by Brianna Crandall — January 3, 2018 — Alchemy IoT, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered applications for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), recently introduced “IoT Asset Intelligence,” a new industry approach that addresses the complexity and market fragmentation associated with Big Data, IoT and AI. It outlines today’s disruptive megatrends, and Alchemy’s industry insights and vision, before outlining practical steps organizations can use to align company goals, resources and teams toward value streams centered on industrial equipment, fleets and operational performance.
Victor Perez, CEO of Alchemy, stated:
IoT Asset Intelligence combines our best thinking into an actionable framework to plan, implement and gain value from AI-based IoT initiatives — especially for smaller organizations that may lack the resources for expensive consultants and data scientists. We are committed to the customer journey as much as the technology that is transforming the way industrial companies operate and win in the market.
Recent studies by the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimate that by the year 2020 there will be 30 billion connected devices globally. With connected devices outputting sensor data 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the sheer scale of data production is staggering, notes Alchemy. The IoT Asset Intelligence framework provides practical steps for improving operational efficiencies, empowering better decision making, promoting collaboration and innovation, and delivering more value to the organization.
The central theme of the IoT Asset Intelligence framework is visibility and efficiency through a blend of data-driven processes and a renewed culture around innovation and critical thinking. Like Lean and other operational improvement methods, IoT Asset Intelligence requires executive support and leadership to achieve sustainable success — as change and breaking with entrenched norms is as much a cultural “transformation” exercise as it is a process and technology play.
The following are the IoT Asset Intelligence Core Tenets:
- Appoint an IoT Champion: This person will be the single-point-of-contact for the initiative and to help shift company culture.
- Establish top-line goals and ROI opportunities: Establish goals early in the process to have a clear path to success.
- Conduct asset and process assessments: identify new data points to gain a strong understanding of what existing assets and processes exist in the organization to better optimize them.
- Identify processes for improvement and align new value streams: These processes are the best candidates for improvement.
- Apply AI and machine learning for data analytics and automated workflows: Not all data is good data — leverage AI to filter out irrelevant data to make data streams more powerful.
- Present performance data in graphs for contextual 360-degree views: Teams need to access performance data in a clear, visual representation that will allow them not only to see progress, but identify areas for improvement.
- Integrate with existing ERP, EAM, MRO and MRP platforms: Work with existing tools to optimize and enhance current processes, not just create new ones.
- Provide graphical intelligence for executive decision-making and strategic planning: Leverage data intelligence to make meaningful business decisions at the highest levels.
- Practice continuous improvement: Always improve — never be satisfied.
Alchemy will soon publish a comprehensive paper on the IoT Asset Intelligence framework that will be available from the company’s Web site.
Led by technology industry veterans from IBM, ABB, GE, StorageTek, Seagate and Sony Electronics, start-up company Alchemy defines its industry approach as “IoT Asset Intelligence,” an AI-based method to quickly gain knowledge and ROI from industrial assets. Supporting Industry 4.0 and digital transformations, this cloud-based approach eliminates the complexity and expense of Big Data and IoT initiatives by shifting the value stream to the asset itself. It aims to standardize workflows and enable “no-code” IoT adoption to preemptively solve problems and discover new business opportunities.
Alchemy’s recently announced inaugural cloud-based offering, Clarity, is designed to help customers achieve a greater return on their industrial assets and competitive advantage. The product introduces a novel no-code approach to IoT Asset Intelligence that simplifies how fleet management, plant maintenance and manufacturing performance can be improved using AI and unsupervised machine learning.
