Efficient Plant November 2017 - 12

department | news

NI Trend Watch 2018:

What's Propelling the
Future Faster?
THE RECENTLY RELEASED "NI Trend Watch
2018" report from National Instruments (ni.com)
examines technological advances propelling the
future faster than ever before, as well as some of the
biggest challenges engineers face as they look ahead
to 2018. Covered topics include:
Machine Learning Puts Data to Work. Intelligent systems create and rely on data, but the ever-increasing quantity of data exacerbates the Big Analog
Data challenge. (Discover how machine learning addresses the problem head-on, so engineers can focus
on finding and solving the next grand challenge.)
5G to Disrupt Test Processes. 5G innovation
doesn't stop at design. Test and measurement solutions will be key in the commercialization cycle, but
5G requires a different approach to test than previous wireless technologies. (Find out what it's going to
take to make 5G a reality.)
3 Mandates of the IIoT. The proliferation of
smart and connected "things" in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provides tremendous opportunities for increased performance and lower costs,
but managing these distributed systems is often an
overlooked challenge. (Explore the three necessities
for successfully managing your "things.")
Effects of Electrification. The vehicle electrification trend goes deeper than a global shift from
internal combustion and hybrid vehicles to fully
electric powertrains. (Consider implications beyond
the increasingly complex vehicle itself, including new
demands on supporting infrastructure.)
Breaking Moore's Law. The constant pace of
innovation has tracked remarkably close to Moore's
law for decades, despite a few minor revisions and
much talk of its death. But now, the more than
50-yr.-old observation is facing health challenges
again. (Learn what that means for the future of the
semiconductor market.)
Read the full report at ni.com/trend-watch.
-Jane Alexander, Managing Editor

| EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Asset
Performance
Management
Centers
GE Digital Offerings

GE CEO John
Flannery confirmed
the company's
commitment to its
digitalization strategy at the annual
Minds + Machines
Conference in San
Francisco.

GE DIGITAL (GE.COM/DIGITAL/ is continuing
to build out its platform and ecosystem of applications. New CEO John Flannery recently confirmed
his commitment to the digitalization strategy begun
under his predecessor Jeffrey Immelt, during an address to about 3,700 attendees at the company's 6th
Minds + Machines Conference in San Francisco.
Perhaps the biggest news involved the company's interest in developing partners to help build out its "ecosystem" more quickly and fully. Microsoft is one
such partner, and conference keynotes featured its CEO Satya Nadella. (GE will
build out on Microsoft Azure, as well as its own cloud structure.)

ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
GE is expanding its Predix Edge capabilities to help run analytics as close
to the source of data as possible. (Predix is the platform upon which GE
applications such as Asset Performance Management (APM) sits.) Predix
Edge gives users with limited connectivity, latency limitations, and regulatory or other constraints a way to deploy applications closer to the originating data. Enhancements include:
Predix Edge Manager allows customers to support large fleets of edge
devices-as many as 200,000 connected devices from a single console.
Predix Machine enables microservice-based applications to run at the edge
on customers' virtualized data-center infrastructure or on server-class hardware from GE or its partners.
Alongside its Asset Performance Management (APM) software, the core application, GE Digital introduced Operations Performance Management (OPM),
a solution that helps optimize the throughput of industrial processes. It uses
real-time and historical data-along with advanced analytics-to help customers make better operational decisions.
Finally, GE Digital's ServiceMax announced enhancements to its FSM suite:
Artificial intelligence-enabled predictive service times now integrate the
Apache Spark AI engine to improve service time estimates.
An application-integration solution that enables service providers to launch
and share FSM data with third-party mobile applications on the same device.
New capabilities in schedule optimization allow dependent job-scheduling
between work orders for multiple visits aimed at improving first-time fix rates.
- Gary Mintchell, Contributing Editor

NOVEMBER 2017

http://www.ni.com http://www.GE.COM/DIGITAL/ http://www.ni.com/trend-watch http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant November 2017