Creating the first digital shopping centre in Peru
See how Plaza Santa Catalina leveraged a digital twin to improve operations, maintenance and customer experience.
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Company Name:
Dormeson SA
Company: Dormeson SA, a real estate development company based in Peru
Challenge: Digitalise the operations and maintenance of the Plaza Santa Catalina shopping centre
Solution: Leica Geosystems' reality capture and imaging technology was used to capture 11,000 square metres of data and create a digital twin
Results: More transparency and efficiency for operations and maintenance and an improved customer experience
Dormeson SA, a subsidiary of Grupo Mulder, first began developing the Plaza Santa Catalina shopping centre — located in Lima, Peru — in 2018 with an investment of approximately €8 million. Consisting of 11,000 square metres and more than 9,000 square meters of leasable space distributed on three levels, Plaza Santa Catalina boasts a wide range of movie theatres, pharmacies, restaurants, stores and a sports centre.
Properly maintaining a building of this size is extremely complex. Dormeson understood that the facilities management industry is undergoing a digital transformation and wanted to invest in innovation that enables effective, timely decisions, increases transparency and reduces operating cost while delivering an excellent visitor experience.
To efficiently oversee the many different systems necessary to operate a large commercial centre, the facility manager needs reliable data to manage and track maintenance activities and resolve other incidents. To increase productivity, avoid costly and time-consuming complications and enable remote management, all data must be gathered in one system — including access to 3D data.
Moving from traditional paper forms to digital facility management systems was a priority for Dormeson. Renzo Salas, property manager at Dormeson, was looking for the most efficient and effective way to overcome these challenges.
“A 3D digital twin helps us to reduce the complexity of large buildings. The combination of a 3D digital twin and web-based facilities management software for portfolio management, location-based asset tracking and preventive and corrective maintenance management increases transparency and productivity and saves costs,” says Salas. “For the operation and maintenance of Plaza Santa Catalina, we need accurate digital records of the building in one system; that’s one of the biggest facility management challenges. We need to ensure that we have access to the data remotely from anywhere, which helps us to increase productivity with our daily tasks related to our tenants, facility and operations management.”
Intelligent data capture and processing
For the creation of the digital twin, Leica Geosystems' reality capture and imaging technology was used to capture 11,000 square metres in two days. Dormeson’s main requirement was to use fast and reliable technology that could scan the different areas of the building without interrupting the operation of the shopping centre. The scanned zones included surrounding areas (exterior), the parking area, water installation on the basement, the electric room, the rooftop, air conditioning machines area, stairs and all publicly accessible areas of Plaza Santa Catalina.
In order to accurately capture the required areas, the team used multiple solutions:
- 90% of the building was captured with the Leica RTC360 3D laser scanner
- Limited space areas, such as part of the control room, were captured with the Leica BLK360 imaging laser scanner
- Single distance measurements — used to verify existing conditions directly in the field — were taken with the Leica DISTO laser distance meter
- Images of critical assets, such as the air conditioning machine areas and plant room, were captured with the Leica BLK3D
“Intelligent building management is a priority for Dormerson’s real estate business,” says Salas. “We need smart data and insights for the management of large building structures and digital workflows that facilitate processes.”
Facility and asset management transformation
Geomap, a cloud and GIS-based integrated workplace management system (IWMS), supported the digitalisation of the shopping centre’s facilities and asset support services. Geomaps’ IWMS platform imported data from Leica Geosystems' scanners to enable visual 3D management via CAD support.
Geomap created checklists for the machineries and assets, allowing technicians to identify building maintenance activities that should be performed; it also helped building and facility managers keep track of operations and performance. Work order management, energy consumptions, budget management and building documents are now centralised in just one platform, making the management of the shopping centre much more efficient than in the past
Making the building smarter
“The digital twin brings new ways of thinking; it reduces the complexity of the building and helps me assess decisions for its operation remotely from the office.”
An accurate 3D digital twin — combined with IWMS — gives the facility manager complete remote control of the physical asset. An asset register has been created thanks to the use of the Geomap survey app on-site. The assets have been labelled with QR codes, and technical data for each asset such as brand, model, last maintenances, location, etc., are digitalised and available to the building managers.
All this turns into numerous advantages for the operation and management of the building, including:
- More transparency and efficiency for operations and maintenance
- Greater insight into the building’s performance, resulting in reduced asset and building-systems breakdowns
- Improved remote asset creation and management through accurate 3D data
- Enhanced space management thanks to digital reality data
- A better customer visit experience enabled by reliable and continuously monitored facilities
“The digital twin brings new ways of thinking; it reduces the complexity of the building and helps me assess decisions for its operation remotely from the office. Accurate 2D and 3D data allows me to understand better, resolve incidents and share this information with other internal and external stakeholders. This makes it easier to make the right decision for the management of Plaza Santa Catalina,” says Salas.
