Augury’s recent ‘Beyond the Line’ event showcased how the company’s tagline ‘Predicting A Better Future’ is now a self-fulfilling prophecy, writes James Newman, Augury’s Head of Product and Portfolio Marketing. “We are building what manufacturers need to create a better future. And with four core elements coming together, manufacturers can enter that future today.”
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
We unveiled our new Production Health blueprint during our recent ‘Beyond the Line’ event – showing how manufacturers are at a watershed moment in optimizing their production goals. In short, Augury, buoyed by its tagline “Predicting A Better Future,” is already building what manufacturers need to make this better future happen.
Yes, it remains a work in progress – as any journey of continual improvement should be – but it’s already one offering value to our customers. Four core elements are now coming together that will transform our industry as manufacturers gain more control over achieving their goals.
1) Machine Health 2.0
2) Process Navigator
3) Fusion Diagnostics
4) Ecosystem
1) Machine Health 2.0 (The Ever-Evolving Foundation)
The blueprint builds on our long-established foundation of Machine Health. Augury has built its business and reputation on making unplanned downtime a thing of the past for our clients. While Machine Health is the foundation for everything that follows, it continues to become broader and deeper. For instance, we can now speak confidently about Machine Health 2.0 as we continue to make advances in infrastructure, improved IoT, and next-generation AI.
2) Process Navigator (Looping In Clear Prescriptive Insights For Operations)
With precise and real-time actionable insights into the state of your machines, the next logical step is to have the same clarity and control over your Process Health. Our Process Navigator offers dynamic real-time simulation you can use to optimize your operations – and then change when needed.
During the ‘Beyond the Line’ event, a comparison was made to the history of navigation. Too many manufacturers still rely on “paper maps” to negotiate their processes. But now we’ve gone beyond paper maps and even static GPS routes. We have achieved a Google Maps level of navigation for both machines and the processes: the ability to provide turn-by-turn instructions that adapt to “traffic conditions” and can be calibrated for one’s particular needs – be it speed, energy efficiency, or both. Indeed, you are now able to adjust your production process for multiple objectives.
The next step is supervised self-driving processes. (Tune in next year.)
It allows us to know how processes are affecting machines and how machines are affecting processes – and not in retrospect, but in real-time.
3) Fusion Diagnostics (Breaking Down The Wall Between Maintenance & Operations)
It may sound fancy, but Fusion Diagnostics does what it says. It’s the connective tissue that allows the tearing down of the wall between maintenance and operations – call it a sledgehammer or a wrecking ball. Call it whatever you want. But it’s the unification we always needed. It allows us to know how processes are affecting machines and how machines are affecting processes – and not in retrospect, but in real-time.
With Machine Health, we already had turn-by-turn instructions on what to do about your machines. With the launch of Process Navigator for Process Health, you now have turn-by-turn instructions on what to do about your processes. And now, Fusion Diagnostics brings machines and processes together – which is entirely different from the two silos they live in today. We are bringing in two vast and complex data sets that AI can use to turn new and previously unseen connections into actionable insights with turn-by-turn instructions that impact the entire organization collectively and not in isolation.
Fusion Diagnostics reconnects all the teams that should have been connected from the beginning – giving them the insights that matter to both: optimizing production.
Do you want to manage your energy use? Go ahead. Do you want to manage waste to meet your sustainability goals? Go for it.
Thanks to real-time operator-driven actions that respond to changing needs, every shift can deliver its best work. After all, your best route today might not be your best route tomorrow.
“Unlike in Middle Earth, there isn’t, and there will never be, a single app or platform to rule them all. It’s only by the combined efforts that we will complete this vision of creating a better future.”
4) Ecosystem (No Solution Is An Island)
To attain that better future, you need to realize you can’t do it alone. No one can afford to be an island anymore. And now, with large partners in the ecosystem, we can offer customers more expanded capabilities much sooner than we dreamed of – whether that’s better synching capabilities with Baker Hughes, simplified technology stacks with Schneider Electric, or changing how you manage your assets with IFS Ultimo.
And there’s so much more potential and partners we are – and will be – tapping into. Whether it’s automating parts-as-a-service or keeping your assets adequately lubricated, the sky is the limit. And it’s impossible to build all these possibilities ourselves. And certainly, it does not best serve our customers. Yes, we will stay focused on building the central capability set that drives value – see above – but meanwhile, we can also leverage entirely new ways of working – thanks to being part of a larger ecosystem.
To put it in another way (and with apologies to JRR Tolkien fans): Unlike in Middle Earth, there isn’t, and there will never be, a single app or platform to rule them all. It’s only by the combined efforts that we will complete this vision of creating a better future.
A diverse and robust ecosystem will also allow your technologies to be as connected as your teams need to be. Looping in additional data sources will inspire yet more innovation through new techniques and AI capabilities.
This is why the blueprint for full Production Health will never be finished. This is a house that will only keep growing.
Conclusion: Upward and Onward
There will always be people who say, “Wouldn’t that be nice?” We can now say, “It’s already nice.” We are making that prophecy of a better future come true: not in three or ten years or Sunday, but in real-time. Now. The building blocks are now in place.
This doesn’t mean we’re done. There are lots of things to come. But for the first time, the vision is not just a wish but a reality.
Learn how to break efficiency barriers with an ever-evolving Production Health blueprint.
Or cut to the chase by reading the ‘Your Production Health Blueprint‘ one-pager.
Read Part 1 of Beyond The Line: ‘The Manufacturer’s Nightmare’
Read Part 2 of Beyond The Line: ‘A New Bag Of Tricks’
Read Part 3 of Beyond The Line: ‘Bringing The Manufacturer’s Dream To Life‘.
