Industrial Transformation Blog

When we last visited with IBM in April 2019 at their first annual IoT Exchange event, we came away with renewed confidence that IBM was stepping up their game, freshly re-organized into a dedicated ISV-like unit, and investing heavily in Maximo, TRIRIGA, and the Engineering Lifecycle Suite to catch up to, if not outright out-innovate their competition.

AWS recently launched a new set of services called “AWS for Industrial” designed to make it easier for industrial customers to innovate, automate, and scale industrial workloads on AWS through purpose-built services, solutions, and the widest ecosystem of partners. AWS for Industrial features new and existing services and solutions built specifically for developers, engineers, and operators at industrial companies. AWS for Industrial claims to simplify the process for customers to build or deploy innovative Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), analytics, and edge solutions to achieve step-change improvements in operational efficiency, quality, and agility.

Every year, LNS Research puts forth predictions around the key trends in the Industrial Transformation (IX) topics where we focus our research. In the case of Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0), our 2020 forecast focused on Digital Twins, closing the APM 4.0 loop, the consolidation in the advanced analytics market, the battle for the OT Ecosystem, and the evolution of the OPA market.

Every year, LNS Research puts forth predictions around the key trends in the Industrial Transformation (IX) topics where we focus our research. In the case of Asset Performance Management (APM) 4.0, our 2020 forecast focused on Digital Twins, closing the APM 4.0 loop, the consolidation in the advanced analytics market, the battle for the OT Ecosystem, and the evolution of the OPA market. How did we do? Let’s do our self-evaluation to compare.

LNS has long focused on Operational Excellence (OE) as part of our Digital Transformation (DX) Framework, now Industrial Transformation (IX). In 2013 and 2014, we talked about Operational Excellence as a journey and stated that people, processes, and technology are the underpinnings of Operational Excellence initiatives.

It’s been a number of months since we blogged about the progress of APM 4.0. Since then, we have published our new eBook, APM 4.0 Shifts Into Second Gear, which details the trends and LNS Research insights into asset performance management. But it is a fair question to ask, what has been the effect of the COVID-19-induced recession and oil price war on APM? Has interest wained, investment slowed down, and adoption stalled? Or are things still moving full speed ahead? Who’s doing what, and why?

As I previously mentioned in a recent blog on IX Reference Architecture, LNS Research has been at the forefront of research on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the technologies’ impact on Industrial Transformation (IX).  In that blog, I also indicated LNS Research was the first to define an IIoT Platform. With market changes and technology advances, we have become convinced manufacturers should be looking beyond IIoT Platforms to a comprehensive view of IX Reference Architectures. A recent LNS Research Spotlight details our thinking. 

It’s been 10 months since GE Digital appointed new CEO Patrick Byrne. In our last blog, after their September 2019 User Group meeting, we said, “GE Digital has re-emerged with renewed focus led by fresh, engineering-grounded, no-nonsense leadership in Pat Byrne. We look forward to seeing if this new positive momentum is sustainable.” So what’s happened since then? Let’s take a look under the hood and see what Pat and his team have been doing. 

"THESE are the times that try men's souls." With all that's happening today in the world, from the coronavirus pandemic to the Saudi-Russian oil price war, to the continuing threat of cyber attacks, Thomas Paine's words seem appropriate. How should we, particularly those of us in industry, put this situation in perspective, and what should we be doing about it?

In my new ebook, “Asset Performance Management and Risk Management,” I argue the case for a more comprehensive approach to Asset Performance Management (APM) that goes beyond reliability. In particular, I stress that reliability is not just about maintaining mechanical and process integrity for the sake of plant performance, but is, in fact, integral to Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), Operational Excellence (OE), overall risk management extending to sustainable and responsible operations. LNS research into what makes companies Industrial Transformation (IX) leaders, those companies that we call IX Exemplars, reveals four key characteristics