Industrial risk management and mitigation are some things many businesses have to consider–risks to their equipment, employees, revenue, and reputation as well as surrounding communities, the environment, and wildlife. Until recently, businesses have had to plan their strategies based on historical data of past incidents and traditional approaches to maintenance, to prevent the same type of unfortunate events. That means accidents have had to occur for businesses to learn from them–which can have a high financial cost as well as the number of lives impacted and damage to the environment, and beyond.
Now, technology is at the point where it can change risk mitigation to be more efficient–now the combination of data and technology can help businesses foresee avoidable risk, and not just based on incidents that have occurred in the past.
In this episode of SAP Better Together we focus on AllAssets, an enterprise software platform developed by Lloyd’s Register that consolidates and analyzes data across assets, humans, and environmental variables to provide a comprehensive view of asset and facility performance. You can find the whole series at SAP.com/btp, and read on for key takeaways.
We talked to Oz Rodriguez, Head of Product GTM Strategy, Lloyd’s Register, about his vision for AllAssets and how its impact goes beyond operational efficiency to support greater sustainability and employee well-being. We also spoke to Dr. Ganapathi Pulipaka, Chief Data Scientist and Technical Lead, Accenture, for a high-level perspective on intelligent risk management.
- For the podcast, Tamara McCleary, CEO, Thulium, spoke with Oz and Ganapathi about the factors in the market that led Lloyd’s Register to develop AllAssets, how it relates to their mission, as well to what companies stand to gain from a more proactive approach to risk mitigation. They also touched on a few real-world examples of the technology at work, what future versions might look like, and the implications for businesses and customers alike.
- In the LinkedIn session, I talked with Oz about how to quantify the benefits of this approach and the software, how it integrates with other technologies, and how to best communicate its value to businesses.
Here are a few highlights;
Risk Management That Saves Lives
Every year businesses repeat the damage done by equipment failure, environmental factors, and human error. Many of them could be prevented with more efficient risk mitigation that leverages all available data to build models that can predict the possibility of various kinds of incidents.
Oz points out that the AllAssets reveals opportunities to improve operational efficiency and reduce downtime while enhancing safety. Eventually, he says he’d like to see “zero harm, zero incidents, zero accidents. And that applies to any industrial environment or any company.”
Businesses “should be able to leverage and combine historical data, and they should be able to combine the current database and other trends and descriptive analytics,” says Ganapathi. “And they can actually fix the problems before they occur.”
A Smarter Way to Maintain Equipment
Lloyd’s Register wanted customers to have access to a single, comprehensive view of equipment functioning to support proactive maintenance. AllAssets eliminates incomplete, missing, redundant, and low-quality data and also allows users to input specific parameters to get customized recommendations for optimal upkeep.
For example, “If you change this operating condition, we recommend you do this type of inspection, this type of maintenance,” says Oz. “Because as you change conditions, the work that you are doing on your equipment needs to accommodate those changes.”
Safeguarding the Earth
Intelligent risk management is also key to cultivating sustainability around the world. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits of preventing accidents that leak harmful substances into the ground or the atmosphere, data and technology-driven risk mitigation can also protect brand credibility. Even small incidents can damage a business’s reputation, especially if they claim safety and sustainability as company values.
At the same time, governments are instituting stricter regulations, investors are increasingly on the lookout for any sustainability concerns or failings, and consumers are putting pressure on businesses to be more green. “The mentality is changing tremendously” in favor of sustainability as a differentiator, says Oz.
The Gift of Foresight
It just isn’t humanly possible to plan for all possible risks. A site manager with perhaps hundreds or thousands of pieces of equipment to look after has limited resources and time to prevent accidents.
But what humans can’t do, machines can. Technology gives businesses the gift of foresight, taking on the burden of collecting and analyzing data on a massive scale to identify risks. “It’s allowing them to focus the resources, the people and their knowledge, on the key critical equipment that they need to look after,” says Oz.
This is particularly valuable when applied to equipment where it can be hard to detect issues because it is difficult to access or situated in remote or dangerous environments. Greater visibility into risks can have huge implications for industries where accidents can be catastrophic, such as nuclear energy and air and space travel.
Less Risk = Better Outcomes for Everyone
When business, human, and environmental goals all interconnect on an intelligent platform that uses data to assess and minimize risk, the results can include potentially higher profits over time, more satisfied employees, and a healthier planet. “Sustainability, managing risk, and safety, leveraging digital technologies, and adapting to new ways of working–that’s what operational excellence right now is,” says Oz.
Looking for more customer success stories about optimizing operations and avoiding downtime?
- KAESER KOMPRESSOREN – Reimagining Design to Operate for Fast Product Delivery and Improved Service
- Newcrest Mining: Setting the Gold Standard for Worker Safety and Productivity
Looking for more stories like this from SAP Business Technology Platform customers? Check out the whole Better Together: Customer Conversations series, and more, at sap.com/BTP.
