The pandemic has impacted many industries invarious ways, and the elevators market is no exception. Manish Mehan, CEO, thyssenkrupp Elevator (India), in an interactionwith Shashidhar V, throws light onthe initiatives that the company has taken to continue to serve the market and,in the process, grow.
Howdid the pandemic impact your organisation?
Since COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic,India has been one of the most affected countries. There has been some up anddowns for all the companies and so has happened for us too. But, we havegradually resumed coming to work having accepted the new normal.
During the entire pandemic period, thyssenkruppElevator made sure to deliver the required services to our commercial andnon-commercial sites. During the period of lockdown, when malls and otherfacilities were closed, our organization was preparing for delivering the bestservice and safety option in the new normal era.
thyssenkrupp Elevator gives utmost importance tothe safety and comfort of its customers. We wanted to make our customer’s lifesimpler and more convenient during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Hence, welaunched a new mobile app for our customers to seek any assistance or registerany complaint/call from the comfort of their home during the lock down period.
It has a user-friendly interface to perform thebasic functions. The app is available on Google Play and App Store. It supportsboth the Android and iOS operating systems. This app will empower our customersand will further equip them to reach out to us faster than ever before.
This is our way of keeping our customers safeand healthy in this unprecedented crisis, as they can reach out to us and trackthe status of their complaint without stepping out of their homes or evenmaking a call.
Wouldyou throw light on the initiatives that you have taken at your end on offeringinnovative and advanced technology solutions to your customers considering thenew normal due to the pandemic?
At thyssenkrupp Elevator, we have made sure tomake necessary changes and innovation to deliver the best to our customers. Wehave ensured on-going mobility in all our projects, ensuring our servicesremain fully available to all our customers. Our service teams remain on dutywhen it comes to preventive maintenance activities and call-backs of elevatorand escalator systems to ensure the availability of thyssenkrupp systems at alltimes. All emergency call services are in place and fully operational.
We have recently introduced some advanced elevator and escalatorsanitizing and touch-free elevator calling solutions to provide protection fromthe COVID-19 infection risks. As the coronavirus is still active in our cities,it is important to ensure that elevators and escalators used by millions ofpeople every day remain a safe and efficient method of transportation.
Our solutions will protect you from germ transmission by ensuringthat your equipment is properly sanitized and it requires minimum contact. Theimplemented solutions in our elevators are as mentioned below:
Air purifier: Designed with dualdisinfection technology to sanitize and purify cabin air and walls.
Infrared thermalcamera: One of our cabin wellness solutions is an unobtrusive infraredthermal camera, which monitors each passenger’s body temperature as they enterthe cabin.
Aerosoldisinfectant: Programmed to operate during working hours to sanitize theelevator cabin. By regularly delivering a safe antiviral and antibacterialspray, a clean and secure environment for passengers canbe maintained at all times.
EscalatorUV Sanitizing Unit: Escalator handrail is one of thehighest risk surfaces of all, as handrails are touched by every passenger. Tomake handrails free from any pathogens and to prevent the disease transmissionat all times, we have launched a high intensity UV sanitizing unit.
Yourcompetitors too have been offering similar innovations that have been developedin response to the pandemic – keeping in mind the need for touchlessfacilities, sanitized cabins, WhatsApp calling, etc. In such a market, howwould thyssenkrupp differentiate its solutions from its competitors?
As one of the world’s leading serviceproviders, thyssenkrupp India strongly supportsthe global efforts to prevent the spread of Coronavirus and we have been byapplying strict safety and hygiene measures in line with the recommendations ofthe World Health Organization and the applicable provisions of governmentauthorities. We are offering new and innovative solutions to increase hygienestandards and enable social distancing. All these solutions are user friendly,cost effective, easy to implement, and requires minimal hardware.
The customer just has to call ourtechnical expert, understand the attribute of each, and we will organize aproduct demo for you. With COVID-19 cases rising, it's urgent to opt for notouching, no virus transmission, no hassles and no worries because your safetydemands it.
In order to take our customer's safetyand convenience to the next level amidst the COVID-19 scare, our company hasintroduced multiple solutions that enable users to operate elevators withouttouching any panels/buttons.
We are offering following five types of solutions:
- Active IR, proximity sensor based solution.
- Bluetooth-based solution (operated using smartphones).
- QR code scanner-based solution (operated using smartphones).
- IoT-based solution (needs WiFi internet).
- Voice recognition-based solution.
The elevator industry is coming up with a lot of such hygiene andsafety solutions and we, at thyssenkrupp Elevator (India), strive to providethe best and consistent quality of solutions and products to our customers.
Increasingtechnology, while largely beneficial to the users, also increases the cost ofservicing. Do you see that as an impediment factor?
We don’t see a significantdifference in the maintenance cost due to introduction of new technologies inthe elevator industry. In fact, the benefits outweigh cost difference. For example, we have digitised our aftersalesservice business, with each of our technicians being connected to the office bySmart Tablets that enables them to service the elevators and escalators withgreater efficiency, better response time, and thus, have min MTBF (mean timebefore failure).
With the help of smarttablets, our technicians can access routes, manuals, technical data banks, andexpert’s advice from remote locations and, thus, offer a superior serviceexperience to our customers.
We’ve also rolled outa practice of ‘Predictive Maintenance’ for some of our major customers by whichthe critical parts/components of the elevators/escalator are directly replacedfrom the units on attaining its life period. The said component gets directlyreplaced on attaining its life period irrespective of its malfunctioning orfunctioning properly.
Further, in thatdirection, we have also extended a special service to our major projects bywhich the customer has direct access to the health status of their equipment onour website portal. The customer can directly login and access real timetechnical information of the elevators.
Customer satisfactionis the cornerstone of our business and we all our business align to it.
Withmarkets down, Work from Home being encouraged impacting commercial real estate,and funds hard to come by, to what extent would you see a market for suchinnovations going forward, and also the growth of leading elevator players?
According to the market performance, the commercialreal estate segment has certainly suffered more than residential segment asmajority of the companies, especially in IT sector, are shifting to hybridmodel of working even after full reopening. The COVID-19 outbreak has delayed project completion timelines, reduceddemand and softened rentals, at least for the next few months. However, in thelonger term, the commercial real estate segment will be the quickest to bounceback.
Doyou think it would impact your products limiting your market to airports,metros, and hospitals? Or, are there any other sectors that seem profitablegiven the present situation?
We are seeing the sign of revival in both, the real estate andelevator industries. For example, residentiallaunches across India’s top eight property markets have witnessed a majorupturn with 68 per cent jump during the quarter ended September over theprevious quarter that was marked by the lockdowns owing to the outbreak ofCOVID-19 pandemic. Although, the industry will take another year or so to reachthe pre COVID-19 level.
We are also upbeat aboutthe growth of affordable housing segment as this has the potential to be a gamechanger. Indian Government’s decision to giveInfrastructure status to affordable housing has improved resource allocationand facilitated higher investments in this sector.
Howhas the pandemic changed your manufacturing process – in terms of the materialhandled, use of robotics, AI, etc.?
Physical distancing, working with lesser manpowerhas become the new normal for most of manufacturing facilities including ours.However, slowly and gradually, we are moving towards full capacity utilization.
Inyour opinion, what are the pain points in the given situation?
Manufacturing industry has beenhit in many ways due to the Corona effect. Some of its negative impacts arelower production, due to lower offtake; reduced scale of operations, lessermanpower with consequent effect on cost and production volumes; the uncertaintiesin the logistics sector, etc.
“We are also upbeatabout the growth of affordable housing segment as this has the potential to bea game changer.”
“The COVID-19outbreak has delayed project completion timelines, reduced demand and softenedrentals, at least for the next few months. However, in the longer term, thecommercial real estate segment will be the quickest to bounce back.”