Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a cornerstone of the future of industrial operations. International Data Corp predicts that 20% of industrial operations in Asia will use AI or machine learning by 2026 to achieve higher efficiencies, reduce downtime and improve worker safety.
The lack of data accessibility, visibility and integration, however, hinders industrial companies from reaping the full benefits of AI. “Industrial organisations are generating a lot of data from various sensors on their equipment (such as temperature, vibration and pressure), but those data exist in silos or are not visible. It is critical to surface those data with context in one platform [for AI to deliver the correct actionable insights at the right time],” Shashank Luthra, vice-president for Southeast Asia at Aveva, tells DigitalEdge at the recent Aveva World 2024 in Paris.
Industrial organisations should, therefore, leverage an open platform that aggregates, stores, enriches, accesses and analyses real-time operations data. “Having the ability to pull various operational data into such a platform, like Aveva’s Connect platform, empowers organisations to start doing higher-order things effectively, such as leveraging AI for predictive maintenance, scenario planning, optimising their asset strategy and more,” says Luthra.
Intelligent digital twins
Combining an open data platform, AI and operational data enables organisations to build dynamic digital twins, which are virtual representations of physical objects and systems that evolve in real time.
Luthra states: “No industrial plant or facility is static. By linking engineering data with operational data — even granular ones like information from specific equipment — organisations can see contextual connections between those information and ensure the digital twins are up-to-date.” This enables them to gain insights into improvement opportunities such as minimising waste, reducing energy consumption and improving production efficiency, as well as preventing unplanned downtime.
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One company that has benefitted from a dynamic digital twin is Yinson Production, a Malaysia-headquartered Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) contractor. It developed an FPSO solution requiring minimal human involvement by combining its expertise and extensive data sets with Aveva’s software to create digital twins.
A digital twin of each FPSO vessel is used to capture engineering and operational data through the complete asset lifecycle. AI, analytics and machine learning from Aveva’s solutions are also used to enrich the digital twins to enhance the company’s operational strategy and optimise efficiency.
New innovations to further collaborations
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“Radical collaboration is essential to addressing global challenges and enabling transformation at scale. And technology is the glue for all possibilities,” says Aveva’s CEO Caspar Herzberg at the same event.
With that belief, Aveva has enhanced solutions on its Connect platform to empower industrial organisations to build connected information ecosystems that can help accelerate efficiency, agility and sustainability.
Rob McGreevy, Aveva’s chief product officer, unveils the company's latest innovations at Aveva World 2024 in Paris. Photo: Aveva
Aveva Unified Engineering now brings together global, multi-discipline, multi-organisation teams and allows them to work from the same up-to-date project data in a common environment. Whether working in 1D, 2D or 3D, Aveva Unified Engineering takes teams from working in siloed applications with document-based workflows to an agile, intelligent, collaborative digital environment. It further helps businesses deliver optimised plant designs by enabling collaborative, transparent data-centric decision-making processes, ultimately enabling companies to deliver projects on time and within budget.
“Aveva Unified Engineering brings together multidisciplinary design tools in a single, quick-to-deploy platform. Teams can now move from sequential workflows to real-time collaboration and community data sharing via Connect, reducing discrepancies and accelerating innovation,” says Rob McGreevy, Aveva’s chief product officer.
He also highlighted that the Aveva Operations Control is now paired with the Connect platform. Organisations can, therefore, leverage the Industrial AI assistant (a purpose-built generative AI tool for industrial use on Connect) to query process data and data from manufacturing execution systems (which monitor and control the manufacturing process) and gain new insights.
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They can also take advantage of pre-defined and self-service editable dashboards and animations and holistically visualise complex interactions. Combining AI and visualisation empowers organisations to investigate issues, solve problems, and gain actionable insights for optimising production throughput, quality, and sustainability metrics.
Besides that, Aveva has updated its PI Data Infrastructure offering. New write-back capabilities from Connect to Aveva PI Server enable real-time collaboration between operations experts and other stakeholders such as analysts and data scientists. This allows operators to incorporate advanced analytics within trusted tools and existing workflows. In addition, new performance enhancements will increase users’ ability to move, manage, and manipulate data to meet business demands.
“The latest Aveva PI Data Infrastructure enhancements let industrial organisations leverage real-time operations data in a wider array of use cases and support data users in more functions, both inside and outside the enterprise. Our hybrid solution also enables industrial companies to see new levels of agility, scale and return from their expanded data infrastructure. We’re delighted to see the additional benefits our customers will achieve in the year ahead,” says McGreevy.
