By the very own nature of the different business lines of ACCIONA (Civil engineering, wind turbine installation, water processes, services), logistics is one of their key activities. However, there is still much to do in regards to warehouse management, transport, and delivery. For instance, how can we obtain information in real time and improve tracking? How can we manage, analyze, and stay ahead of the specific needs of the client and the business unit? How can we optimize costs, workers, and time-keeping? How can we be transparent with the client through the entire supply chain?

“Last-mile” is the final step in an order made online by the buyer. This final stage, which happens from the point in which the parcel leaves the last distribution point (warehouses, stores, or distribution points) until it reaches the delivery location, is the one that presents the most problems along the entire chain.

 

How can we augment productivity and profitability of shopping deliveries to homes by large commercial spaces, an area of activity of the company that needs of a larger market understanding and specific tools? How can we implement a software that optimizes routes and minimizes non-productive times, and improves product tracing?

The patterns of behavior of mobility are fluctuating due to socioeconomic and technological reasons. So much so that the big car companies are investing in smart mobility solutions, thus transforming their traditional business model to one closer to the vehicle-as-a-service model. Not only are they changing their patterns of behavior towards private vehicles, but there is a growing surge of new business models that point to other means of transportation (electric bikes, bicycles, electric skates…) focused on a more sustainable driving network. Although these business models are appearing in the main urban hubs, in no time they will make their way into medium-sized cities as well. The adoption and the specific needs of the urban layout of the cities, their geographical disposition, population density, and growth make an analysis necessary of both the behavior patterns of users as well as one for the specific needs of their own distribution.

 

At ACCIONA, we are seeking analysis tools that are able to manage large data sets and establish supply and demand in real-time. How can we develop a specific model of mobility for each city depending on the adopted solution? How can we capture, manage, and exploit that data? How can we manage demand peaks adjusting supply? How can we detect the areas where mobility shared mobility services will be needed? How can we predict the number of users in a city for a specific service?

The development of automated processes is making a big leap forward thanks to the rise in computational power, robotics resource libraries, batteries, and telecommunications. One of the biggest issues when trying to coordinate and favor the application of autonomous elements into industrial services and processes is the current state of wireless communications. This technology does not allow for the transferal of a high volume of information, or permit remote decision-making and process execution, leaving all computational processing aboard the machine. However, there is a surge of technologies which allow devices to communicate with a high bandwidth and without latency, controlled through wireless communications and exploiting the high processing power and data storage of the cloud.

At ACCIONA we are looking for startups that offer solutions to improve the efficiency of robots thanks to better communications and the application of decisions in the cloud. How can we improve M2M communication? How can we develop an improvement in the efficiency of man-2-machine communication? How can we control autonomous devices from a distance and augment the robot’s efficiency?

Corporate service management implies several actuation areas which include: staff, resource and asset management, in par with an evaluation methodology and service optimization. Thus, when talking about staff, resources must be adjusted in light of necessities and the quality standard the client requires; in the case of the assets, installed resources must be maximized and adjusted to the current facilities, i.e. the air conditioning team is the most appropriate one for the area assigned and such that they are able to make suitable management of the lifecycle of the assets. All of this also leads us to the professional recycling of the staff.

 

At ACCIONA Service we need solutions that allow us to better manage the available resources, adjust their traits and experience to the client’s needs and make a more efficient assignment of tasks.  How can we improve the culture of planning and organization at ACCIONA Service? How can we better adapt to the timings and the required resources in the face of the client’s specific needs? How can we reduce operational costs without compromising on service quality? How can we improve the control of the employees’ performance? How can we capture sufficient information in order to anticipate to the client’s demands/needs?

Air traffic is steadily increasing year after year, which calls for a need for improvement in the management of handling resources, which becomes one critical activity for the proper operation of the airport. The planning and scheduling of these resources must be adapted in real time to the needs of the different players involved in airport operations (airlines, passengers, etc.) to ensure the quality of the service. However, there is not an automated monitoring and tracking system for these resources (motor-driven or otherwise), which difficults their proper management and has a negative impact on their productivity.

ACCIONA is looking for startups that help us improve the management, planning and scheduling of our airport equipment fleets. How could we perform a real-time management of our fleet in order to immediately respond to service needs? How could we know the use time for each equipment to monitor the productivity? How could we see the real-time location of the equipment in different airport sectors? How could we design a smart management system to optimize the use and maintenance of our equipment?

ACCIONA student residences have suitable facilities for their users and staff, but they need to be modernised and better technologically equipped. The different areas for improvement are residents’ comfort, staff productivity, security, process automatisation and energy efficiency. The focus of all of this is the need to provide the student with a better user experience as regards the facilities of the residence where they live.

At ACCIONA, we’re looking for solutions that allow us to position our student residency service at the forefront of digitalisation and technological services both for their users and their parents, and for the staff involved in their management or maintenance. How could we streamline and improve incident resolution? How could we improve control and increase the security of the facilities? How could we develop a centralised management system for all of the residences that we are responsible for? What measures can be taken so that residences are more sustainable and energy-efficient?

Modern museums and exhibitions offer a static cultural experience. All of the visitors and users consume the same content and have very similar experiences without having their culture, education or age taken into account. In the case of interactive facilities, the content normally doesn’t adapt to the user, so each visitor isn’t guaranteed a unique experience. That all means that users only visit a cultural space once, and aren’t encouraged to return. Therefore, the space quickly becomes obsolete as an entertainment option.

At ACCIONA, we are looking for start-ups that can help us to design the museums of the future. How can we adapt content depending on the profile of different museum visitors? How can we attract new players to the cultural sector, to create new experiences and content that’s adapted to the target audience? How can we make visiting museums more attractive to new audiences using tools that they’re familiar with? How can we multiply the number of uses of the space itself? How can we offer new inclusive services that all groups feel they can identify with, and that interest them?

The management of e-commerce deliveries is a logistical challenge. With exponential growth in recent years, the need to deliver orders to customers quickly and at lower costs has to converge towards customers’ expectations and their demands to receive their orders as soon as possible. This means that the delivery from the suppliers to the last mile delivery is the most expensive and time consuming stage of the entire process.

The logistic solutions currently available are based on deliveries from customer warehouses or supplier platforms from which the delivery persons initiate their delivery route. However, the option of using mobile platforms as intermediate warehouses is an option that is attracting much interest in the market.

ACCIONA is looking for start-ups that will help improve the efficiency and management of last mile deliveries. How can we manage the efficiency of these mini-hubs? How can we increase the delivery person’s productivity? How can we make deliveries more sustainable? How can we decide which is the best solution for these fixed or mobile mini-hubs according to the urban fabric of each specific city?

ACCIONA currently manages a motosharing service in several Spanish cities. The electric motorcycles are equipped with 6 kWh extractable batteries and they have a life cycle of 4 years. After that period of time, they would still have enough capacity for stationary use. As they are easily extractable, this is an advantage when exploring their second life. ACCIONA, beyond thinking about possible recycling of the batteries after 4 years of use, wants to explore solutions that allow giving a second life to these batteries.

At ACCIONA, we are searching startups that provide us with solutions for exploring what can be the best product/service for the second life of these batteries. How could we validate their use in order to give them a second life? How could we integrate them into racks with greater capacity? What purposes and uses could we give them? How do we use them to develop energy services for industries or cities? How would we create recharging hubs distributed throughout the city? How could we integrate them into microgrids for residential or commercial use?