Transforming Elevator Services with IoT and AI

The client

The client is the leading US-based global manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, such as elevators, moving walkways, and escalators. They have a worldwide portfolio of over two million elevator and escalator installations that move over two billion people on a daily basis, focusing on customer experience as a differentiator.

Market trends in the elevator and escalator industry

The elevator and escalator industry is undergoing digital transformation, driven by IoT, AI, and cloud technologies. The key trends driving this industry transformation are:  

• Predictive maintenance: Companies are leveraging real-time data and AI-driven analytics to detect potential failures before they occur, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
• Connected ecosystems: Smart elevator systems with IoT-enabled monitoring systems provide transparency to customers and technicians, improving service efficiency and reliability.
• AI-driven optimization: AI/ML models are being used to enhance operational efficiency, optimize energy consumption, and provide predictive insights for better asset management.
• Proactive models for service revenue growth: As manufacturers shift from reactive to proactive service models, they are unlocking new revenue streams through data-driven service offerings and subscription-based maintenance models. 
• Sustainability and efficiency: The industry is focusing on energy-efficient solutions and predictive maintenance strategies to reduce operational costs and environmental impact.  

These market trends are driving elevator manufacturers to adopt innovative technology that enables these capabilities, improving efficiency and customer experience.

Challenges

The client faced several challenges with their legacy systems such as:

• Inability to tackle complex IT integration across diverse elevator systems, to enable seamless data collection and monitoring.
• Lack of real-time data processing and analytics to proactively detect issues and dispatch informed responses before problems are reported.
• Low transparency and visibility to provide customers with up-to-date, real-time insights into elevator performance and technician activity.
• Inability to optimize schedules as they lacked predictive maintenance models that could leverage real-time and historical data to avoid unplanned shutdowns and optimize service schedules.
• Difficulty scaling – the client needed a globally scalable and localized solution to support deployment in over 30 countries with varying business and regulatory requirements.
• Lack of disaster recovery capabilities – the client needed a robust, secure, and high-availability architecture to ensure uninterrupted service and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Lack of persona-specific insights and experiences for better decision-making and efficiency. They needed a solution that tailored data and insights to the roles of technicians, building managers, and support staff.
• Difficulty coordinating development across multiple teams and geographies.
• Requirement for comprehensive quality assurance through both manual and automated testing to maintain high product standards in a complex ecosystem.

Need to manage smooth global deployment and support operations including localization, rollout, and multi-tiered user support (L1, L2, L3).

LTM's Solution

To support a strategic digital transformation toward connected, intelligent elevator services, a comprehensive, multi-tiered digital solution was delivered. It was designed to enhance operational efficiency, customer experience, and revenue growth. Key aspects of the solution included:

• Three-tier architecture: The solution was structured across edge, platform, and enterprise tiers. The edge tier included gateways, controllers, and sensors installed in both proprietary and third-party elevators, transmitting real-time data via cellular networks to the Azure cloud. The platform tier featured a custom-built IoT event hub with a rules engine to process and analyze incoming data, enabling real-time alerts and persona-specific insights. The enterprise tier integrated this data into web and mobile applications for global visibility.
• Custom IoT platform: Built on Microsoft Azure, the platform supported a plug-and-play architecture for diverse edge configurations, a data pipeline for analytics using a proprietary product suite, and a “build once, configure everywhere” model to accommodate localization across 30+ countries.
• Personalized user experience: Persona-specific applications delivered tailored insights to technicians, building managers, and support staff, improving decision-making and operational responsiveness.
• Agile product development: End-to-end support was provided including product management, program management using SAFe methodology, architecture design, development, DevSecOps, testing, deployment, and global support (L1-L3).
• Scalability and reliability: The platform was designed to be scalable, secure, and resilient, with high availability and disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery.
• Global rollout and support: The solution was successfully deployed on over 350,000 elevators and escalators across more than 30 countries, with localization and support tailored to each region’s operational and regulatory needs.

This solution enabled proactive management of elevator operations, reduced service costs, expanded the service and equipment portfolio, and delivered superior experience to customers and tenants.

Tech Stack

• IOT-based three-tier platform (IoT and edge technologies: gateways, controllers, and sensors)
• IoT event hub
• Microsoft Azure cloud
• LTM Fosfor Product Suite (analytics and AI/ML)
• DevSecOps

Business Benefits

• Reduced service tickets by 10-15%
• Lowered maintenance hours by 10-20%
• Increased service portfolio growth by 2-5%
• Increased new equipment sales by 2-5%
• Improved revenue and margin due to enhanced productivity

Conclusion

By implementing an IoT-enabled digital platform with LTM, the client successfully enhanced field efficiency, improved service revenue, and gained a competitive edge via our smart elevator systems. Real-time data collection, AI-driven insights, and predictive maintenance capabilities reduced service disruptions, increased equipment lifespan, and boosted overall profitability. As the industry continues to evolve, such innovations will be key to sustaining growth, optimizing operations, and delivering superior customer experiences.

Quotes

“At LTM, we believe the future of the elevator industry lies in transforming every movement into meaningful insight. By harnessing the power of IoT and AI, we’re helping our clients shift from reactive service models to predictive, value-driven operations, unlocking new growth and redefining what efficiency means in motion.”

— Naushad Khambhawala, Vice President, Manufacturing – Americas, LTM

Looking to transform your services with IoT and AI?
 

Write to us at mfg.communications@ltm.com
 

To know more about our advanced Industrial Smart Manufacturing Solutions, visit our website at: Digital Transformation in Manufacturing | Industrial Smart Manufacturing Solutions