The biggest accomplishment of the digital transformation revolution has been the sheer volume of information, insights & intelligence that businesses now have access to. Today, manufacturing equipment can tell you when maintenance is needed, or when a machine part is about to break down. Buildings with intelligence on sensor data on conference room usage can immediately turn off lights or the AC to save energy. Consumer products can communicate information back to their manufacturer about what's in demand. Accurate weather forecasts are helping governments & businesses make better decisions and respond to weather’s impact more effectively.

Some of these capabilities gained more significance in the wake of the pandemic during which offices, factories, universities, and corporate campuses around the world had to be shuttered, and then faced the challenge of re-opening facilities safely after months of lack-of-use. In this environment, predictive maintenance, using AI & IoT to estimate when maintenance should be performed –as opposed to waiting for maintenance to be necessary or something to break – was of paramount importance.

IBM is infusing AI into applications for greater efficiency

IBM has been leading a new era of augmented intelligence where AI can elevate capabilities to bring new levels of efficiencies together for smarter businesses. The AI Applications solution portfolio of IBM includes solutions like IBM Maximo, IBM Sterling, The Weather Company, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management & others.  These industry leading solutions are being used extensively by leading enterprises across sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure, travel & transportation, life sciences, energy & utilities, real estate, automotive and aerospace & defense.

Here are few recent instances of how leading Indian enterprises are collaborating with IBM.

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), one of India’s top FMCG companies has collaborated with IBM to implement Manufacturing Automation and Excellence Programme (Maxpro) — a collection of several IT solutions including IBM Maximo, powered by cloud, AI, analytics & IoT — at their Sanand plant in Gujarat. The fact-based real time analysis of data, instant availability of information & interconnectivity of machines is helping the factory redefine efficiency & become more agile.

Prasanna Borah – Chief Technology Officer at HCCB says, “The adoption of IBM digital factory solution Maximo has helped us transform the HCCB factory in Sanand to a fully digitally enabled factory. The ‘Maxpro Solution’ implemented in Sanand not only digitizes the end-to-end factory operations, it also provides real-time data, analytics and facilitates seamless communication between people, processes & machines. We are now achieving the promise of Industry 4.0.”

Krishi Vigyan Kendra

Agricultural Development Trust’s, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Baramati, Maharashtra has developed ‘Krushik’ mobile app specifically for farmers in the state to boost overall agricultural productivity. The digital information portal, made available in Marathi language for free, provides weather based agro-advisory, agriculture related news, crop market rates, information about government schemes and most importantly, 15 days village-level weather forecast powered by data from The Weather Company.

Dr. Ratan Jadhav, Incharge, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Baramati says, “Monsoons in India have been impacted in the last few years owing to changing weather patterns and have been a constant concern for the farming community. The detailed and accurate weather forecast information from The Weather Company delivered through the app have helped more than 290,000+ farmers make more informed decisions on their crops.”

Kone

KONE revolutionized escalator and elevator safety and maintenance with IBM Maximo Application Suite through a global 24/7 Connected Services offering on IBM Cloud, which provides predictive maintenance for its elevators. Instead of waiting for customers to call and report a malfunctioning elevator, the potential problems are alerted through IoT-connected sensors on the equipment. The Connected Services offering helps deliver customer outcomes such as reduced equipment downtime, fewer faults and more detailed information about equipment performance and usage.

This blogpost is authored by Rohit Pande, AI Applications Sales Leader, IBM India/South Asia