive by minimizing the probability of errors and gaps in the verification phases while also providing your technicians with major efficiency and productivity in the field.
CUBE|Box also contributes to solving the problem of the hierarchy of isolated, or disconnected, requirements in a building performance continuous improvement system. In doing so, it supports the continuous improvement of building performance, which represents an integral contribution to the building industry.
How can CUBE|Box deliver all that?
In our industry, the performance of a system is directly related to how experienced the programmer is. CUBE|Box uses verification sequences to scan hundreds of points and performs AI, Auto Commissioning, and On-Going Commissioning to flag issues such as missing control points, sensors out of range, points out calibrations, incorrect damper rotation, airflows not meeting set points, and more! Therefore, it shortens the commissioning since the technician does not have to look for them, CUBE|Box just makes the corrections.
Additionally, it will deliver a full report with the status of all the points indicating that the systems are working correctly. Its use of Business Intelligence, gives project managers a better and easier understanding of what needs to be fixed or checked, which overall facilitates the decision-making process.
What does CUBE|Box offer that has not been offered before?
CUBE|Box offers a revolutionary approach to the way controls companies commission and verify their BMS systems; it makes this historically difficult phase much simpler.
It is the first product that takes the information from a BMS design to search for deficiencies once the system is implemented. Looking for missing controllers in a large network is like finding a needle in a haystack. CUBE|Box will flag this deficiency as soon as it starts.
Similar products focus on analytics to save energy post-implementation and the solutions are mostly tailored to building operators. In contrast, CUBE|Box focuses on making controls companies more efficient and more competitive.
As noted, CUBE|Box is intended to be used by controls contractors to assist during the commissioning process, traditionally handled by very experienced technicians. Since the increased demand for these valuable resources is not being matched by supply, BMS companies are seeing the execution of their controls projects seriously impacted. Also many feel the need to streamline and simplify all the workflows required to take a project from the estimating phase all the way to the owner turnover. This is where CUBE|Box offers the greatest value! It makes the staff of controls technicians more efficient by completing the project in less time. Because the process is simpler, with the help of automated fault detection and Auto Commissioning, the CUBE|Box will provide managers with a larger range of technicians that can be sent to work on a project.
Adding CUBE|Box to a project is like adding an extra set of hands to the team! Who wouldn’t want that?
Will CUBE|Box affect best practices and the direction of research and development?
CUBE USA believes that CUBE|Box will influence the way the BMS industry approaches the commissioning and verification phases of a controls project.
Currently, the industry relies heavily on its people to complete critical tasks, but in order to avoid mistakes, we believe companies could rely, as well, on the technological preciseness provided by automated tools.
CUBE USA is committed to continuing investing in and exploring the use of artificial intelligence for the commissioning and verification processes of BMS systems. We hope to become the standard for other companies to follow and expect the number of companies offering a similar solution to increase. In the end, when you get efficient, well-implemented buildings, we all win!
So going back to the initial idea, CUBE|Box Is our best bet for controls contractors to boost the power of their technicians to deliver better project implementations in less time through the use of AI, Auto Commissioning, On-Going Commissioning, and Fault Detection. But also, as we have mentioned before, one of the benefits of this new solution is that CUBE|Box uses Business Intelligence technology to improve the way BMS companies´ owners, directors, and managers deal with their decision-making processes and allocation of resources, a topic that we will unwrap further in a future blog entry.
If you are interested in knowing more about the product firsthand, join us at our live launch at the AHR Expo Atlanta, booth C5130, in early February 2023: https://ahr23.mapyourshow.com/8_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?exhid=14199AHR.
We look forward to meeting you!
Want to learn more about CUBE?
Visit www.cube-usa.com or follow us on: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cube-usa/
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