Industry 4.0 - Mind the data!

As technologies and innovation pave the way for the future, core engineering industries must transform their critical asset management systems to achieve enhanced asset efficiency – starting with the largest single controllable expenditure: asset maintenance... In fact, up to 90% of maintenance costs could be saved with efficient maintenance strategies.

Clearly asset efficiency is a massive challenge – but one which has seen renewed focus in seeking to achieve sustainable gains in performance and profit. With this increased focus, plant and machinery are expected to perform at unprecedented levels. These elevated expectations have increased the speed and pressure to implement innovative approaches to manage their assets.

However there is good news on the horizon: the big digital transformation is creating tremendous opportunities with the fusion of the physical and the virtual into cyber-physical systems, in the entire value chain. Industries are rapidly adopting smarter assets, increasing automation and adopting advanced technologies like smart sensors and robotics.

With the rapid adoption of smart assets comes smart data – a lot of it.

Every activity in the asset intensive enterprise generates data, as assets are constantly subjected to changing levels of functionality across their life-cycle. The real opportunity and the next generation of asset efficiency will therefore come in harvesting the power of big data from these smart assets.

Industries that can master the emerging discipline of asset information management, will differentiate themselves from their competitors and achieve long-term success.