Syncron Uptime strengthens manufacturers’ transition from after sales-service to products-as-a-service

Syncron launched its Syncron Uptime offering that uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to analyze real-time sensor data, predict failures, prescribe optimized maintenance actions and ultimately maximize product uptime.

Servitization, which is the transformation from selling products to selling products-as-a-service, has ushered in a new generation of customers that prefers access over ownership. This increasingly popular consumption preference is driving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to shift from product-centric to service-centric business models.

When implementing an after-sales service strategy that is centered on maximized product uptime, OEMs commonly encounter a small minority of the overall mechanical failures that contribute to unplanned downtime follow a pattern that is correlated to time and/or usage, while the overwhelming majority are random occurrences. 

As a result, present approach to preventive maintenance adds to increased total cost of ownership without effectively improving availability and uptime. The only way to improve product uptime without increasing risk, plus improving cost effectiveness, is to look for subtle symptoms and pre-cursors leading up to the point of failure.

To overcome random, symptom-based failures, OEMs have been investing heavily in sensors and IoT, collecting massive amounts of data. However, it is impossible to manually manage or analyze this data in any beneficial way. The only solution is to leverage modern machine earning and artificialiIntelligence technologies – mathematical algorithms that can find the subtle patterns to provide the earliest possible indications of anomalies and failure patterns.

Manufacturers are focused on designing products that are easier and safer to operate. However, this has led to increased complexity when it comes to servicing and maintaining newer equipment. Simultaneously, the baby boomer generation is retiring and taking critical, expert knowledge with them, leaving OEMs struggling to find trained service technicians and engineers who can effectively troubleshoot and diagnose problems based on early symptoms, which can lead to a reduction in first-time fix rates.

Manufacturers’ organizational structures are designed for product-centric approach, treating sales of products, spare parts and service as separate functions, which has led to disparate IT systems and KPIs. Servitization, however, requires a new way of thinking where accountability does not end after a product sale, instead continuing throughout a product’s entire lifecycle. OEMs will be contract-bound for pre-defined performance measures that carry incentives and penalties based on customer outcomes.

Syncron Uptime has been designed to overcome these challenges, enabling OEMs to maximize product uptime cost effectively. With this new, enterprise software solution users can combine OEMs’ investments in IoT and sensor data with machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and predict failures, leading to optimized maintenance for every complex machine in the field and improving product uptime and maintenance costs. 

It also captures knowledge and best practices for troubleshooting products with the earliest and smallest indications of deterioration in performance, increasing field service productivity and improving first-time fix rates.

The offering breaks down data and organizational siloes to enable coordination between operations, field service management and service parts planning, providing a single source of truth to all stakeholders. It also integrates with predictive maintenance work requests with field service systems and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to make the best decisions for both the business and end customers, while maximizing product uptime and improving the overall customer experience.

Volvo Cars part of Responsible Sourcing Blockchain network, launched by IBM, Ford and Volkswagen Group

The Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), a blockchain network committed to strengthening human rights and environmental protection in mineral supply chains, announced that its digital supply chain for cobalt has moved beyond pilot phase and is progressing toward use in live production computing environments starting in spring 2020. 

Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform and assured by RCS Global Group, RSBN will have continued participation from founding members including Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen, LG Chem and Huayou Cobalt. Volvo Cars will join the network as its newest member with further partners from the automobile, technology and mining sectors expected to join this year. 

Providing traceability and verification of responsible sourcing practices from mine to market, including the end-to-end supply chains, the solution is a network accessible to companies at every tier of the supply chain, which complete an onboarding assessment verifying the members responsible sourcing practices. 

Blockchain makes it possible to securely and at-scale identify and label any subject and object entity with cryptographically verifiable security credentials. When literally everything is labeled with verifiable, authoritative, machine-readable security credentials (such as classification level, access category and others), multi-level security (MLS) systems can enforce mandatory and discretionary access controls and other MLS-specific isolation.

Focus industries include, but are not limited to automotive and consumer electronics, including their supply chains and the mining sector. A governance board representing members across these industries is being formed to help further ensure the platform's growth, functionality and adherence to good practice principles.

RSBN and its participants are building an open, industry-wide blockchain platform to trace responsibly produced minerals from source through to end product, with RCS Global assessing each participating entity against responsible sourcing requirements set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and industry bodies.   

"We are setting in motion a process of mainstreaming responsible sourcing practices across major industries," said Dr. Nicholas Garrett, CEO of RCS Global Group. "We've reached significant new milestones as we've moved beyond testing, proving the merits of this coupled technology and assurance model can extend to a wide range of participants across every tier of the supply chain and to other minerals. The early addition of Volkswagen Group and now Volvo Cars to this collaboration confirms that blockchain technology together with responsible sourcing assurance can help address critical sustainability issues impacting the entire industry," he adds.  

Volvo Cars will be the initial company in the consortium to fully apply the RSBN solution in its LG Chem supply chain beginning in spring 2020.  The automaker also plans to apply RSBN to other key minerals found in its batteries, including nickel and lithium in the future. 

Volkswagen AG has been working with relevant battery suppliers to address the need for supply chain due diligence and is now aiming to significantly increase its supply chain mapping and auditing activities for key battery mineral supply chains. 

Through the RSBN, and other initiatives, Volkswagen AG is utilizing technology toward securing better supply chain traceability and transparency and to connect this information with the sustainability performance of supply chain partners. 

Ford states that as they are preparing to launch their global all-electric Mustang-inspired SUV next year, the RSBN becomes an important tool to strengthen transparency and visibility into its global mineral supply chain. Expanding this network beyond cobalt to other battery minerals will compound the RBSN's positive impact on human rights protection and labor practices.

In initial testing, the RSBN blockchain demonstrated how cobalt produced at Huayou's industrial mine site in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be traced through the supply chain to LG Chem's cathode and battery plant in South Korea, and then to its final destination, a Ford plant in the United States. An immutable audit trail captured on the platform delivered corresponding data providing documentation for the initial ethical cobalt production, its maintenance and its ethical provenance from mine to end manufacturer.

RCS Global Group builds on its supply chain mapping and auditing activities for global OEMs and key battery mineral supply chains and has successfully assessed and validated each supply chain participant against responsible sourcing standards developed by the OECD, as well as the good practice requirements of relevant industry organizations like the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Blockchain Guidelines.

Altran aligns with Baicells to create multi-platform 5G RAN offering to help OEMs and operators monetize 5G faster

Altran has collaborated with Baicells to developed a 5G RAN multiplatform solution using Altran’s decades of wireless expertise. As the 5G ecosystem rapidly expands, a number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are collaborating with Altran to design and deliver solutions that leverage 5G technology for both operators and enterprises. 

Baicells, a cloud-based 4G/5G wireless solutions provider, is the latest OEM to select Altran’s 5G RAN software framework. With Altran’s expertise, Baicells will fast track its 5G RAN solution to support several key markets, including telecommunications, industrial, enterprise and private networks. 

5G is expected to achieve economies of scale over the next two to three years, lowering costs across network architecture. As such, RAN is a critical piece of infrastructure to deliver monetizable use cases. Altran’s innovative 5G RAN software framework enables OEMs to accelerate product development and support deployment roadmaps for operators at a reduced cost. 

The framework uses a single software package that works across both millimeter wave and sub-6GHz for both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) modes, regardless of platform type. This significantly reduces the cost of maintenance for software releases across different platforms. 

The 5G RAN framework leverages Altran’s decades of wireless expertise, including stack development for 2G, 3G and 4G networks, to support multiple platforms and use cases. It is fully compliant with 3GPP, O-RAN, Open RAN and service control functions (SCF) for femto application platform interface (FAPI) and network FAPI (nFAPI) interfacing, making it interoperable with multiple physical layer (PHY) and remote radio unit (RRU) providers and ecosystems.

“We worked closely with Baicells to create a differentiated 5G RAN solution that reflects the company’s commitment to innovation, while also ensuring that it is cost-effective for operators,” said Dominique Cerutti, chairman and chief executive officer of Altran. “Operators are looking to recoup their investments in 5G infrastructure faster, and the ability to quickly deploy multiple 5G use cases will be critical for achieving a good ROI. To achieve successful 5G deployments, robust RAN solutions will be key.”