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Industrial 2024 📍 Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

How LMW Eliminated Manual Floor Walks and Centralised 3 AHUs with EnSmart BMS in Coimbatore

Before EnSmart, every on/off command meant an operator physically walking to each floor's programmable room thermostat. After EnSmart, one operator in one BMS room sees live values, graphics, and full control — for all three AHUs — without leaving the chair.

Industrial · Coimbatore · 2024 · 3 AHUs · 1 EnSmart DDC Controller · Modbus Integration

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AHUs Integrated

EnSmart Controller

100%

Remote Control Achieved

Manual Floor Visits Needed

The Challenge

The problem: think of it like a night watchman with no walkie-talkie

Imagine a security guard who has to physically walk to each room on each floor just to switch on a light — there's no central panel, no intercom, no way to know if a room is too hot or too cold without standing in it. That's exactly what LMW's operators were doing with their Air Handling Units. Three AHUs across multiple floors, each controlled by a two-pipe programmable room thermostat. Every on/off decision meant a physical trip to that floor. Temperature couldn't be monitored remotely. There was no way to know if an AHU had faulted unless someone went and checked. The building was breathing without anyone properly listening.

The result:

Operators had to physically walk to each floor to switch AHUs on or off via the room thermostat — no remote control existed
No centralised view of temperature or AHU status across all three floors at once
Faults and anomalies went undetected until someone happened to visit that floor
No historical data or trend logging — every decision was based on a moment-in-time manual reading
Wasted manpower on routine walk-rounds instead of productive facility management tasks

Why This Project Stood Out

What made this project special — simple setup, big shift

One controller, three AHUs:

A single EnSmart DDC controller connected to all three AHUs via Modbus through a Softpoint gateway — clean, minimal hardware footprint.

Modbus as the common language:

Like a translator sitting between the AHUs and the BMS, Modbus allowed the existing channel partner module to feed real data to EnSmart without replacing any field equipment.

Live graphics on the BMS:

Operators can now see a graphical representation of each AHU — supply air temp, return air temp, on/off status — all on a single screen in real time.

Total remote command:

What once required a walk to a thermostat on each floor now happens with a click. AHUs can be started, stopped, and monitored entirely from the BMS operator room.

Who This Case Study Is For

If your team is still walking floors, this case study is for you

Relevant for teams managing

Industrial manufacturing plants with multi-floor HVAC
Commercial buildings with distributed AHU setups
Any facility using room thermostats for manual AHU control

Relevant Roles

Facility managers and building operators tired of manual rounds
MEP consultants specifying BMS for AHU integration projects
Plant heads and operations managers evaluating building automation

What You'll Learn Inside

What this case study teaches you

Inside the full case study, you'll see:

How to use a single EnSmart DDC controller to manage multiple AHUs over Modbus
How Softpoint channel partner modules integrate third-party data into EnSmart's ecosystem
How BMS graphics and live value monitoring replace manual floor inspections
What a realistic one-week deployment looks like for an AHU centralisation project
Why two-pipe room thermostats don't need to be replaced — they can coexist with BMS control

Business Impact

From reactive to in control — the business impact at LMW

Zero floor walks for AHU control:

Operators no longer travel to each floor to start or stop AHUs — 100% of commands issued from the BMS room.

Real-time visibility across all floors:

Live temperature values and AHU status for all three units visible simultaneously on one BMS graphics screen.

Faster fault response:

Issues surface immediately on the BMS dashboard — no more discovering faults on the next scheduled walk-round.

Leaner operations:

Manpower previously spent on manual checks is redirected to higher-value maintenance and monitoring tasks.

Deployment Timeline

How it came together — a focused one-week deployment

Year	Milestone
Day 1–2	Site survey, Modbus address mapping for 3 AHUs, EnSmart controller installation and RS-485 wiring through Softpoint channel partner module
Day 3–4	EnSmart BMS software configuration, point mapping, live data verification — all Modbus registers confirmed live on BMS
Day 5	AHU graphics pages built in BMS — supply air temp, return air temp, on/off status, and alarm display for each AHU
Day 6–7	Operator training, remote control testing, sign-off by LMW facility team — project handed over fully commissioned

Frequently Asked Questions

Did the existing room thermostats need to be replaced?

No. The two-pipe programmable room thermostats remained in place. EnSmart's BMS adds a supervisory layer — operators can now issue commands from the BMS room, while the thermostats still function locally as a backup.

How does one controller manage three separate AHUs?

Think of the EnSmart DDC controller as the brain of the building. The Softpoint channel partner module acts as an interpreter — it collects Modbus data from all three AHUs and sends it to the controller in one structured feed. The controller then passes everything to the BMS software.

How long did the whole project take?

The project was completed in approximately one week — from initial site survey to full operator handover — including wiring, software configuration, graphics, and training.

Can this setup scale if LMW adds more AHUs in the future?

Yes. The EnSmart architecture is designed to scale. Additional AHUs can be added to the same Modbus network and mapped into the existing BMS software without replacing the controller or the core infrastructure.

Download the Full Case Study

Get the Full LMW – Lakshmi Machine Works Case Study

See how EnSmart helped LMW – Lakshmi Machine Works deliver this project — full methodology, system architecture, and measurable outcomes inside the PDF.

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Ready to stop walking floors and start watching screens?

LMW's transformation took one week and one controller. If your facility is still relying on manual thermostat visits for AHU control, EnSmart's BMS can give your operators centralised visibility and command from day one. Talk to our team — we'll map out exactly what your integration would look like.

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