GE Intelligent Platforms’ 2014 User Summit Focuses on Eliminating Unplanned Downtime

Summary
ARC Advisory Group recently attended GE Intelligent Platform's 2014 User Summit in Orlando, FL. The theme, "Making the Industrial Internet Real," emphasized eliminating unplanned downtime, a theme that threaded across the GE and customer presentations alike.

Customer attendance far exceeded forecast, driven in part by the earlier announcement that GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, would be the keynote speaker, and in part by the questions that many GE Intelligent Platforms customers had about "Predix," the software enabler for the Industrial Internet developed by GE's software Center of Excellence in San Ramon, CA. These customers, most having major investments in GE Intelligent Platforms Proficy Software Suite, were questioning Predix's function relative to Proficy, and how Predix affects the performance and future of Proficy.

GE CEO Sends Clear Message

Jeff Immelt led off the User Summit with a keynote addressing how the Industrial Internet is transforming business by connecting more intelligent machines, advanced analytics, and people. He focused on how data and analytics, enabled by the Industrial Internet, are transforming global business performance through improved asset and operational optimization. According to Mr. Immelt, the most important objective of GE's initiative is to eliminate all unplanned downtime. He stated that by improving industrial operating efficiency (including energy efficiency) by even 1 percent, companies can add millions, or even billions of dollars to their bottom lines.

GE is practicing what it preaches in its own manufacturing operations. Thanks to its own Industrial Internet initiative, GE is seeing these bottom line results. Immelt also discussed Predix and the GE Software group in San Ramon, CA, which now has 1,200 employees and represents one billion dollars in GE investment.

Predix and Proficy

According to the company, Predix is a software foundation and enabler for developing other software platforms, such as GE Intelligent Platforms' Proficy Software Suite. Predix is designed to enable these software platforms to connect various industrial assets from multiple suppliers to the Internet of Things (IoT), the Cloud, and to each other. It focuses on asset performance management (APM) and operations optimization, to help businesses run smarter and more profitably. End user organizations, OEMs, and developers can use Predix as a foundation on which to build applications for multiple industries or sectors.

The company designed Predix to be an "operating system, accelerator, glue, or common denominator" that provides the built-in foundation and enabler for any software platform offered by any GE business (such as GE Intelligent Platform's Proficy), as well as any non-GE business that chooses to adopt it as its foundation.

Being "Powered by Predix" adds functionality for connecting to assets, IoT, and the Cloud. However, the Proficy Suite components (HMI, analytics, production management software, etc.) would still provide the designated application functionality and still be developed, sold, and supported by GE Intelligent Platforms.

New Proficy Monitoring & Analysis Suite

GE Intelligent Platforms also used the summit to introduce a new Predix-enabled version of the Proficy Monitoring & Analysis Suite (PMAS).

End-to-End Solution

PMAS integrates Proficy Historian to collect, organize, store, visualize, and analyze data; Proficy SmartSignal with its advanced analytics software to help improve asset health and process performance by providing earlier detection of emerging equipment failure; and Proficy CSense with its process analytics software to provide detailed insight on process performance. Since these applications are pre-integrated, users can reduce implementation costs and time-to-benefit.

PMAS as a Service

GE's Industrial Performance & Reliability Center (IPRC) provides monitoring services to customers that have constrained resources; but need to avoid catastrophic equipment failure, process upsets, unplanned outages, and unplanned downtime. The IPRC uses PMAS software along with on-premises subject matter expertise to provide predictive diagnostic advisories on emerging equipment and process problems. The IPRC currently monitors over 5,500 critical assets installed in power generation, oil & gas, mining, and aviation facilities around the world.

PMAS integrates the cases generated by the IPRC with onsite data in Proficy Knowledge Center (PKC). PKC provides asset-centric views for a fleet of assets. It connects the predictive analytic cases with onsite tools that allow users to build standard diagnostic procedures to institutionalize the processes around diagnostics for industrial equipment failures. According to GE, this standardization helps reduce time-to-diagnose, ensure consistency in execution, and provide a mechanism to enable users to more easily capture diagnostic knowledge.

The Path to Zero Unplanned Downtime

Supporting GE's goal to help industrial organizations eliminate all unplanned downtime, Jeff Slagle, GM of Propulsion Engineering for Delta Airlines, followed Jeff Immelt's keynote with his own keynote presentation on the company's use of Proficy SmartSignal and other tools to monitor the health of the company's fleet of 1,500 aircraft engines encompassing nine different models from four different manufacturers. Delta uses the SmartSignal-derived data to monitor engine health, do proactive repairs and planning, and provide alerts and planning information to Delta personnel around the world. Results include fuel savings, planning proactive maintenance, and catching potential safety issues before they can become a problem.

Analytics and Role-Based Geo Connectivity

Data connectivity is important, but users need to be able to transform the raw data into actionable information for management-level decision support via analytics. Adrian Merrill, VP Operations of TempuTech, presented on this topic. TempuTech provides cables, sensors, and software to monitor grain temperatures. Mr. Merrill discussed the solutions the company implemented for grain management and hazard monitoring. They were designed to prevent downtime, improve safety and compliance, and monitor product quality.

In the past, TempuTech employed once-per-day manual reporting that lacked timeliness; reactive ("break/fix") maintenance practices; and solutions that were difficult to develop and maintain, non-user-friendly, and lacked mobility functions. To resolve these issues, TempuTech deployed Equipment Insight from GE Predictivity to collect machine data, perform analytics to be able to predict downtime, and establish role-based geo intelligence connectivity to get the right info to the right person wherever he or she is located. The system monitors bucket elevators, feeder conveyors, bearing sensors, rub block sensors, proximity sensors, motor sensors, shut down circuits, and alarm stations. According to Merrill, results to date include integration of disparate applications into a single real-time platform, real-time proactive alarming, in-depth alarming data, automatic back-up and redundancy features, mobile capabilities, and customizable reports.

Production Management with ISA-95

Stefan Malmsten from AkzoNobel, a global specialty chemical manufacturer, presented the company's global MES template program. This provides harmonized manufacturing models, contextualized data, and integrated workflows across the company's business processes. According to Mr. Malmsten, this program has enabled AkzoNobel to achieve data-driven continuous improvement, reduced product development times, and lower lifecycle costs.

The company uses the ISA-95 model to provide structure, and GE Intelligent Platforms Proficy Software Suite for production planning and confirmation; goods receipt; inventory management; goods issues; and for production, execution and quality management for production, maintenance, quality, and inventory.

Smart Infrastructure and M2M Connectivity

In his presentation, Biju George, Deputy Director of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works, provided a real-world example of the Industrial Internet at work in a municipal context. According to Mr. George, the cities of the future face significant challenges. He cited some telling statistics:

• By 2050, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities
• One million people move to cities every day
• One billion people live in city slums
• There are 21 megacities (over 10 million people) today, and
• China alone will have 81 new major cities by 2025

The Greater Cincinnati Water Works is focusing on building smart infrastructure via machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity; leveraging improved sensor technologies; low-power devices; improved communications; better asset management; smart metering; and enhanced water quality, safety, and security. The Water Works also plans to enhance storm drain and water systems. The Water Works uses GE Intelligent Platforms Proficy Software Suite for cloud computing, performing data collection, incorporating rainfall data and Doppler images into control decisions, and doing predictive analysis to provide a holistic asset optimization/prognostic heath management model. The organization will use this information to apply real time process control to the drinking water system.

Conclusion

GE Intelligent Platform's 2014 User Summit's focus on eliminating unplanned downtime was both timely and well received by attendees. GE CEO Jeff Immelt was a major draw for the event and an excellent spokesperson for the topic, the issues at hand, and for conveying GE's vision and role in addressing these challenges.

The company appeared to do a good job of addressing questions and concerns regarding Predix as it relates to its other current and future software platforms. GE Intelligent Platforms Proficy Software Suite customers appeared pleased to learn that the Predix platform will complement, rather than replace their current application solutions.

Challenges for GE Intelligent Platforms include convincing non-customers that they can and should consider connecting their non-GE assets via Predix and also to convince other automation suppliers that it could be in their own and their customers best interests to adopt the Predix foundation to enhance the connectivity and intelligence of their products through the Industrial Internet and other advanced capabilities.

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Keywords: IoT, Cloud, Downtime, Asset, Management, Analyze, Optimize, Predict.