SPIE fits out a showroom for Bayer AG based on an IoT platform

Berlin, September 24, 2020 – Bayer AG has commissioned SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, to draw up a concept and install a pilot showroom fitted with state-of-the-art technology. This model office will serve as a starting point for the pharmaceutical corporation’s future workplace. The outstanding feature of this project lies in its infrastructure, where all systems are intelligently networked with each other to form an “Internet of Things” (IoT). This latter uses sensors in the room to collect and evaluate data about the building and the environment. The data is then transferred to the building automation system, which automatically controls the heating, shading, cooling and lighting of the building. SPIE won the contract in July and the project is to be handed over in autumn – but this won’t be the end of it.

_{Photo: Bayer AG}

IoT platform in interaction with third-party systems

SPIE is designing the showroom on behalf of Bayer AG at the location Berlin, together with its partners Cisco, Signify and PTC. “A connected lighting solution, which transfers data via LiFi at a rate of up to 150 MB/s, gives information on the current room situation – such as lighting, ventilation, temperature, air humidity and presence of employees via numerous sensors – and uploads these back to the IoT platform. Based on these data, the building’s support services, such as controlling the heating, shading or cooling, are automatically triggered and regulated”, explains Dan Fischer, Location Manager Berlin in the Operational Division Information & Communication Services (ICS) at SPIE.
In order to optimise digital cooperation, Cisco Webex Boards, which serve as the basis for communication and presentation, are integrated into the model office. “In a Covid-19 era, one possible application for a cross-system automation is that people using the room can be warned by the Webex Boards, and at the same time the air conditioning system increases the air exchange as soon as the sensors report that the air in the room no longer complies with the defined values because too many people are in a room”, adds Tobias Blattmann, CTO and Manager of Strategy & Digitalisation of the Operational Division ICS.

Savings through efficient use

This showroom will also demonstrate how future users can use the Signify Workspace app to adapt the room situation to their requirements. Eventually they will be able to book unoccupied rooms and find their way to them. With this concept workplaces can be very flexibly used – and automatic lighting, heating and cleaning is stopped when rooms are unoccupied. “According to our experience, 70 percent of the area is typically sufficient for 100 percent of employees, without them perceiving this as a lack of workstations”, says Dan Fischer. By evaluating room data, it is possible to determine its utilization rate. The data from the sensors are constantly evaluated and used to efficiently manage the property. The possibility of using the showroom to collect data and roll them out at other Bayer locations is considered.

Olaf Berndt, Head of IT/OT Systems Engineering at Bayer AG says: “We want to use resources as efficiently as possible through the optimized use of working areas, and in this way support our strategic goal of cutting annual CO2 emissions by around four million tons by 2030. With this state-of-the art workplace we also offer high safety to our employees and hope to provide an attractive incentive for young talent thanks to a very modern and user-friendly workplace environment.”

Modular solution from one source

With this project the multi-technical service provider combines existing expertise from the fields of IT, building automation and facility management. The two experts Dan Fischer and Tobias Blattmann and their team are drawing up the concept and installing the technology of the showroom at Bayer together with colleagues from the SPIE Operational Division Efficient Facilities, who are specialists from the field of building automation. “We have the 360-degree view and, together with our partners and colleagues, we are combining the most innovative mechanisms in order to introduce a highly technical virtual product”, says Tobias Blattmann. “The infrastructure is capable of not only adapting to the office users but also to the situation. This is based on a modular concept with standardised technology, so that we can realise adaptive solutions for additional clients”, adds Dan Fischer.

The project is scheduled to be handed over in October. By that time, all installations on site will be completed. The hardware will function, and the applications will be ready to be used by the client. The showroom will then serve as the basis of additional use cases, there will be workshops on site and optimisations will be constantly sought – a starting point for many topics which gradually emerge in order to further simplify processes and conserve resources.

Comprehensive expertise in the fields of environmental protection and digitalisation

“We are delighted to realize this project, because the two issues we focus on as a multi-technical service provider are climate action and digitalisation. By fitting out the state-of-the-art showroom we are moving forward with both issues: We are contributing towards climate action by supporting conservation of resources and improvement of efficiency. We are also pressing forward with digitalisation – because we are convinced that digital technologies are the key to future success – for our clients and ourselves. In our digitalisation report we provide an overview of the diverse initiatives we have started or already implemented”, adds Rüdiger Graf, Manager of Business Development & Sales at SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa.