Bentley > Case Studies > Digital Transformation of Sainsbury’s Asset Management with IoT

Digital Transformation of Sainsbury’s Asset Management with IoT

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Retail

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Asset Health Management (AHM)
Retail Store Automation

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Sainsbury’s is a UK-based retail giant, founded in 1869. It has grown to become one of the country's largest retailers, with a vast and complex estate comprising over 300 petrol stations, nearly 800 convenience stores, and over 600 supermarkets. The company has been undergoing a shift in focus from building new stores to making the best use of their existing estate. This shift is in line with the broader retail industry trend. Sainsbury’s has a significant amount of historical data about their assets, which was previously kept in different places and formats. The company needed a solution that would allow them to manage this data more efficiently and make better-informed decisions.

The Challenge

Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest retailers, faced a significant challenge in managing its vast and complex estate. The company had thousands of 2D drawings of over 300 petrol stations, nearly 800 convenience stores, and over 600 supermarkets. The goal was to enable Sainsbury’s to make the best use of these 2D assets to answer basic questions about their properties. Previously, this would have involved opening every drawing individually to find the necessary information. This process was not only time-consuming but also inefficient. Furthermore, with the brand’s growth and increasing development of existing stores, some store projects required up to twelve interventions a year, often involving costly surveys for each store. The retail industry's shift towards focusing on existing estates rather than building new ones added to the complexity. Sainsbury’s needed a 'single source of truth' to manage their historical data, which was kept in different places and formats.

The Solution

Sainsbury’s turned to GroupBC's BC platform to support their project. The platform seamlessly integrated with their existing specification and standards system (ICON Systems), ensuring information wasn’t duplicated but was accessible from one place. Sainsbury’s digitised their legacy 2D drawings to extract and validate the asset information before adding this data into the BC platform, known internally as One Property. The solution incorporated BC’s standard document management functionality, document naming conventions, and enabled Sainsbury’s to view their 2D drawings online. This made information easy to upload, approve, and find. As a new Sainsbury’s store was created or a new investment was allocated in Salesforce, One Property was able to synchronise that data. This ensured individuals had faith in the data, saved money on surveys, and saved time when searching for the correct version of a document. With the right structure and technologies in place, Sainsbury’s could build on their Digital Estate programme and ensure future integration with other systems easily and more efficiently.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the BC platform from GroupBC, known as One Property, has transformed Sainsbury’s asset management. It has enabled the company to unlock insights about their existing estate and plan for the future with confidence in the credibility of their information. The solution has integrated their current valued systems, allowing Sainsbury’s to make the best use of their existing information and data. It has also reduced the risk of errors by removing the need to manually duplicate information across systems. The system is future-proof, using the right structure and industry open standards from the start to ensure Sainsbury’s can expand their digital estate in the future, transfer or integrate other data and systems. The solution has empowered Sainsbury’s teams to make better-informed decisions, making progress quickly and economically.

Quantitative Benefit

Reduction in the risk of errors by removing the need to manually duplicate information across systems.
Efficient use of existing estate, incorporating new initiatives as the focus moves away from new stores.
Cost savings from reduced need for costly surveys for each store.