Introduction to Makoro™ AI – how Makoro™ derives its name from the Bantu language and the foundational principles of Makoro™. The proliferation of connected assets makes it impossible to manage assets by viewing data, reports, and dashboards. Makoro™ manages assets through natural language recommendations, which operators, process engineers, and maintenance engineers can act upon without having to depend on data scientists.
Makoro™ illustrates the power of #AppliedArtificialIntelligence in solving transformative problems in the manufacturing supply chain.
In the grand theater of global progress, the oil and gas industry has long played a leading role, providing the lifeblood of energy that powers our modern world. Yet, as the curtains rise on a new era of environmental consciousness, a dramatic dilemma takes center stage. How can an industry that has fueled progress for decades also play a pivotal part in preserving our planet?
Environmental Stewardship: Walking the Tightrope
The oil and gas industry stands at a crossroads, where the path to sustainability intertwines with the demands of energy-hungry societies. As concerns about climate change intensify, the industry is faced with a pressing question: Can it reinvent itself to become a beacon of environmental stewardship? Innovation is key. From cleaner extraction techniques to carbon capture technologies, the industry’s ability to adopt eco-friendly practices will shape its role in the world’s green transformation.
But can this transformation truly address the concerns? Can the industry balance its need to meet global energy demands with a commitment to minimizing its ecological footprint? The answer isn’t simple, yet it’s a conversation that is lighting up boardrooms, policy discussions, and dinner tables alike.
Economic Realities: Navigating Uncharted Waters
As the spotlight shifts to sustainability, economic realities cast their shadow. The oil and gas industry isn’t just about energy; it’s a pillar of jobs and economic stability. The transition to cleaner energy sources shouldn’t leave behind communities or undermine economies that have relied on oil and gas. It’s a complex ballet of finding innovative ways to shift towards renewable energies while ensuring that the workforce remains secure and economies continue to thrive.
Is it possible to strike a balance? Can the industry maintain its economic importance while evolving to meet the demands of a greener world? The challenge lies not only in technological innovation but in crafting inclusive strategies that embrace communities and create new opportunities.
The stage is set for a profound transformation. The audience, comprising policymakers, industry leaders, environmentalists, and citizens, is engaged in a discourse that holds the potential to rewrite the script of the energy narrative.
It’s not just about finding answers – it’s about engaging in a dialogue that sparks creative solutions. As we navigate this intricate web of challenges, your voice matters. Share your insights, your ideas, and your hopes for a future where energy and environment harmonize.
In the Spotlight: The Industry’s Role in Shaping Tomorrow
The oil and gas industry is no longer just an energy provider; it’s a protagonist in the unfolding story of sustainability. Will it rise to the challenge, adapting and innovating to safeguard the planet while providing the energy that drives societies forward? Can it create a symphony of progress that resonates with both economic realities and environmental aspirations?
The audience awaits. The spotlight is on. It’s time for the oil and gas industry to navigate its path amidst the dilemmas, dancing to the rhythm of innovation and sustainability.
Redefining Energy: Makoro™’s Role in the Oil and Gas Dilemma
In the unfolding drama of the oil and gas industry’s transformation, Makoro™ takes center stage as the ultimate sustainability partner. Makoro™, the trailblazing continuous intelligence (CI) platform, brings a cutting-edge performance to the energy stage, offering innovative solutions to the industry’s eco-conundrum. With its AI-powered insights, Makoro™ turns the spotlight on cleaner extraction methods, real-time environmental monitoring, and optimizing energy production, all while harmonizing with economic realities. As the oil and gas industry navigates the dilemmas of tomorrow, Makoro™ ensures that the spotlight stays firmly on innovation and sustainability, delivering a show-stopping performance that’s bound to leave a lasting impression on the world stage.
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With #3dprinting (also known as “Additive Manufacturing”) gathering mainstream momentum with #smartmanufacturing, researchers are quietly moving on to #4dprinting – an extension of 3D printing
Manufacturing is embarking on a data-driven revolution, but as with all transformations, realizing its full potential will take the right actions, both individually and collaboratively. Within a few years, manufacturers will collaborate in hyperconnected value networks where data and analytics technologies will drive competitiveness, new consumer experiences, and societal and environmental impact.
Indeed, data and analytics are critical to realizing the “Factory of the Future” because they allow transparency, prediction, and augmented and autonomous systems.
Already today, leading manufacturers are leveraging data and analytics to meet their performance, sustainability, and resilience goals. The imperative to increase efficiency and productivity is motivated by extreme cost pressures as well as liquidity concerns resulting from market disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses prioritize sustainable operations – 79% have set a net-zero target, according to a recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey of over 1,700 manufacturing executives. Simultaneously, businesses are attempting to create more robust and connected supply chains in order to predict and react more quickly to disruptions.
The majority of businesses are aware that data and analytics are transforming the way they produce products. 81% of survey respondents report having introduced at least one data and analytics use case, and 72 percent report that the value of data and analytics has risen over the last three years.
Despite their lofty goals and compelling value propositions, businesses have yet to realize the full potential from their analytics initiatives. Currently, only 16% of manufacturing executives report that their business has derived value from data and analytics. While the majority of companies have deployed at least some use cases, only 37% have scaled applications outside particular areas of a factory.
One factor is the focus on data. That may sound like an oxymoron, and it is. The holistic purpose of what your business needs is lost when you focus too much on the data and how it should be made available.
Instead, Makoro™ focuses on the value that your data can deliver to your business. Specifically in terms of predictions, insights and recommendations, thereby providing companies with the agility and capacity to foresee. It helps in planning for changes in process efficiency, employee engagement, and asset performance.
This results in a rapid increase in decision-making continuity and transparency.
Leaders who adopt Makoro™ report an increase in operational agility between 21% and 35%.
Manufacturers will never build in the same way again as a result of Industry 4.0 – the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Manufacturers across all industries are digitizing their businesses to discover new, more cost-effective ways to source materials, run production lines, serve customers, and analyse their results for continuous improvement.
As with any significant change, Industry 4.0 may appear challenging to manufacturing professionals unfamiliar with its implications. Indeed, numerous technologies may play a role in the current revolution. The challenge is to determine which of these technologies have the greatest potential to transform the way you conduct business.
Artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, and blockchain are three technologies that are shaping up Industry 4.0.
As with the majority of Industry 4.0 technologies, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, and blockchain all have one thing in common: they are cloud-based. This means you’ll have easy access to the data storage space and computing power required to analyse the massive amounts of data generated and consumed by these technologies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) assists you in resolving issues by learning from patterns in your data that you might not have noticed on your own. How is this accomplished? By combining automation and machine learning for the purpose of analysing massive amounts of data. This enables you to identify undesirable trends in machine downtime, pinpoint periods of high scrap rates, and use these insights to make more informed profit-maximizing business decisions.
Additive Manufacturing has grown in popularity even outside the manufacturing sector, with the majority of people referring to it by another name: 3D printing. Manufacturers are only beginning to explore the full range of additive manufacturing applications. Several researchers have combined machine learning and generative design to generate alternative part designs.
Blockchain technology improves transparency from raw material procurement to final product delivery and confidence at any level of the industrial value chain. Combining blockchain technology and the Internet of Things aid in resolving issues such as provenance, counterfeit identification, and asset tracking in supply chain management. It also enables new approaches to maintenance (such as digital service agreements) and faster turnaround times.
At Makoro™, we use AI & advanced data analytics to make asset performance management recommendations in the natural language of the user so they can easily understand and act upon the recommendations. This enables faster, better and compliant decision making.
Recommendations from Makoro™ deliver improved asset and process performance consistently. But instead of looking at data and making decisions yourself, the system provides a simple prescription of actions to be taken based on deep analytics. This improves consistency in decision-making and ensures compliance.
Decision-making is transparent as all actions on recommendations are tracked by the system and learned from to make future recommendations better.
Makoro™ connects to any source of data, including data from log files, and excel spreadsheets, and the data that has been sitting on your flash drives.
Makoro™ offers simple SaaS pricing (per asset per month per user) for customers – asset, equipment, and process manufacturers, owners, and operators.
Makoro™ operates frictionlessly across Edge, Private, Public, and Hybrid Clouds, and Customer Data Centers, so it leverages customer’s infrastructure to the maximum.
Makoro™ now offers 4 capability levels – starting with Starter, through Intermediate, Advanced, and Pro, so customers can onboard and scale with ease depending on their requirements.
The 10-Day Challenge program is the right point to start and mitigate your risks in Makoro™ adoption.
According to PwC, computers would drive 70% global GDP growth between now and 2030. This represents a nearly $7 trillion dollar contribution to the United States’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the combined development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and embedded devices. This is the beginning of the emergence of a modern machine economy.
For those unfamiliar with the computer economy, it is a system in which intelligent, wired, autonomous, and economically self-sufficient machines or devices perform required manufacturing, distribution, and operations activities with augmented human involvement. The growth of this economy is critical to the rise of Industry 4.0.
Visionary leaders can integrate new technology and capital investments in ways that enable their businesses to develop, expand, diversify, and ultimately improve lives. This change will help in enabling the global adoption of new economic models. But this will not happen overnight or can be designed & implemented by itself. In order to provide impetus we need to:
1. Encourage participation in manufacturing:
While the majority of people agree that manufacturing is critical to our economy, they do not recommend it to their children. Between now and 2028, it is estimated that 4.6 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled. The workforce is rapidly losing its second-largest age group, and millennials (the largest generation) have historically been uninterested in manufacturing employment. Other than that, they are often attracted to fields such as technology, engineering, and finance. The underlying problem may be one of understanding, as manufacturing in the future would require a much higher level of technology, engineering, and finance to work properly.
2. Nurture diverse abilities:
The manufacturing workforce is undergoing change. The number of solely manual, repetitive tasks is decreasing as technology progresses to automate and robotize these tasks. 50% of manufacturers have now implemented some level of automation, and they now need individuals with analytical thinking, programming, and digital skills. The occupations of the future will include titles including Digital Twin Engineer, Robot Teaming Coordinator, Drone Data Coordinator, Smart Scheduler, Factory Manager, and Safety Supervisor, among others.
3. Invest in both people and technologies:
While unskilled positions can be filled reasonably quickly, it usually takes months to fill a skilled role, and even longer for a person to learn the necessary skills before applying them on the job. Meanwhile, there is increased pressure to maximize the use of time and expertise of the current workforce, which may result in burnout. To prosper in the computer economy, we must make substantial investments in both people and infrastructure. Concentrating exclusively on infrastructure will generate short- and possibly medium-term gains. But it is not sustainable in the long run, and everyone loses.
4. Train and re-train
When individuals are inspired and have access to something to learn, the human capacity for learning is almost unlimited. We must ensure that enough training is available to workers at all levels of the organization. This will ensure that new hires are quickly brought up to speed.
Employers, like employees, must rethink and develop new skills – they must develop new methods for cultivating and retaining talent.
Makoro™’s #DynamicLearning technologies help you recruit and train seasoned staff, and it augments new employees as they enter the field.
Schedule a demo of Makoro™ today to find out how your workforce can leverage its augmentation capabilities.
Industry 3.0 pioneered the idea of automated mass manufacturing, enabling the efficient production of millions of similar goods. As the process’s pace and size grew, labor became an impediment, ushering in an era of outsourcing. Manufacturers rapidly outsourced labor-intensive operations to countries with lower labor costs.
Machines are increasingly driving production processes rather than humans, emphasizing the importance of maintenance and reliability teams.
Maintenance and reliability teams ensured that equipment met efficiency metrics over decades of service during Industry 3.0. Machines were the means of development, and technicians ensured that they worked properly.
The only drawback to this strategy was that it pitted repair and reliability teams against other development departments. For instance, if a computer was required to be shut down for recommended repairs, production would be halted as well. Though machine health could improve, production output decreased in the short term.
Considering the innovation and cutting-edge technology that Industry 4.0 uses, it’s clear that future maintenance and reliability teams will look very different from those in the past.
Manufacturers now face new demands. Usually, Industry 4.0 is synonymous with cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and advanced analytics. But the real reason for their adoption is to drive manufacturing innovation in response to large shifts in market demand in the twenty-first century.
Consumer demand is much more diverse now than it was before, owing to the internet. A viral moment can literally cause demand to spike (or plummet). People demand more customization and sustainable production practices. When all of these factors are considered, it becomes clear that manufacturers now lag behind by 20-30 years.
Demand, sustainability, and cost pressures are all compelling manufacturers to adapt — now, not later.
Maintenance and Dependability in a Changing World:
The irony of Industry 4.0 is that while technology defines and drives it, each advancement increases the need for human input. The fully integrated factory is only a few years away.
In the near future, maintenance and reliability teams will continue to play a critical role in development. Historically, these teams were primarily responsible for planned maintenance and required repairs. That is no longer the case in Industry 4.0, where teams must optimize efficiency while remaining attentive to conflicting demands and shifting forces. Operations and maintenance teams alike will need to consider asset health holistically — both in terms of what they require to accomplish their strategic goals and how best to accomplish them.
Makoro™’s dynamic learning system takes operations management a notch up, where sets of validated recommendations with very high relevance and confidence score can be replicated across multiple locations to derive the maximum value. So instead of sharing data as reports and dashboards, manufacturers and operators share recommendations/prescriptions across locations.
Aligning Reliability and Maintenance with Industry 4.0:
Currently, maintenance and reliability teams are unprepared for the critical role they will play in development. They lack the technologies necessary to track machine health in real-time across several locations. Additionally, the use of siloed systems keeps maintenance and operations disconnected.
For all of these factors, maintenance and reliability teams would need to fully rethink their approach to manufacturing. To start with, recognize the critical role of maintenance and reliability teams in all aspects of factory operations. Second, begin equipping certain teams for the future roles they will fill. Whether by increased preparation, technology, or talent, or a combination of the three, maintenance and reliability teams will need additional resources to handle the additional responsibilities.
Makoro™’s Recommendations Dashboard tracks asset performance metrics and correlates them to recommendations in real-time. Leaders who have embraced Makoro™ have achieved more than 11% improvement in the agility of their operations.
To assist the rapidly increasing e-mobility sector, as well as the energy transition, climate change, and sustainability, all of these initiatives require novel solutions. Additionally, alternative propulsion concepts must be developed to considerably cut CO2 emissions.
That is why advancements in battery manufacture are becoming increasingly important.
However, which batteries and production techniques are capable of meeting escalating demand and stringent specifications? How can manufacturers maximize the sustainability, efficiency, and quality of their plants while automating their processes? New comprehensive automation concepts, such as those based on artificial intelligence and robotics, are critical. Additionally, these notions should consider market requirements, as well as the demands of policymakers and the battery industry. Thus, what are the current trends and future approaches in battery manufacturing that will enable European companies to seize the lead in energy storage for electric vehicles?
Battery makers must excel in terms of quality, increased efficiency, and resource optimization in order to compete better. As the field of e-mobility advances, more advanced battery technologies are being developed. It ensures the vehicles’ durability, safety, and operation. Lithium-ion pouch batteries suit a number of critical current industrial and automobile manufacturing needs. However, pouch cell manufacturing is more complex and time-consuming than cylindrical battery manufacturing. This, in turn, puts unique demands on manufacturing processes. Manufacturers are looking to artificial intelligence to assist with their manufacturing processes. For instance, AI can assist in optimizing machine efficiency and ensuring defect-free output.
Combining artificial intelligence, sensing, control, and robotics delivers higher quality.
While battery producers must react to the market’s ongoing evolution, they demand production processes that can be altered more quickly and flexibly than ever before to suit changing requirements. Combining artificial intelligence, sensing, control, safety, and robotics into a single automation platform enables manufacturers to meet customer criteria for product quality and predictive maintenance while also reaching critical sustainability goals.
Additionally, assistance with integrated battery cell inspection solutions, as well as solutions for electrode and battery module manufacture, can assist in streamlining the testing and providing end-to-end traceability throughout the battery cell’s life.
The technology ensures sustainability.
Battery manufacturers and suppliers require a dependable partner that can give theAsset Performance Managementm powerful technology and relevant advice from a single source in order to be inventive, adaptable, and future-oriented. A holistic, artificial intelligence-based solution can assist industries in reducing waste. When used in conjunction with an intelligent warehouse system and mobile robotics, firms can significantly increase process efficiency and productivity.
Simultaneously, battery cell quality – including capacity and battery life – should be covered sustainably by a manufacturing and lifecycle control solution that is backed up by an in-line inspection system. This solution must take into account all stages, from manufacture to usage and recycling. By applying these technologies, businesses take a critical step toward the future of sustainable industrial and battery production.
Recommendations based on data maximize utilization of production resources.
Today’s batteries as well as their production generate massive amounts of data. Makoro™ provides a range of device and enterprise system connectivity protocol options, and a recommendation system powered by digital performance twin, enabling manufacturers to translate the data generated by the manufacturing processes into a wealth of real-time recommendations. Leveraging these recommendations in battery production helps manufacturers improve their productS and production systems efficiently. They are able to create new business opportunities based on recommendations based on aggregated, correlated, and analyzed operational data.
As a result, battery manufacturers achieve::
Improved productivity of existing plants
Reduced inventory and throughput time
Maximum utilization of production resources
Research indicates that proactive asset recommendations result in an 11% – 13% reduction in raw material usage and a potential savings of up to 15% – 18% in energy utilization.
Digital twin refers to the exact virtual prototype of an object, process, or system covering its entire life cycle. This prototype is based on real-time data and uses simulation, machine learning, and reasoning to help decision-making.
Digital twins form a bridge between the physical and digital worlds.
The concept of the digital twin was first used by NASA. With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), the usage of digital twins is expanding. With the onset of Industry 4.0, the digital twin is becoming inevitable to be used by businesses of all scales to optimize and increase profits of their operations. By allowing the creation of digital copies of real-time objects digital twins have opened new avenues of production, maintenance, design, research, and innovation.
Digital twin allows designing, and real-life simulation of an entity even before it is created. This enables the production of only those products that match the standards defined. For instance, with digital twins, 10 different car models can be digitally created, and with real-life simulation can be digitally checked for possible shortcomings, and based on this a near-perfect product can be created.
Similarly, with digital twins, it is easier to test products in different scenarios without physically requiring the test scenarios. It helps in the optimization and customization of products. In the automobile industry, a digital twin of a car can be tested to handle different collision scenarios, and accordingly, the safety procedure of the car can be updated.
Digital twins in combination with the Internet of things allows for real-time monitoring of objects. With the usage of sensors, the digital twin is continuously monitored remotely. This enables early diagnosis of any future breakdown of the object or system.
Digital twin equipped with real-time data is a tool without rivals in making predictions about possible breakdowns, future wear, and tear. This enables businesses to undertake more efficient preventive maintenance. This reduces the downtime of any unit. With a digital twin, it is also possible to identify the part most likely to malfunction and possible routes to fix the problem.
Teleoperations is one of the key advantage areas of the digital twin. Through teleoperation, it is possible to control the physical object, system, or process remotely. It allows controlling physical objects virtually, virtual objects physically and virtual objects virtually. The combination of these possibilities helps in creating a teleoperation ecosystem. It is of indispensable value in controlling operations in hazardous industries and the environment.
As businesses adopt digital operations and industry 4.0, the firms employing this technology are already gaining an edge in the market. Digital twins are enabling them to better predict, design, maintain and operate their products. The availability of increasingly accurate models and predictions gives them an edge over those that have not adopted the norms yet.
INDUSTRIES EMPLOYING DIGITAL TWIN
POWER GENERATION- Power generation industries employ humongous machinery and operation designs. Digital twin not only helps in better design and modification but also in time maintenance. This sector cannot face shut down as it provides power to all other sectors. Digital twins help in checking any possible fault well in time.
LARGE PHYSICAL STRUCTURES AND THEIR SYSTEMS- Digital twins are imperative in designing large physical structures such as bridges and offshore drilling operations. At the same time, the digital twin is used in the maintenance and remote operations of systems within these structures. For instance, in the case of oil drilling, it helps to predict the depth and exact location of drilling operations most viable for the equipment.
MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS- The manufacturing operations are increasingly using digital twin at all levels. Ffom product design, customization, process, maintenance to delivery of the product.
HEALTHCARE SERVICES- Just like with physical objects, a digital twin of a human can be created. In the healthcare system, the digital twin is used to make a prognosis of the patient, try the possible treatments, check their consequences. It is being used to develop better medical facilities.
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY– The automobile industry operates in complex interwoven systems. The digital twin helps in the design, simulation, and prediction of the automobile as well as that of the environment surrounding it.
These industries are the most prominent employers of digital twins but by no means the only users of digital twins.
Up to 89% of all IoT Platforms will contain some form of Digital Twinning capability by 2025
Digital twinning will become standard feature/functionality for IoT Application Enablement by 2027
How can Makoro™ assist?
Makoro™ employs a cloud-agnostic approach that fully leverages the customer’s infrastructure and installs on the edge, in public/private/hybrid cloud, and in the customer’s data centers to expedite deployment. Makoro™ is also available as a fully managed application suite on Makoro™ Cloud.
Makoro™ Predictive Asset Performance Management solution collects and correlates data from the manufacturer’s internal applications, inventory management systems, and maintenance management systems in real-time and generates recommendations for optimizing asset and workforce utilization while reducing overall maintenance costs. The digital performance twin in Makoro™ Mind constructs an asset health and performance model from data from linked devices and maintains it through periodic re-training. As a consequence of real-time IoT data from the asset, engineers have a full picture of how the asset is operating. Makoro™’s Performance Twin enables the identification of possible asset issues, remote troubleshooting, and integration with Makoro™’s Recommendation System to offer contextual suggestions for proactive asset performance improvement.
And, because Makoro™ enables secure access to your plant’s predictions, insights, and recommendations from any device, it plays a critical role in your remote operations strategy, enabling your operations executives to make more informed, timely, and consistent decisions about their plant’s operations remotely.
Request a demonstration to discover what Makoro™ can do for your business.
