Lift management

With the falling prices and increasing sophistication of small computer systems the use of computers in the management of large numbers of lifts has become a practical reality. This article deals with possible changes within existing lift management situations. The planning of new installations will be covered in a future article bringing us another step closer to the intelligent building. The operation of lifts within one or more buildings can be thought of as a hierarchy of functions. At the bottom of the hierarchy, the most basic function is to move a single lift from floor to floor responding to calls registered by passengers. At the next level, that of Group Control, passenger calls on different landing levels are assigned amongst the individual lifts in a group of lifts according to pre‐programmed rules (known as an Algorithm). Lift management is the long term process by which the operation of all the lifts in several groups is optimised and then maintained at a peak of performance. Lift management is thus the top level of the hierarchy and allows the operation of the lifts to be continually ‘tailored’ to the building in which they are located. Without lift management the occupants of the building must ‘tailor’ their requirements to the service provided by the lifts.