I’m no stranger to discussing loo experiences with my colleagues (we’re built different), but those have always only taken place in our private DMs.
Never did I foresee in my career or life that I would now be writing publicly about a related subject. This is all thanks to Sunway Pyramid’s recent unveiling of its new IoT system.
Not IoT as in the Internet of Things, but as in an Internet of Toilet system. I’ll give you a moment to digest that… and back to business.
Sunway Pyramid has partnered with Singapore-based amenities expert Rigel Technology to develop this all-new smart toilet system.
By optimising toilet performance and efficiency, the IoT system aims to hit 3 goals: the reduction of cost, downtime, and water consumption.
Nasty toilets no more
In Malaysia, we’ve somehow just accepted the fact that most public toilets will be nasty. Though the poor cleaners do their best round the clock, some of us just have terrible toilet behaviours.
That aside, there are also times when the toilet equipment simply breaks down (referred to as downtime), and a technician will have to be brought in to fix it.
But the detection of a toilet’s cleanliness or operational efficiency remains a manual task for supervisors, who will only realise these issues each time they visit.
Thus, technology can play a role in speeding up the detection and action process, making the jobs of cleaners and technicians better, and enhancing the visitor experience.
According to Shannen Soon, General Manager of Rigel Technology Malaysia, the IoT system in Sunway Pyramid will be able to reduce operating expenditure (OpEx) by up to 15%, and maintenance and cleaning costs by 5%.
In terms of water consumption, the system should be able to save about 15-20% on costs.
Getting into the technicalities of it, the toilets have water monitoring and leak detection sensors which are connected to Rigel’s secured IOT Data Server.
This enables registered users (the toilet management team) to access the system via a web-based dashboard and receive real-time smart reports on the toilet’s health status, individual device performance, when amenities refilling is required, toilet traffic, and more.
What this means for visitors to the porcelain thrones are a clean floor, constant flow of consumables like soap, paper towels, and working cubicles and taps. To add, there are ammonia sensors to detect foul smells for cleaning in a timely manner, so you don’t have to suffer holding your breath while doing your business.
Satisfying customers for better business
Currently, this IoT system is only applicable to the toilets in Sunway Pyramid’s Oasis Boulevard. Jason Chin, General Manager of Sunway Pyramid, told Vulcan Post that there are plans in the pipeline to introduce it to other areas in the mall too.
But they will first monitor the results of the first set which requires about 6-8 months of collecting data, not counting the 4-5 weeks needed to fully optimise each set of toilets with the IoT system.
If you’re curious about how much this smart toilet system costs, Jason was able to disclose that they spent about half a million Ringgit.
That being said, if all goes as planned, they should see a good return on investment (ROI) as with better customer experience comes greater satisfaction.
This, the team believes, will lead to visitors extending their length of stay in the mall, resulting in increased retail spending and future visits too.
The Internet of Toilet system is part of Sunway Pyramid’s move towards transforming different aspects of the mall digitally.
Prior to this, it had already introduced Sunway Smart Parking for ticketless and cashless adoption in its parking areas, as well as an integrated Customer Engagement Hub to address customer needs via various channels.
Will this IoT system have as much of an impact on my life as ticketless and cashless parking? Perhaps not, but I know I’ll always appreciate clean and working toilets, and it’d be interesting to see where Sunway takes this technology from here on out.
Also, kudos on the pun.
- Learn more about Sunway Malls’ sustainability efforts here.
- Read about our previous coverage of Sunway Group here.
Featured Image Credit: Sunway Pyramid
