Big Data: the dream and the reality
Further to our GM’s article about Maintenance 4.0, I have received many interesting comments. The spirit of our Maintenance 4.0 initiative is to put fancy concepts into real, hands-on, industrial practice. Too often, companies are lost in a dream and little gets done in reality.
Recently we see that some of our customers or prospects talk a lot about Big Data. Everyone talks about Big Data of course. Especially large IT and consulting companies… chasing Big Money. Living in this century with fast internet connections and new technologies coming almost every day, we are surrounded by seemingly unlimited information, more than we can absorb. IT market leaders like SAP, IBM, Alibaba, Accenture etc. are all running massive marketing campaign to promote Big Data, joining forces with governments, world leaders and perhaps soon the United Nations. Big Data may solve global warming or who knows what, but how exactly does it apply to plant operation and maintenance?
Nobody seems to know. Last year, our sales team was talking to a technical service provider, a local company with a promising growth curve and great improvement potential. Their management team was however so fascinated by the Big Data dream sold by a leading global IT supplier, that it took many months until they realize that the IT supplier has nothing specific to offer. In the meantime, the IT giant changed its proposed solution several times… until they also wake up to see that the technical service provider could anyway not afford to pay for such a large IT project… Project cancelled. Zero improvement achieved.
We at Siveco come to the Big Data scene from a totally different angle… A very hands-on practical angle on trying to obtain ROI and tangible improvement for clients. After a decade designing and deploying solutions for large multisite customers to manage their maintenance, we suddenly realized that we were actually doing Big Data without knowing it!
Some of our customers already have hundreds of technicians using our technologies during daily operation, collecting data from the field. Data is then used at the back-office, usually “in the cloud”, for analysis and benchmarking to support financial and technical decisions. Looking at the scale that some of our customers have achieved, it is Big Data indeed! The next step is perhaps for large clients to share their platform, for cross-companies benchmarking and standardization… which we will probably tell our readers about… once our clients have achieved it!
In this month newsletter: a Reliability article on benefits obtained from regular coaching under our Enhanced Support Contracts; a Customer Story on a large multisite automotive project and its use of our CMMS to support World Class Manufacturing, a Partner article on joint events conducted with business associations throughout China, COSWIN 8i will still be featured in Tips & Tricks, a Siveco people article on Foster Program promoted by Best Friends China, the biggest expat and Chinese run non-profit animal welfare group in Shanghai where our operation manager Guillaume and his wife are actively involved, and finally some of our Latest News.
Enjoy!
Fiona
Marketing Director/VAPP Director
Siveco China
