Working with a leading retail park developer, we were briefed on the strategy and objectives of the project. The main criteria were to make every part of the shopping experience a pleasure.

There were to be many lifts and escalators at strategic locations around the mall. Escalators are very functional and it was challenging to create something new for the shoppers. For the lifts imaginary and innovative ideas became easier.

Using focus groups of shoppers, in segmented sessions - men then women, then mixed, plus age mix, we facilitated how the shoppers ride experience could be enhanced. The project developers were keen to add value wherever possible, whilst focussing on reducing cost where there was no perceived value to the shoppers.

For the escalators we developed complementary colour themes for each area of the mall, helping shoppers identify sub consciously where they were located. Adding skirt panel lighting helped improve safety, plus the use of simple barriers to guide shoppers around the transition points, both reduced safety hazards, but also improved traffic flow.

The main passenger lifts were only to travel two floors, and hence would either go up or down. But eliminating the car buttons, which saved cost, we were able to move the money saved into improvement in car decoration. Very clear informative communication screens and speakers were incorporated into the lift cars, which gave continuous information to the shoppers. The car and landing doors had see through panels which reduced that claustrophobic feeling, and enhanced the ride experience.

The back of house freight lifts was very functional and we eliminated cost items that were unnecessary for the mall's use, but had been incorporated over time by the various lift suppliers as standard. In other words their standards just grew without regard for pure functionality. Care had to be taken in entry sizes to match with the intended fork lift truck sizes and pallets. This was not an easy task, bearing in mind the various different shop owners and their existing requirements. Again a focus group of retailers was formed to ensure all requirements were catered for.

Finally, managing the asset after completion was carefully thought through. Simply accepting the original equipment manufacturers standard service agreement would not fit the requirements of a 7 days a week fully operational shopping mall. By interviewing various stakeholders for the daily operational side of the mall we were able to establish a series of operational targets we wanted to maintain over the long term, These targets were documented into the contract as means for assessing service performance. From a basic engineering point of view we also stipulated that the OEM's recommended service routines and frequencies were detailed in the contract as a further means of measuring maintenance performance.