The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

114 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om T here is no doubt that this year has been a catalyst for major change. In fact, Microsoft has revealed that 2020 has seen a decade’s worth of digital transformation com- pressed into just a few weeks. Like many others, the industrial sector has been in a state of flux because the demand and supply chain changes prompted by the pandemic have caused considerable global uncertainty. These challenges have been tackled head on by the industry in multiple ways, with organisations accelerating their planned initia- tives to overcome problems posed by the pan- demic, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction. Without informed and detailed insights into their operations, organisations would be taking multiple stabs in the dark to get their operations back on track, especially in this turbulent macroeconomic environment. The resilience, agility and guidance they need ulti- mately comes from adopting market-proven approaches that embrace digital transformation strategies, which encompass emerging tech- nologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Not only do these technolo- gies deliver improved efficiency, but they also enhance performance and productivity. Now that market demands and expectations are constantly evolving, data insights are being used much more frequently than in the past. Asset reliability is also becoming even more crit- ical for asset-intensive businesses as unplanned shutdowns have a significant negative impact on the value chains. Digital transformation ini- tiatives are enabling businesses to address this risk by helping them to harness data to build and deploy an advanced asset performance management (APM) solution so they can mon- itor critical assets and predict failure to prevent unplanned shutdowns. The APM solution inte- grates data about online and offline equipment to help organisations visualise plant perfor- mance, enhance workforce efficiency and apply AI for predictive maintenance and resolution. Software that is infused with AI and available in the cloud is designed to both ramp up the pace of digitalisation and empower the work- force through valuable insights and visibility into the performance of the organisational assets. This, in turn, offers greater agility for organisations while significantly reducing operational costs. AI, coupled with other technologies like vir- tual reality and virtualisation, has not only given industrial organisations access to a whole new world of information, but has also led to the advent of the digital twin – a virtual replica of machinery and factories, all powered by data. This means that management, maintenance and control of machinery can be done digitally, giv- ing the workforce visibility into the status and Building resilience and agility The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for companies in the industrial sector to implement digital technologies and harness the power of data to ensure they remain operational C RA I G HAYMAN : AV E VA V I EWPO I NT “The need for industrial organisations to have greater ownership over their own data is critical”