by Gary Mintchell | Jul 8, 2025 | Asset Performance Management, Process Control
Process automation companies like sending press releases when they get a new project. This news in interesting on two fronts. One, it details the use of drones and robots for monitoring and maintenance. Two, this details Yokogawa and Shell working together on the project.
Yokogawa Electric Corp. announced that it has formalized a long-term agreement with Shell Global Solutions International B.V. (“Shell”) to integrate and further develop technologies for utilizing robots and drones in plant monitoring and maintenance. Under the agreement, Yokogawa will add an advanced machine vision tool called Operator Round by Exception (ORE), developed by Shell, into its own OpreX Robot Management Core. The enhanced software service will be made available by Yokogawa to customers in the energy, chemicals, and other industries.
ORE is a digital solution that uses machine vision and AI analytics to enable robots to autonomously perform a number of tasks in the operator round process, such as reading gauges and checking for leaks and machinery issues. It is the result of a two-year collaborative effort within Shell, which combined machine vision strategy with deep capabilities in the field of integrity management, remote site inspection, and corrosion management.
OpreX Robot Management Core is a key product in Yokogawa’s robot solutions. The software helps customers maintain their facilities in a safer and more efficient manner by integrating the management of various types of robots that perform plant maintenance tasks conventionally carried out by humans. When connected to a plant’s control and safety systems, the data acquired can be used to issue instructions to robots, thus enabling the first step to be taken toward autonomous plant operations. The addition of Shell’s ORE technology will significantly increase the number of use cases available to customers through OpreX Robot Management Core.
Moving forward, Yokogawa robotics operations will deploy at two Shell facilities as a pilot into how robotics and drones can deliver value through efficiencies in plant monitoring and maintenance.
This collaboration is the first key milestone for Yokogawa working alongside Shell in the collaboration space at the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam, which was created by Shell in 2022 to provide a platform for collaboration between companies, societal organizations, governments, and universities to work on tomorrow’s energy solutions. Shell and Yokogawa have also agreed to collaborate on an aligned R&D roadmap to further develop and enhance the machine vision technology, ensuring continuous innovation and improvement. This collaboration underscores both companies’ commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions to the energy and industrial sectors.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 24, 2025 | Asset Performance Management, Data Management, Process Control, Workforce
I have had a busy month. Good think I didn’t take four days to travel to Orlando. I’m wrapping up my last interview from there today. There are a few more pending if the media relations person can find a way to coordinate calendars.
This interview is with Kim Fenrich, ABB Global Product Marketing Manager, Process Automation, PC. He brought up the term “Digital Habitat”—something not found on the ABB website, but still an interesting concept.
The problem statement recognizes new people entering the industrial workforce. Many of these will not have much background in process operations. Meanwhile our digital technologies contain immense amounts of data that could be used to guide operators toward better decisions.
Fenrich brought a concept called Digital Habitat. This is the area alongside the core process control. This core contains monitoring and optimization. It houses process data. The data then gathers at the edge. In the ABB architecture, data at the edge becomes freely available to other applications, such as asset management and optimization.
Not all data is created equally. Some are “dirty” data that must be cleaned before using. Some is good data from trusted sources with solid metadata. These many applications ride atop the system to run analytics, support decision-making, optimize operations. Sometimes operators are new lacking operations experience and knowledge. Data science to the rescue to clean up and provide interfaces to support these new workers. Sometimes the data science supports engineers working in maintenance and reliability performing predictive analytics or enhancing asset management.
ABB had a suite of applications called the Augmented Operator. The system does pattern mining. Perhaps the operator sees something new. They can ask the system, “Have you seen this before? If so, what happened and how was it resolved?” This greatly helps the younger generation operator.
Should the situation be new to the system, then it can run simulations to predict outcomes and resolutions.
In short, the system:
- Freeing up operators time for more meaningful work such as using data and advanced analytics to optimise processes for energy efficiency and carbon emission savings.
- Enabling early warning of potential failure with AI-powered systems that can use real and historic data to offer troubleshooting solutions, much like a virtual assistant.
- Workflow simulation to check outcomes and for training and augmented reality (AR) headsets to access experts working offsite.
This is from the ABB web site. The next step to achieve this reality is to fuse together the Distributed Control Systems’, operations technology and real-time control system with the Edge and newer IT technology, such as machine learning and AI. As well as incorporating historical data and the mining of other data sources for pattern recognition and knowledge extraction. This will shift the automation system beyond only real time control to one that allows the operator to augment operations from day-to-day. It will be a journey, but humans working with technological systems to augment their cognitive capabilities can amplify their potential and provide huge value to both the workforce and the industry at large – as well as attract new generations to the sector.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 6, 2025 | Asset Performance Management, Generative AI
AI contributes at least 50% of the content of news in my area of interest. No surprise that Yokogawa has harnessed some AI expertise for its Asset Performance Management.
Yokogawa Electric and UptimeAI announced a strategic agreement aimed at enhancing asset performance management in industrial plants. The agreement is underscored by a capital investment in UptimeAI by Yokogawa.
Under the agreement, the companies will integrate UptimeAI’s AI-powered platform into Yokogawa’s OpreX Asset Health Insights service. The combined solution will provide customers in the oil and gas, chemicals, cement, power, and renewable energy industries with a seamless and powerful approach to optimize plant operations, reliability, and maintenance.
Specifically, the bundled offering will merge the capabilities of OpreX Asset Health Insights as an OT/IT data enablement engine with UptimeAI’s flagship modules, “AI Expert: Generative AI” and “AI Expert: Reliability & Process,” bringing advanced LLM-based AI agents, subject matter knowledge, self-learning workflows, maintenance analysis, and industrial asset library models into a comprehensive AI assistant for plant operators. This solution will enable users to achieve a significant positive return on investment in a short period of time by reducing maintenance and operational costs with predictive insights, root cause analysis, and recommendations driven by automated learning processes.
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.
