The Internet of Things supports ThyssenKrupp in giving the world’s cities a major lift by increasing the uptime of elevators. A connected, intelligent line-of-business asset monitoring system will raise elevator reliability and safety to new heights.

ThyssenKrupp gains a competitive edge by focusing on reliability, an aspect that matters most to its customers in buildings across the world. Drawing on the potential of the ‘Internet of Things’ by connecting elevators to the cloud, gathering data from sensors and systems, and transforming that data into valuable business intelligence, ThyssenKrupp is vastly improving its maintenance services.

“We wanted to go beyond the industry standard of preventative maintenance, to offer predictive and even pre-emptive maintenance, thereby guaranteeing a higher uptime percentage on our elevators,” says Andreas Schierenbeck, ThyssenKrupp Elevator CEO.

For the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population lives in cities-and that urban migration continues apace. By 2050, 7 out of 10 people will live in cities-a staggering 3 billion more than today, according to the World Health Organization. Big cities cannot exist without skyscrapers, and, in turn, skyscrapers cannot exist without elevators. Global manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Elevator maintains more than 1.1 million elevators worldwide, including those at some of the world’s most iconic buildings, like the new One World Trade Center in New York.

In this new endeavour, ThyssenKrupp is creating a connected, intelligent line-of-business (LOB) asset monitoring system that raises elevator reliability to new heights by working with Microsoft and CGI. The solution brings together technologies at the heart of Microsoft’s platform for the Internet of Things, including the Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service and Azure Machine Learning. CGI developed a solution that securely connects ThyssenKrupp’s “things”-the thousands of sensors and systems in its elevators that monitor everything from motor temperature to shaft alignment, cab speed and door functioning; the data they gather; and PCs and mobile devices used by its workforce of technicians-to the cloud with the Azure Intelligent Systems Service.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 16th: “When you really think about it, it’s really the Internet of Your Things. So when you’re talking to a customer, they have these things in the field, and for the first time now, in a cost-effective way, they can put a computer on them and get data back from them so that they can reason over it. Now that all sounds great, but for what purpose? The purpose is of course business model transformation.”

Now, instead of just reacting to a failure alarm, technicians can use real-time data to define a required repair even before a breakdown occurs. In addition, thanks to a two-way flow of data, technicians can remotely put an elevator into diagnostics mode, or send it to another floor. It all adds up to less travel time, better efficiency, and reduced costs.

The Elevator Technology business area brings together the ThyssenKrupp Group’s global activities in passenger transportation systems. With sales of 6.2 billion euros in fiscal 2012/2013 and customers in 150 countries, ThyssenKrupp Elevator is one of the world’s leading elevator companies. With more than 49,000 highly skilled employees, the company offers innovative and energy-efficient products designed to meet customers’ individual requirements. The portfolio includes passenger and freight elevators, escalators and moving walks, passenger boarding bridges, stair and platform lifts as well as tailored service solutions for all products. Over 900 locations around the world provide an extensive sales and service network to guarantee closeness to customers.