Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone of our business and all our business align to it.

Manish Mehan

- CEO, thyssenkrupp India

There is growing demand for high-speed, high-capacity, smart elevators that can carry many passengers at once, safely and comfortably, particularly in high-rise office buildings, commercial complexes, and other large-scale facilities. The Indian elevator industry is expected to develop indigenously and bring up new technologies like DSC and other innovations, states Manish Mehan, CEO, thyssenkrupp India. In an exclusive interview with Construction Times, Mehan highlights the latest trends and innovative and smart solutions the company offers. Excerpts from the interview…

What is your outlook for the Elevator and Escalator industry in 2021 in terms of growth potential and product innovations?

As healthy moderation in the economy sets in, the Indian real estate as well as elevator and escalator industry is expected to revive and bounce back. Sales numbers have significantly jumped in most of the major cities in India in the last quarter, painting a positive picture for 2021. Most of the rating agencies and banks such as Moody's and S&P have also estimated that the Indian economy is set to grow in the range of 8-10% in FY 2021. This will further push demand for elevator and escalators too.

As the markets recovers, the elevator and escalators market size in India is expected to grow by USD 659.2 million during the period 2020-2024. The elevator and escalators market in India is expected to post a year-over-year growth rate of 7.68% during this period. Going forward, elevator industry is expected to develop indigenously and bring up new technologies like DSC and other innovations to India to manufacture, with less reliance on manpower and increased scaffold-less construction, augmented IOT based data collection and learning to determine parameters based on actual usage of elevators to help analyse values on which lift traffic analysis was modelled.

thyssenkrupp has recently launched meta200. Could you brief us on the unique features? 

To meet the ever-evolving mobility solution needs of India's mid-rise residential, commercial, retail and hospitality sectors, we have launched a new elevator called‚ meta200. Offering inspiring designs and German precision-engineering, meta200 brings an all-round premium experience to the customer's building. It offers maximum travel speed of 2.5 m/s with 1632 kg maximum capacity, and up to 120 m travel height.

Our team of experienced designers have studied the latest trends to offer a range of premium quality cabins that will enhance the look and feel of our customer's building. Using high-end materials, we offer a range of premium designs including etched patterns and highly durable finishes that would add a luxurious visual and tactile dimension to the elevator cabins.

To ensure the safety of users, meta200 offers reliable safety and security features such as CCTV camera, automatic recue device, 3 way-intercom and specialised safety features for earthquake and fire emergencies. Furthermore, its advanced car design with 360° vibrations reducing system and damping device provides a smooth and comfortable travel experience to the users.

Could you brief us on the transformative impact of IoT and AI, Big Data analytics on the elevator and escalator industry, globally and in India as well? How these transformative trends are being reflected in your production / processes / products and solutions?

We are at the beginning of a new elevator digitalization era and the elevator service industry is in the midst of big change. With IoT platforms like MAX, elevators can virtually talk to us, tell us when they need help, and in combination with AI and machine learning even advise technicians on the cause and solution.

So, we can fix elevators before customers even realize there's an issue. The property management team doesn't even have to place a call or track progress because, with MAX, we are way ahead. This is an excellent example of how digitalization will always be about opening new value in the elevator industry.

Having said that, thyssenkrupp Elevator's MAX is industry's first real-time, cloud-based predictive maintenance solution, which is taking elevator availability, reliability and efficiency to new heights.

Our smart, machine learning Internet of Things (IoT) solution dramatically increases elevator availability by reducing out-of-service situations by up to 50% through real-time diagnostics. MAX predicts maintenance issues before they occur, and empowers elevator engineers by flagging the need to replace components and systems before the end of their lifecycle.

MAX collects and sends real-time data from connected elevators to the intelligent cloud. Intricate algorithms calculate the remaining lifetime of each elevator's key components and systems, determining which parts will require maintenance and when. This allows us to assess the health of connected elevators and their components. The result is a fundamental shift from reactive to proactive maintenance - and the many benefits that go along with it. MAX delivers maximum uptime, all the time.

What are the trends in this area in terms of design and materials, especially ropes, and safety? 

After 160 years, the era of rope-dependent elevators is finally over as thyssenkrupp has developed the world's first rope-free dlevator system MULTI to enable the building industry face the challenges of global urbanization.

As our cities continue to grow and buildings get larger and taller to accommodate more people, planners and architects face significant challenges in finding space as conventional elevator technology requires too much space, today some 40% of the footprint of a typical high-rise building is occupied by technical equipment. With its higher transport capacity, the MULTI technology can release half of the building space unusable today.

With the world's first rope-less and sideways-moving elevator system 'MULTI' thyssenkrupp is leading the way to overcome the challenges of urbanization. With MULTI, people can move around quickly even in high-rise buildings - up and down as well as horizontally. Instead of one cabin per shaft moving up and down, multiple cabins travel safely up one shaft and down another in a single continuous loop, much like a circular train system or a metro system inside a building. This is truly revolutionary.

Instead of one cabin per shaft moving up and down, MULTI offers multiple cabins operating in a loop, much like a metro system inside a building. This results in a higher transport capacity - up to 50 percent - as well as reduced waiting times for passengers. MULTI also requires dramatically lower peak power - as much as a 60-percent reduction when compared to conventional elevator systems. This allows for better management of a building's energy needs, and reduces investment costs in the power supply infrastructure.

Operating on the basic premise of a circular system, such as a paternoster, MULTI consists of various cabins running in a loop at a targeted speed of 5 m/s, enabling passengers to have near-constant access to an elevator cabin every 15 to 30 seconds, with a transfer stop every 50 meters.

MULTI represents a proud moment in thyssenkrupp's history of presenting cutting-edge transport technologies that best serve current and future mobility needs.

How does an elevator / escalator qualify as smart or intelligent?

There is growing demand for high-speed, high-capacity, smart elevators that can carry many passengers at once, safely and comfortably, particularly in high-rise office buildings, commercial complexes, and other large-scale facilities.

One popular smart elevator feature is our destination selection control (DSC), for which passengers enter their destination floor on input terminals in the lift lobby. Each passenger is then assigned to a specific lift which would take him or her to the respective destination floor in the shortest time with a minimal number of intermediate stops. Compared to conventional elevator control systems, DSC increases passenger handling capacity by up to 30%, minimizes passengers' travel times to their destination and reduces crowding in lift lobbies. DSC also allows for much more flexibility in elevator grouping, lift core layouts and overall building design.”

For example, TWIN, our fast and energy-efficient innovative elevator system, comes equipped with intelligent traffic control, which optimises traffic automatically and reduces empty runs. This state-of-the-art system has two cabs running independently in the same shaft, each with its own counterweight, safety and drive equipment. With reduced shaft core space and construction costs, the TWIN elevator system offers the most flexible elevator solution with an eco-conscious heart.

Smart elevators can also detect employees of companies based on their IDs and assign them to elevators to reduce wait and travel time. Elevators can utilize touchless summoning and multi-carriage systems for time management. Smart elevators can use the cloud to improve travel speed and comfort and also to analyse performance and alert staff when maintenance is needed. Elevators can be monitored remotely to reduce downtime.

Brief us on the measures taken to support your customers during this crisis and what innovative, value-added products / service support solutions you have added?

The elevator world has witnessed major changes in the way it operates whether it is physical distancing on the elevator or huge demand for advanced sanitizing solutions and touchless elevator calling solutions due to Covid-19 pandemic.

In order to take our customer's safety and convenience to the next level amid Covid-19 scare and cater to the diverse requirements of our customers, we have developed various smart and user-friendly touchless elevator calling solutions such as Proximity sensor based solution, QR code based solution, and Bluetooth based solution.

Furthermore, as we strive to make every elevator a healthy and disease free space, we have launched advanced air purification solution, LED thermal camera and aerosol disinfectant solution.

Recently, we also launched a mobile app to help our customers reach out to us without having to step out of the safety of their homes during Covid-19 outbreak. This app also provides them with the complaints status and closure updates, on their registered mobile phones. Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone of our business and all our business align to it.

How do you foresee the future product / market / technology trends and could you brief us the road map? 

Indian elevators & escalators industry's future looks promising with hopes of good market growth fuelled by positive developments on the government policy front. Noteworthy of these are the Infrastructure status awarded to affordable housing, drive on urbanization, and smart city concept.

Along with infrastructure status to the affordable housing segment, increased carpet area, re-defined income definitions to boost supply in the market plus extension of the 100 per cent tax holiday under section 80-IBA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to 31 March 2020, all these factors will directly or indirectly give a strong impetus to VT industry.

The residential segment which contributes about 80 per cent to the real estate sector is expected to grow significantly over the next few decades. It is estimated that Indian cities need to develop at-least two million houses annually for the growing population. Affordable housing is expected to account for 85-90 per cent of the total residential development whereas the mid-income housing market is expected to account for 7 per cent of the total housing demand till 2028 which is 3-3.5 million houses.

India has also been witnessing a rapid increase in investments both by government and private entities on large-scale metro projects, especially in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, to provide an effective transport system to consumers. The consistent growth in the construction of new metro stations and airports has increased the demand for elevators and escalators.

Over time, new metro rail lines have been added in areas near Delhi. Similarly, other Indian cities, such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune have started metro rail transportation and have planned to increase connectivity in the future. Similarly, in order to cater to the rising air traffic, the Government of India has envisaged increasing the number of operational airports to 190-200 by FY40 from current 103 airports.

Real estate investments in the vicinity of these metro rail stations and airports will also create demand for elevators and escalators during the forecast period, contributing to elevator and escalator market growth in India. All these factors will contribute to Indian real estate industry's growth.

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