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Horiba Mira Case Study

BACKGROUND

Horiba Mira is a global provider of pioneering engineering, research and test services to the automotive, defence, aerospace and rail sectors. Working in close collaboration with vehicle manufacturers and suppliers around the world, they provide comprehensive support that includes individual product tests through to turnkey engineering design, development and build programmes.

They achieve this with a suite of 40 major test facilities, 100km of specialised proving ground and a wealth of engineering experience.

To ensure both security and confidentiality for their clients, Horiba Mira has a complex access control system to ensure secure use of the site facilities, which are often used by multiple clients at any one time.

PROJECT INITIATION

CDS have worked with Mira since 2007 after a competitive tender process.

The project initiated when Mira approached their access control manufacturers - ACS to help them identify a partner who could design and upgrade their existing access control systems with minimum disruption to business continuity.

Having worked with CDS previously, ACS had no hesitation in recommending CDS, based on several factors, including our expertise in the integration of existing and new systems and, most importantly, our ability to manage the process with minimum disruption to the business.

DELIVERY

The original project took 3 months and required the old system of 160 doors, 18 test tracks and several obsolete access control systems to be brought into one global system.

From a design perspective, the new systems needed to be capable of being configured in any number of combinations, due to the nature of the service Mira provides where it hires out work units and testing areas to competing manufacturers.

Delivering the project required CDS to utilise it's extensive change and project management expertise, as it was vital for client security to keep the old system working whilst the new version was integrated.

This involved working closely with Mira's Head of Security, their Network Infrastructure Team, Security Management Team and all Mira staff. This was necessary, as during the project delivery window, two security cards had to be used.

In addition to the design, implementation and project management, hardware selection was also of high importance, as all physical barriers had to be up to spec, to achieve system functionality.

PROJECT COMPLETION

Since the upgrade of the new system, CDS has proudly remained Mira's trusted partner.

In 2015 Mira was purchased by Horiba - a world-leading test system which has seen an escalation in the development work undertaken at the site by CDS.

The access control system now includes over 500 doors and 20 traffic barriers and has seen major site developments such as Mira's Technology Institute.