By Kim Custeau, VP, Asset Performance, AVEVA

Asset performance is a strategic lever to optimize OPEX (operating expense), which then fuels transformation programs in the business. It’s imperative for industrial enterprises to balance the risk, cost, and performance of their assets while ensuring the highest level of reliability and safety.

In 2020, organizations dealt with the COVID-19 crisis where OPEX spending was cut and social distancing led to a reduction in the workforce. The combination of which highlighted the importance of remote access to critical information and guidance tools. Customers increased their interest in remote operations, amplifying the need for secure, scalable, and accessible asset performance solutions that drive the operational resilience, agility, and asset reliability that companies are looking for.

The environment continues to be impacted by these macroeconomic factors. Everything from changes in consumer demand and consumption patterns to the reality that autonomous or near autonomous operations with sustainability imperatives are going to be changing the way we need to work. At the center of this change is the workforce. It’s a generation that doesn’t have all of the learnings of the initial workplace and ecosystem to support them because of the increase in remote working activity.

Technology transforming production

Technology is transforming production and driving efficiency and sustainability through optimized planning and scheduling. But technology alone will not transform the business so focusing on people and processes is a must. Human is at the center because they ensure that any technology solution is well used. Businesses have to ensure that if they connect the people with the technology, that the impact is going to be high and that it provides the return on investment companies are looking for. This means digital transformation through the eyes of the worker is mandatory. The focus must be to consider the needs of the human behind the working asset and if businesses succeed in doing this, employees will become empowered and be the agents of change to attain the full value of the potential of digital transformation.

For this change to manifest, there are four critical elements required.

• Businesses need to make sure that, no matter how remote, workers have access to the information that they need.
• Teamwork is vital too and ensuring all the collaboration of a situation with colleagues is not compromised by virtue of being virtual.
• Decision-making from that data, in terms of the way workers are able to consume it in order to make quick decisions, is paramount;
• And so too, finally, are the skills and training to be equipped with the knowledge to do the job safely and effectively.

Agile, resilient, and sustainable

There are many companies today that can identify a potential failure through anomaly detection. But there are very few that can implement that as part of an end-to-end user scenario where information can be garnered ahead of time through an asset library through to the execution of the action that needs to be taken — institutionalized at scale through an end-to-end business flow.

AVEVA and Microsoft accelerate the delivery of industrial innovation across key industries empowering customers to shape the future. With Microsoft’s end-to-end solutions in the cloud, and AVEVA’s deep industry expertise, our unique combination of capabilities helps businesses capitalize on the power of technology to become more agile, resilient, and sustainable.

If we can ensure the viability of new projects that will drive business volumes and growth in CAPEX (capital expenditures) and OPEX in a constrained environment, enabling remote teams with the information to make decisions to keep operations running smoothly and keep equipment running reliably and safely with minimal supervision, then we can maximize the business opportunity.

AVEVA is an industrial and engineering software provider offering solutions that solve design, process, maintenance, training, and information flow problems for customers globally in every industry.