Despite the increase of e-commerce, the large retail landscape of malls and shopping centres still plays a pivotal role for consumers in 2025. Whether you manage a miles-long centre like West Edmonton Mall or the Mall of America, or run a mid-tier retail centre, there is a lot of work involved in its operation.
Many retail operations companies are embracing facility management optimization to meet the challenges of maintaining, operating, and running a busy shopping centre. That’s where the experts at Planit Engineering come in. Keep reading below to learn how malls can benefit from mechanisms like LiDAR and Building Information Modelling, and how you can get started with our team.
The Challenges of Large-Scale Retail
Malls, strip malls, and major complexes are the backbone of the retail world, and they present unique challenges compared to other commercial sites. The mall boom of the 1980s resulted in many large-scale retail structures that, nowadays, require more maintenance as their infrastructure continues to age.
Managing this type of facility involves many responsibilities, including energy monitoring, security, general maintenance, waste management, and compliance with health and safety regulations.
Between the plethora of stores, kiosks, and—everyone’s favourite—food courts, large shopping centres comprise vast square footage and complex operation systems like HVAC and plumbing that make smooth operations difficult to achieve.
How Facility Management Optimization Makes a Difference
From Reactive to Proactive
The vast size of malls can make overseeing operations and maintenance very challenging. In the past, facility managers relied on analog methods such as in-person surveys, manual operations, and paper-based knowledge systems. These processes are generally time-consuming, costly, and can increase delays, safety risks, and inaccurate data collection.
With the advent of modern technologies like LiDAR, scan-to-BIM, and digital twins, facility management teams can acquire accurate, real-time information about their mall’s operations, how it functions, and detailed floor plans of its infrastructure.
Enhanced Energy Efficiency
Malls require a large amount of energy to operate effectively and conveniently for storefronts and customers alike. From powering escalators and elevators to even cooling and heating throughout the building, energy is a major resource and expense for large shopping centres.
Facility management optimization allows major shopping centres to implement building systems that track energy consumption in real-time. They can identify areas where they can save on the amount of energy your mall consumes on a regular basis.
Tools like Building Information Modelling and digital twins can be deployed to test different energy-saving strategies before being permanently implemented into the mall’s operations. Taking advantage of these effective tools will allow your mall to save big on operational costs.
Improved Security and Safety
Facility optimization tools like BIM and digital twins can help mitigate the risks associated with managing and maintaining a large retail space. These technologies can identify potential hazards in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems, reveal structural issues and needed repairs, and help you devise a more efficient maintenance strategy to ensure your mall remains a safe, high-foot-traffic environment.
Revitalize Your Retail Space with Planit
Are you looking to make improvements in the management and maintenance of your mall? Partner with our team at Planit for high-level facility management optimization.
Utilizing the tools in our Hyper-Intelligent Building Model™, we’ll help you identify areas of your building’s operation and functionality that need revitalization to keep you operational for years to come.
Contact us today to get started.
