Release of bluebee® X the new generation Smart O&M platform
On November 13, 2020 Siveco, the pioneer of Smart O&M, officially released the new generation of its flagship bluebee® software suite, code-named bluebee® X, during its annual customers event in Kunshan, China.
The new generation bluebee® X incorporates the unparalleled experience acquired by Siveco in the last decade, serving over 1,000 client sites in the increasingly complex and regulated Chinese market, and the latest available technologies, into an IoT-native, mobile-driven, future-proof platform. The solution, designed to help companies large and small to implement the principles of the ISO 55000 Asset Management standard, covers the same Smart O&M, Industrial Risk Management & Asset Management functional scope as its predecessor.
First released in 2008 and developed in Siveco’s Shanghai R&D center, bluebee® cloud is an Industry 4.0 platform that enables Risk Prevention decisions based on true data from Mobile Users and Connected Objects.
Its mobile component bluebee® is a unique tool designed “for the worker of tomorrow” to capture information from the field and to enforce best practices. Unlike most mobile solutions available in the market, bluebee® is able to function fully offline and to manage inspections. The app runs on an increasing variety of industrial mobile devices running Android.
bluebee® cloud and bluebee® feature embedded BIM, GIS and IoT capability. The platform’s Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) allows seamless integration with Siveco’s Coswin 8i plant maintenance solution and into the corporate IT environment.
During the November 13 event, Siveco China R&D Director Wang Tao unveiled the new bluebee® X platform and highlighted its design principles, technology and benefits.
Wang explained that “The driving principle behind the new bluebee® generation was to make Industry 4.0 and Smart O&M as secure as possible, while delivering new levels of flexibility and user-friendliness to our user community.”
The bluebee® X generation leverages recent advances in IT to achieve this design principle, based on a best-of-breed enterprise-class technology such as Vue, Python and Percona Server for MySQL.
Most of the configuration is now done graphically, empowering users to tailor the platform to their own tastes and needs. On the other hand, the use of modern development tools enables seamless exchange with your Connected Objects, devices and machines.
One example shown during the launch ceremony was the flexible design of the equipment page and the brand-new workflow module configurable by drag-and-drop. This new approach to business process design fosters collaboration between consultants, maintenance staff and IT specialists, unlocks new business models such as the bluebee® club for SMEs.
Two of the most striking recent advances in Asset management are the use of IoT and applied AI. While many so-called experts revel in these buzzwords, we at Siveco decided to actually make sense of it, with the goal of turning them into practical tools to address real-life industrial challenges.
To illustrate this during the launch event, Project Delivery Director Billy Cai presented a use-case of integration with IoT in cooperation with Schaeffler’s SmartCheck solution, featuring both user interface and data integration. He demonstrated how to close the ISO 55000 digital-physical loop for maximum impact on performance – not empty promises of failure-free or worker-free maintenance.
Throughout the day, demo booths around the conference room allowed attendees to interact with bluebee® X on large touchscreens and to discuss with Siveco experts. A showcase of the bluebee® for smart glass plugin for inspections and remote support was also available for testing during the event, working both with either bluebee® X or Coswin 8i as back-office. The various demos exemplify the great flexibility of the bluebee® X solution in a fast-changing Smart or Industry 4.0 ecosystem.
A real-life demonstration was offered by the host of the conference, Smart Factory Kunshan, one of the first companies to implement bluebee® X. During the plant tour, attendees were invited to report problems using bluebee® for WeChat, simply by scanning QR codes on machines or facilities using WeChat. Upon returning to the conference room, the Smart Factory’s Maintenance Manager Richard Xu logged into the plant’s bluebee® cloud X to review the problems reported during the tour. This exemplified how existing Siveco tools (in this case bluebee® for WeChat) remain available in the new generation platform.
bluebee® X received praises from the audience, existing Siveco clients found it “very cool”, while still recognizing familiar user-friendly features of the system they use every day. The Siveco R&D team appreciates this feedback as they really wanted bluebee® X to be a “cool” solution, in addition to being smart, secure and effective to help clients optimize their assets lifecycle and ensure regulatory compliance!
In the true Siveco tradition of announcing new products only after their first successful implementation, the bluebee® X solution is already used in three client projects in China and Thailand. From now on, all new projects will use this version of the software.
