Rentokil Initial uses LAIIER's Severn WLD™ devices to ensure business continuity for its R&D facilities in the UK.
Rentokil Initial is a global leader in pest control, trusted as experts by more than half a million customers in over 90 countries worldwide.
Deeply innovative, the company invests in technology both to support operational excellence, and to provide customers with digital solutions that offer unrivaled data, insights and reporting to proactively prevent and manage pests.
Rentokil Initial’s pest control laboratories and culture rooms are at the heart of the company’s continued investment in R&D. The facilities required to grow and keep insects as assets demand precise environmental controls, with set temperature and humidity thresholds that necessitate the use of humidifiers.
With any number of time-sensitive experiments being conducted in the lab at any one time, it’s critical that it not only remains operational, but also that the environment remains stable. Business continuity is vital.
A few years ago a humidifier failure in one of the labs over a long weekend saw the team arrive at a disaster scene: standing water 10cm deep, damaged fixtures, and the integrity of experiments compromised due to exceeded humidity and temperature thresholds.
The impact was significant. Affected experiments had to be restarted. Repairs to the lab made it unavailable for weeks, and put additional pressure on available facilities. Project timelines were put under additional strain.
Had the team been able to detect the water leak from the humidifier as it happened, the impact of the leak would have been minimized.
“If we’d had LAIIER’s water detection system in place, we could have learned about the issue in minutes instead of days,” commented Greg Murray, Senior Entomologist at Rentokil Initial.
“While we have systems in place for emergencies, we only take action if we know there is a problem. We had a room out of action for weeks, which could have been avoided with LAIIER’s solution.”
With all the lab and culture room facilities located on one floor, installation was relatively quick and easy. The LAIIER Cloud gateway was set up in a central point, and the Severn WLD devices were installed in key locations throughout the facilities.
Once the LAIIER Cloud Gateway was installed and running in the entrance of the lab, all the devices were set up and installing the Severn WLD devices was a fast and simple process.
The small, flexible form of Severn WLD meant that they could be installed in a variety of locations in the lab, without taking up valuable working space. The Rentokil team chose to focus on leaks under sinks and humidifiers. Each device was stuck in place on the floor, where water droplets may be easily detected.
“I’m very happy with how quick and easy the installation process was,” said Greg. “The detectors take up almost no space in the lab, and allow us to continue work as normal - but with greater peace of mind.”
The Severn WLD devices were installed in June. Within a week, a water leak was detected: water pooling underneath one of the humidifiers. The alerts allowed Rentokil Initial’s facilities managers to quickly rectify the situation, avoiding impact on the experiments, and damage to the lab facilities.
To date, no additional leaks have been detected.
Rentokil Initial’s facilities team appreciate the peace of mind that LAIIER’s solution provides - continuous monitoring, without false positives. And should a small leak occur, they know they’ll be alerted as soon as it happens, giving them ample time to rectify the situation and minimize business impact.
“The Severn WLD devices really help to give us confidence in being able to progress our research. Given that we had an accurate alert soon after installation and have had no false alarms, we can be confident that our facilities will run smoothly, allowing us to focus on our development work,” commented Greg.
“The speed of the alerts we’ve had so far was very impressive, and gives me great confidence that we’ll be able to deal with any future water leaks well before they become a disaster.”