Antto Shemeikka, VP Digital Services, ABB Marine & Ports
Digitalization that enables optimization, streamlining, and automation is becoming increasingly important in innovating data-driven solutions and improving business results.
While access to data has always been important, the volume and penetration of data has increased exponentially in recent years. Data is now available on physical assets like vessels and factories, as well as within industry domains and regulatory frameworks. Horizontal integration in the information ecosystem empowers every role in the organization to achieve individual and collective objectives. Vertical integration across siloed business systems offers insight unimaginable only a few years ago.
A system of records that effectively leverages data, regardless of its source, is a key differentiator for organizations competing in a global economy, improving operations and optimizing costs, quality and productivity.
With improved access to steadily more data comes increased risk. Equally important to establishing a plan for acquiring and handling data is defining an in-depth cybersecurity strategy. Data privacy, trust and compliance are acknowledged as essential to any business transformation strategy.
Despite this, many companies lack a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, leaving their most valuable assets vulnerable to attack. Compounding the problem is the lack of clarity between IT and OT leaders responsible for cybersecurity.
While there are significant differences between business and operational systems, alert operations leaders can apply many IT lessons to their OT systems. A successful cybersecurity approach employs multiple layers of protection across the computers, networks, programs and data that they have been assigned with safekeeping. In an organization, the people, processes, and technology must all complement one another to create an effective defense from cyber attacks.
There are many ways to start leveriging data for business benefits:
- Optimize the collaboration between onshore technical teams and onboard technical staff by shared data.
- Introduce Operational Centers to facilitate more efficient use of advanced applications, including structuring the work environment to support data-driven decisions.
- In maritime operations, raise fleet status awareness through use of customized dashboards.
- Utilize the latest human factor research to increase operator efficiency through effective use of hardware and design of operation centers to facilitate 24/7 work environments.
Collaborative Operations connect people onboard the vessel, at headquarters, in the harbor, and at ABB operational support centers on shore by giving them the information to make businesses more transparent, agile and profitable.
In the marine service environment, digitalization through collaborative operations has been proven to reduce the need for engineers to perform onboard service by over 30%, in addition to reducing unnecessary service visits by more than 70%. Intelligent integration across engineering, infrastructure, devices, applications and services provides new insights from company data and empowers faster, and more astute decision making.
The true value of any infrastructure lies in the business benefits the data can generate. ABB has proven that collaborative operations and improved use of data analytics leads to reduced costs, optimized schedules and minimized risk through properly integrated digitalization.
Digital transformation through implementation of collaborative operations reaches across the entire organization and impacts all aspects of business. It requires cultural change management from beginning to end, and ranges from collaborative design and operations centers to management of industrial assets across the globe. Today, the digital transformation is not optional – it is an absolute prerequisite. Technological developments have now outpaced business processes, putting pressure on companies to constantly re-think their operations in order meet constantly evolving goals for to day-to-day performance.
ABB Collaborative Operations combines the platform, people, and cyber security measures necessary to bring ABB expertise directly to the customer, wherever they may be, providing powerful digital solutions that take advantage of today’s operation and information technologies to help them increase productivity, optimize operations and ensure security.
Summary
ABB Collaborative Operations connects ABB with facilities, vessels, fleet managers, operators, giving them the right information to make their businesses more profitable.
Intelligent integration across engineering, management, infrastructure, applications and services ensures new insights to empower faster, more astute decision making.
ABB can improve the use of data analytics to cut costs, optimize schedules, and minimize risk through properly integrated digitalization.
Sources:
1) ABB-MICROSOFT JOINT GUIDE Getting started with industrial digital transformation
2) ABB publications
