by Gary Mintchell | Sep 4, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, Operations Management
My last post detailed vulnerability problems resulting from connected assets (the basis of my renaming the blog Manufacturing Connection in 2013). This post contains news that show the impossibility of managing a modern manufacturing enterprise without connected assets.
MaintainX announced yesterday the beta launch of Asset Connect, a new cloud-based platform designed to streamline communication and enhance collaboration between machine builders or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their customers. Asset Connect allows OEMs to proactively monitor deployed customer equipment across facilities, boosting both post-sales revenue and customer satisfaction through real-time asset health analytics, efficient critical spare parts management, and seamless communication tools.
Too often expert machine builders sell or install a machine, only to lose insight into its performance until a customer calls with a problem. Asset Connect represents a transformative shift in how manufacturing relationships are managed by bridging the gap between OEMs and their customers. OEMs with Asset Connect can be granted direct access to real-time asset performance and parts inventory data from customers and assist their customers with lifecycle services with in-context communication.
This sounds like the old M2M movement of the early 2000s. The nomenclature changed to IIoT, but the initiative still failed because companies had too much proprietary data locked up in their machines and processes to allow 3rd parties to access.
It will be interesting to see how this initiative comes off. Is this a better time?
On Asset Connect, the OEM lifecycle department receives streamlined, mobile or desktop alerts on equipment performance issues or failure, low inventory, or customer queries. In return, the customer gains real-time access to expert support to improve uptime, productivity and preventive maintenance.
Benefits of Asset Connect include:
- Increased Equipment Uptime: Customers can take advantage of OEM expertise and continuous asset health monitoring to increase overall equipment uptime and availability.
- Improved Financial Outcomes: Empowering OEMs to be proactive can lead to increased win rates for aftermarket parts and services and overall revenue predictability. Customers also benefit as they see a reduction in unplanned downtime and emergency part ordering.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Providing OEMs a CMMS-integrated communication tool to meet customers where they are, facilitating swift issue resolution and contextual assistance.
- Seamless Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration: Fostering knowledge sharing and collaboration between OEMs and customers through a new form of standardized document sharing, enabling customers to “one-click” deploy the digital twin of an asset into their CMMS.
The Asset Connect beta program is FREE and currently open to OEMs that would like to explore the solution.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 7, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, Operations Management, Workforce
Tools for connecting workers with each other and with processes empower faster and better decision making crucial with reduced workforces. This partnership between Fluke Reliability and Augmentir pushes the meme forward.
- Augmentir’s connected worker solution helps to digitize frontline operations and increase worker productivity.
- This aligns with Fluke Reliability’s commitment to provide workers with enhanced decision-making capabilities across their enterprise asset management operations.
- Both vendors provide AI-powered technology that empowers workers on the plant floor with solutions to simplify their jobs and enhance overall efficiency.
Fluke Reliability has entered into a formal partnership agreement with Augmentir to integrate their connected worker platform with Fluke Reliability’s AI-powered enterprise asset management solution to increase productivity, enhance employee experiences and improve Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) for industrial customers.
Augmentir is a leading connected worker solution, providing a suite of AI-powered connected worker tools that help industrial companies deliver effective skills management, training and collaborative digital workflows, by digitizing and optimizing frontline work processes.
Fluke Reliability enables customers to adopt a connected approach to their reliability strategies, bringing together hardware, AI-powered software, services and their eMaint platform within one workflow. The solution helps customers shift from reactive to predictive maintenance strategies, assessing the health of their assets and utilizing their AI diagnostic engine, which means customers can predict faults up to six months in advance.
Augmentir has been added to Fluke Reliability’s Industry and Technology Partner Program, which is designed to enable customers to better integrate and automate connected reliability workflows for improved operations. This move underpins the commitment from both companies to help customers shift to more digital manufacturing operations; empowering them with decision-making capabilities that accelerate efficiency across global operations.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 11, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, Operations Management, Services
Fluke Reliability partners with Verusen to Drive Predictive Maintenance and Inventory Optimization
The new trend for 2024 involves spreading applications from the factory floor specifically to maintenance and repair and parts. Here is a partnership designed to enhance spare parts inventory plus predictive maintenance. It does make sense to bring those two together. I sold a program once a long time ago that would have been a first step along this journey.
- Verusen enables visibility into customers’ spare parts and inventory data across the enterprise
- This complements Fluke Reliability’s commitment to providing enhanced visibility into enterprise asset management operations
- The two companies provide customers with an expansive toolset to shift from reactive to predictive maintenance utilizing AI functionality
Fluke Reliability has entered into a formal partnership agreement with Verusen. The agreement combines Verusen’s AI-driven visibility of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) spare parts inventory and back-office functions with Fluke Reliability’s AI-powered enterprise asset management solutions to increase uptime, enhance maintenance and reliability operations efficiency, and drive customer productivity.
Verusen has been added to Fluke Reliability’s Industry and Technology partner program which is designed to enable customers to better integrate and automate connected reliability workflows for improved operations. This move underpins both companies’ commitment to helping customers shift to more proactive maintenance and reliability operations, maximizing uptime and accelerating efficiency worldwide.
by Gary Mintchell | May 13, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, Technology
Someone else is going to transform the industry. OK, I have worn many Augmented Reality glasses in demos at trade shows. They are cool, but it still looked like a solution searching for a problem. Meanwhile, the Apple Vision Pro supports both AR and Virtual Reality (VR). Everyone is talking about how cool the VR part is for immersive movies. No one has been talking about the AR capabilities.
Until, now.
Averroes.ai has introduced an what they call an “innovative approach to manufacturing that is set to transform the industry.” They are combining the ability to talk to machines sucking in data and visualizing it in real time using the Apple Vision Pro in AR mode.
- Averroes.ai uses machine learning and AI to detect, classify, and segment defects, and carry out predictive maintenance.
- Manufacturers can even spot defects along production lines without direct observation, all without the need to be seated in a back office.
- This integration facilitates instant access to production data and charts, empowering on-the-spot monitoring, defect analysis, statistical insights, and yield optimization, all with unparalleled ease and accuracy, right on the factory floor.
Averroes.ai’s innovative approach is rooted in being data agnostic, a concept that ensures seamless integration of various data types. Whether it’s images, tabular data, or time series, their system effortlessly accommodates them all.
Business reasons. According to recent reports, the global AI Industrial Vision Inspection Service market is valued at US$ 332 million in 2022. What’s more staggering is its projected growth trajectory. By 2029, this market is expected to skyrocket to a value of US$ 1156.2 million, boasting a compound annual growth rate of 19.7%.
Tareq, CEO of Averroes.ai, told me when I asked about walking through a manufacturing plant wearing one of these things, “The Apple Vision Pro uses augmented reality (AR) to enhance, not hinder, your interaction with the environment. Its AR display is designed to subtly complement your real-world view. Whether it’s showing data labels, instructions, or visual enhancements, everything is carefully designed to be unobtrusive, blending seamlessly into your surroundings.”
Second, when will it actually be available? “Averroes is an AI platform that now allows manufacturers to automatically generate visual inspection APIs from models, including anomaly detection, using a no-code approach. With minimal data and no need for extensive support, manufacturers can develop these models efficiently, utilizing the Apple Vision Pro as their imaging system. The platform is not open to the public and is available exclusively to enterprise clients with a subscription.”
Why? There are other, cheaper solutions. “There has always been a demand for inspecting products in environments where items vary and do not conform to a uniform production line. The Apple Vision Pro and Averroes platform are well-suited to address this need. The Apple Vision Pro offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional fixed-installation industrial cameras and delivers superior image quality and resolution, which is crucial for inspecting products in varying lighting conditions.”
“Although Averroes can also integrate with other, less expensive AR sets, the development kit that comes with the Apple Vision Pro is among the best available, making it an excellent choice for manufacturers tasked with inspecting diverse products in non-standard settings.”
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 1, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, News, Operations Management
Every time I participate in a survey the last page is an invitation to do my own survey. I think every industry marketing person has take them up on the offer. Limble CMMS has released State of Manufacturing and Facilities Maintenance Report, which reveals insights from manufacturing and facility maintenance professionals on the top challenges they face today and what their immediate focus is on. Some of these are no-brainers; but some are interesting.
Some key stats from the report include:
- To embrace a shift toward advanced technologies, 91% of manufacturing professionals said they are shoring up their data collection and analysis capabilities. Machine sensors and IoT technology are important tools for the consistent and accurate data collection needed to leverage advanced technologies.
- More than half (51%) of respondents chose excessive downtime, aging infrastructure or workforce issues (e.g. lack of skilled workers) as one of their top three current challenges
- In addressing downtime issues, 78% of respondents say they are supporting preventive maintenance initiatives
- In addressing workforce challenges, 55% of respondents say they are focusing on recruitment and retention, and 52% are looking to increase pay and benefits for workers.
- Proactive maintenance (72% of respondents) and investing in new equipment (69% of respondents) are the top two ways in which respondents are addressing the issue of aging infrastructure.
- 69% of manufacturing and facility maintenance professionals said they are focused on diversifying suppliers to address challenges within their supply chain.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 20, 2024 | Asset Performance Management, Generative AI, News, Operations Management, Software
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) popularized by ChatGPT is this year’s big buzz in industrial technology. Predictive maintenance seems to be one logical place where finding more powerful computation can be supportive.
Siemens has worked with Microsoft closely for decades. It has also recently acquired Senseye. Here is news about using GenerativeAI for enhancing a predictive maintenance solution.
In short:
- Enhancing proven machine learning capabilities with generative AI creates a robust, comprehensive predictive maintenance solution that leverages the strengths of both.
- Using a conversational user interface, manufacturers can take proactive actions easily, saving both time and resources.
- New generative AI functionality in Senseye Predictive Maintenance makes predictive maintenance conversational.
Siemens is releasing a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) functionality into its predictive maintenance solution – Senseye Predictive Maintenance. This advance makes predictive maintenance more conversational and intuitive. Through this new release of Senseye Predictive Maintenance with generative AI functionality, Siemens will make human-machine interactions and predictive maintenance faster and more efficient by enhancing proven machine learning capabilities with generative AI.
Senseye Predictive Maintenance uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically generate machine and maintenance worker behavior models to direct users’ attention and expertise to where it’s needed most. Building on this proven foundation, now a generative AI functionality is being introduced that will help customers bring existing knowledge from all of their machines and systems out and select the right course of action to help boost efficiency of maintenance workers.
Currently, machine and maintenance data are analyzed by machine learning algorithms, and the platform presents notifications to users within static, self-contained cases. With little configuration, the conversational user interface (UI) in Senseye Predictive Maintenance will bring a new level of flexibility and collaboration to the table. It facilitates a conversation between the user, AI, and maintenance experts: This interactive dialogue streamlines the decision-making process, making it more efficient and effective.
In the app, generative AI can scan and group cases, even in multiple languages, and seek similar past cases and their solutions to provide context for current issues. It’s also capable of processing data from different maintenance software. For added security, all information is processed within a private cloud environment, safeguarded against external access. Additionally, this data will not be used to train any external generative AI. Data doesn’t need to be high-quality for the generative AI to turn it into actionable insights: With little to configure, it also factors in concise maintenance protocols and notes on previous cases to help increase internal customer knowledge. By better contextualizing information at hand, the app is able to derive a prescriptive maintenance strategy.
The new generative AI functionality in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution Senseye Predictive Maintenance will be available starting this spring for all Senseye users. The combination of generative AI and machine learning creates a robust, comprehensive predictive maintenance solution that leverages the strengths of both.
