Predictive Maintenance / Challenge / Bootcamp / Co-creation platform / Solutions
Collaboration is the catalyst for Innovation
The demands placed on modern industry call for a new way of thinking when it comes to making sure that a plant is running at optimum performance. Faced with the demand to make things faster and at the best prices, through to meeting environmental legislation and ensuring they are prepared for unexpected events such as the global pandemic, companies are increasingly turning to technology for a solution.
ABB Measurement & Analytics developed the Open Innovation Challenge to help generate ideas and evaluate new business opportunities for Predictive Maintenance with an emphasis on health, safety and the environment. Held at ABB Measurement & Analytics’ new customer experience center (CXC) in Ossuccio, Italy, the challenge was designed to demonstrate leadership in the future development of predictive maintenance with the use of the sensors which are the heart of the instruments developed in the division.
What are the benefits of a predictive maintenance solution?
- Enable process owners to gain feedback from their instruments to predict future maintenance requirements
- Predict system failures by correlating data received from specific sensors
- Improve site safety and reduce environmental impact
- Deliver financial benefit through reduced maintenance, improved performance and cost effectiveness and enhanced safety
The Challenge
With a history built on innovation, ABB Measurement & Analytics recognizes the value of collaboration in helping to generate new ideas. The Open Innovation Challenge called on technology start-ups from around the world to help identify and develop new technologies that could potentially be deployed by ABB as part of its service portfolio to help customers meet their predictive maintenance, safety and environmental challenges.
ABB worked together with Tree, a company which specializes in offering open innovation solutions, to source technology start-ups from around the world and structure the first ABB Measurement & Analytics Open Innovation Challenge. 1,150 start-up companies were scouted and engaged and the best were invited to a bootcamp.
6 start-ups selected for the bootcamp
The selected six start-ups joined a bootcamp at the new customer experience center at the factory. During the bootcamp, the start-ups had two days to co-create with ABB experts and test their results. Solutions involving Digital Twins, IoT and even self-powered intelligence solutions were developed taking advantage of the automated factory’s highly technological R&D facilities.
The co-creation development platform
The open co-creation development platform drives innovation which is a core value of ABB Measurement & Analytics. ABB is committed to sustainability through reduction in energy consumption and environmental impact through predictive maintenance.
Predictive maintenance offers ABB customers the opportunity to streamline maintenance operations and avoid the headache of plant shut down due to failure of an instrument.
The Ossuccio factory with its Customer Experience Center is a global center of excellence for pressure measurement, ready for the IoT era with protocols for digital communication. The six finalists were invited to a bootcamp at our facility in Osscucio to collaborate with ABB experts and further develop their ideas.
The solutions delivered by the teams had to meet technology and performance KPIs as well as business KPIs.
The business KPIs included;
- The quality of information delivered by the solution
- Ease of implementation and set up
- Replicable and flexible to different applications
- Readiness for external integration
The Technology KPIs included;
- Response time for early detection
- Operating effort – reduce recalibration, reconfiguration, software updates
- Range of applications around an operation e.g. pipes, valves, rotating equipment, thermal equipment
- Is the solution intrusive to the application
The solutions in development
Three of the six shortlisted groups have further developed their solutions since the event.
Watch our video to meet the groups and their businesses, and find out more about their ideas and solutions.