The future of air conditioning equipment construction work
Since its founding in 1923, the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group has created comfortable spaces for many buildings as a "creator of air-conditioning equipment," that is, as a designer and constructor. Starting with Mitsukoshi's "Performing Arts Audience Seating Cooling" and Kyoto Dento's "All-Building Heat Pump Air-Conditioning", Takasago has been involved in diverse fields, including high-rise buildings such as the World Trade Center, commercial facilities including department stores, and large spaces such as Tokyo Dome and Kyoto Station. In addition, starting with the production of Japan's first turbo refrigerator, based on the spirit of the founder, "If there is no good product, we will make it ourselves," we have developed the equipment and systems that are required for superior air conditioning equipment ourselves. And, within this consistent effort, we continue to refine our technical capabilities, and have achieved pride in ourselves as "Technology of Takasago."
And now, the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is moving forward to the next stage. We are trying to shift the focus of our business so that, while maintaining our foundation of technology for "building air conditioning equipment," we will "maximize the value that our equipment brings to customers" from a broader perspective. The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group calls this a "Construction + Solution Hybrid Business" and is promoting it as a pillar of the Medium-Term Management Plan "iNnovate on 2019" from FY2017 to FY2019.
Representative Director and Chairman, President & CEO Atsushi Ouchi talks about the aim of this initiative. "This business model aims to focus not on a construction contract but rather to come as close as possible to the customer's business and to support the operation, management, and update of all owned facilities in an optimal way to improve profitability and maximize asset utilization. In other words, we imagine the optimum building/lifecycle costs from the viewpoint of 20 or 30 years later from the planning and design stage of the building, and provide support as a permanent partner so that total energy consumption and cost are optimal and minimized. We will diversify our revenue sources by increasing our use of this business model, and we will continue to strengthen our management foundation."
Equipment solutions for a
decarbonizing society
The world is changing its direction to a "Decarbonizing Society" in which CO2 emissions are balanced with the planet's ability to absorb them. In September 2015, the "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" were adopted at a United Nations Summit, and in December of the same year the Paris Agreement adopted by the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established. In response to this, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment's Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures aims to reduce Japan's total CO2 emissions by 26% by FY2030 (compared with the FY2013 level). However, CO2 emissions from business such as building facilities have increased dramatically since around 1990, and effective reduction has become an urgent national issue.
The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is tackling this huge challenge head-on, not only by designing and constructing high-performance facilities and buildings in which to install them, but also by supporting the entire lifecycle including efficient operations and maintenance and management of these facilities. The generic name of "Green Air Services" uses IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) based on cloud-based data collection and storage platforms, to pursue optimal indoor environments and equipment operation.
The important component of this is "GODA Cloud." GODA stands for Gathering Operation Data and Analysis, referring to a data collection and analysis tool, and GODA Cloud provides this tool on the cloud. Until now, the energy-saving that building tenants could work on was focused on "surface energy-saving" such as room temperature settings and turning power on or off, and the barrier to expertise beyond this was high. However, GODA Cloud strongly supports "background energy-saving" such as optimization of operation parameters such as pressure, flow rate, cold/hot water, and steam in air conditioning equipment. By storing the operational data from the central monitoring device on the cloud together with the energy usage of the facility, it becomes possible to understand the current situation and the trend of increase or decrease at any time. The system also allows users to create graphs intuitively, facilitating the sharing (visualization) of the analysis with on-site staff, promoting organizational energy-saving activities. When there are many buildings (or factories), GODA cloud, which makes it possible to manage data centrally, is particularly effective. In conducting energy management based on data, expert staff with advanced Eco Tuning skills give advice and make suggestions as required based on the contract with the customer. Takasago Thermal Engineering Group expert staff can also continue to provide support until the energy management staff can use the system with confidence. The biggest feature is that the system makes it easy to use the functions and support that are essential for full-scale energy-saving while minimizing the burden on the customer.
Panasonic Tokyo Shiodome Building, which has been working on energy-saving by fully utilizing first the PC-based version of GODA from 2003 and then GODA Cloud from 2013, has steadily achieved results year-on-year, with more than 50% (51.9%) reduction in energy use in FY2015 compared with the first year after construction. "GODA Cloud/SatTool Cloud" jointly developed with Panasonic Corporation received the Good Design Award in FY2017 and the 2017 Energy Conservation Grand Prize.
Shinsuke Teraoka, Customer Center Manager at the FM/PM Business Promotion Department, Domestic Business Supervisory Division, who began working in 2013 when GODA Cloud was first developed, looks back on the company's efforts. "Since GODA, which started as a PC-based service, has been upgraded to a cloud service, it has become possible to spread the service globally. We have held monthly tool improvements with Panasonic since our efforts to build an Eco Tuning business model in FY2013, and they have worked together with us as a partner. While GODA Cloud, which received awards as a result of these efforts, is a solution developed by our Group, I feel that it has aspects of contributing to society."
We have reduced air conditioning energy by more than 10% on average by the use of GODA Cloud in the 20 facilities where we have carried out Eco Tuning so far. Teraoka is still not satisfied with this result. "There is still a trend where the energy-saving results tend to vary depending on the skill level of the tool users." he says, showing his commitment for further improvement.
Expand "the value that equipment brings" further
The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is further pursuing the various possibilities that arise by focusing on "the value that equipment brings."
In particular, the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group places importance on the view of maximizing the performance of the equipment itself. "TM MET," a proprietary equipment information management system, enables the smooth execution of tasks such as searching for equipment, management of equipment information, management of maintenance information, confirmation of the progress of maintenance and management, analysis of failure modes, and setting of the optimum maintenance cycle, as a software package that efficiently manages various types of information possessed by facility equipment. Through this, it becomes possible to constantly grasp the situation and history of the equipment in great detail and keep it in good condition for a longer period of time. We combine the tool "Yaru Kura Kun," which manages request tasks from the customer that occur on a daily basis, with the tool "Kura Kura Kun" which manages the loading and unloading of consumables and inventory items deposited by the customer, to provide an "equipment overall management service" to optimize total equipment maintenance and operations management. The system is widely used as a solution that increases the value of equipment assets while minimizing time-consuming and troublesome management for the customer.
In addition, we are also looking to develop solutions that support the topical issues of workstyle reform and health management through the creation of comfortable and productive spaces. The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group's challenges will continue into the future.