For those yet to jump on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) band wagon, GE’s latest announcement might just convince you to get on board.
The company recently trumpeted their partnership with PTC, Inc. (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation), whose ThingWorx IoT application platform will support GE’s Brilliant Manufacturing Suite, which is already live at a number of GE sites.
The result is a simplified manufacturing solution featuring ThingWorx data integration and visualization combined with GE’s software capabilities.
The joint solution will provide manufacturing plants using the Brilliant Manufacturing Suite with a standardized language and system, for easier sharing of information and accessibility.
The new solution will offer:
· Role-specific dashboards with real-time manufacturing KPIs,
· System connections from the shop floor to enterprise resource planning (ERP),
· Standardized KPI models for all plants and
· Collaboration, alerts, notifications and access to data to make better informed decisions.
“The Brilliant Factory integrates engineering and manufacturing design, leverages data to run our factories much more productively and optimizes the entire supply chain,” said Jamie Miller, GE CIO.
“This solution gives us the ability to see that data clearly and easily in a format that makes critical decisions possible, so we can increase machine uptime and predict maintenance before it is needed,” Miller said.
When asked about the deal, Jim Heppelmann, CEO of PTC laid out the benefits.
“If you’re a company like GE and you have 400 factories and every factory is different, then there’s going to be some amount of application work at each factory and that application work involves a lot of coding. You really need a rapid environment to quickly configure a solution around the diversity of one factory and then configure a solution that produces similar results around different diversity in the second factory. When GE saw how fast we could produce these solutions for one factory versus another they said, ‘Okay, that’s the standout capability we absolutely need to have,’” Heppelmann said.
With how the partners are talking about each other, it seems like a match made in heaven. Being the first off the line to establish an effective IoT system and platform will no doubt give these companies an advantage over competitors.
The question to ask is, what will become the industry standard?
Will GE bring ThingWorx-supported Brilliant Factory to the foreground in the manufacturing industry, or will it remain an in-house system while an alternative gains in popularity? No doubt GE would benefit from their Brilliant Factory becoming a trend – why only standardize 400 of their own factories, when they can integrate into the 260,000 plants across the United States?
The GE/PTC partnership leaves them in a strong position now, but it still makes sense to worry about the competition.
As part of the deal, GE and PTC will be working together to certify ThingWorx for the Predix ecosystem. The companies will also align their global sales and marketing resources to pursue digital manufacturing opportunities for their joint solution.
To learn more about the joint solution, visit ge.com.