General Electric bets big on digital
While the industrial ecosystem lags the productivity gains seen in the consumer economy as a result of digital disruption, General Electric (GE) is betting its future on digital industrial transformation and the powerful gains that will emerge from fully leveraging what the Internet of Things (IoT) has to offer.
Consumer disruption as a result of unprecedented digital technology growth, as seen with Uber, AirBNB and Apple’s application economy, had not transitioned into the industrial environment, said GE Transportation chief digital officer and digital solutions president Seth Bodnar.
“On the consumer side, we see some of the benefits [and] some of the disruption that digital capabilities can bring. However, we have not seen these benefits in the industrial era yet,” he told delegates attending the recent Africa Rail conference.
The technology is in place but it is disconnected and, with some parts of the ecosystem not having yet been optimised or fully leveraged, the industrial sector is not yet seeing the full productivity gains technology could make possible.
However, Bodnar assured that change was coming, pointing to the rise of connected gas turbines, locomotives, light bulbs, cars and jet engines, besides many others, as a result of IoT.
“The number of assets that can be connected and can be harmonised is massive. This is a tremendous opportunity for us,” he said.
“The reason we are betting so heavily, the reason why we are determined to become the world’s premier digital industrial company, is that there is massive power in this domain.”
With this as a base, GE is focusing on three pillars to drive the future digital vision of GE, including ‘GE for GE’ where the company leverages digital technology to improve the productivity and efficiencies of its own operations.
The second and third pillars – ‘GE for the Customer’ and ‘GE for the World’ – will see GE transfer its digital transformation capabilities to its clients and the rest of the world to create a digital ecosystem leveraging the power of technology having guided industrial companies through this “complex technology and business transition”.
This will be done through Predix, GE’s cloud-based operating system for the industrial Internet that was purpose-built for the digital industrial era and which captures and analyses the “unique volume, velocity and variety of machine data in a secure, industrial-strength cloud environment”.
Bodnar said:“We want to create an ecosystem of industrial users leveraging digital capabilities to drive operational efficiencies.”
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation