通用电气如何从数据中创收10亿

    一个四四方方、矮墩墩的机器人按照指令在台上碎步疾行，然后在一个巨大的机车发动机模型旁边停了下来。

    它的传感器在探测周围环境，收集温度信息并进行分析。检测到某一数据过高时，它便呼叫一位现场服务人员前来帮助。在它的人类同事到达后，机器人将报告发送到此人佩戴的智能眼镜上，交给他一份从云数据库下载的维修步骤说明。

    这就是新型服务机器人“Guardian”（保护者），一种陆地自主行驶车辆（Autonomous Ground Vehicle，简称AGV），由通用电气公司（General Electric，简称GE）旗下的智能系统研究实验室设计。

    在美国纽约召开的一次简报会上，GE向大家进行了这番演示，以此预言了这样的未来：在医疗、制造和现场服务等领域，机器人将会负责处理一系列枯燥、肮脏和危险的工作，而人类则负责那些需要高级认知技能和精细动作技能的任务。

    这就是GE所说的“工业互联网”（Industrial Internet）——外界又称物联网——的下一个阶段，将有越来越多的联网设备向企业提供有价值的数据。

    据GE最高管理层透露，仅今年一年，这一现象就预计可为公司增加10亿美元的营收，其中大部分将来自于先进的资产性能管理服务。（GE的服务部门每年可创450亿美元的营收）。在这一策略的推动下，GE去年向易安信（EMC）拆分出来的数据分析公司Pivotal投资了1.05亿美元。

    在第三届“智慧+机器”（Minds + Machines）年度峰会上，公司董事长兼首席执行官杰夫•伊梅尔特对出席会议的数百位客户和分析师说：“如果昨晚你睡觉时还是一家工业公司，那么今天醒来就会变成一家软件和数据分析公司。这种变化正在我们眼前发生。GE想要成为你们的合作伙伴。”

    伊梅尔特表示，凭借公司的Predix技术，GE已经获得了5,000万个数据点，由安装在各种设备上的1,000万部传感器收集并传送数据，这些设备类型广泛，医学成像系统、机车、喷气发动机均囊括在内，价值总计达1万亿美元。

    现在，这些信息正在帮助GE的客户提高运营效率，进行预测性维护与诊断来减少停机时间，以及应用于机队管理的同步化。

    GE副总裁兼销售与市场商务官凯特•约翰逊举了一个例子：最近，一家海上石油钻井平台运营商在动态生产数据中检测到了异常状况，从而避免了潜在的事故。通过及时更换问题部件，该公司避免了750万美元的损失。

    其他例子还包括：通过与GE合作管理涡轮机，风力发电场运营商意昂集团（E.ON）将发电量提高了4%；根据GE收集到的喷气发动机性能数据，亚洲航空集团（AirAsia Group）利用Predix来变更飞行路径和优化空中交通流量，有望在今年节省多达1,000万美元的燃油成本。亚航集团飞行员技术和效率主管拉杰什•吉尔说：“这些数据一直用于安全领域，现在这些实时数据流还可用来规划航线。”

    到2014年年底时，市面上将有40多项基于GE平台的应用与服务，但是该公司希望Predix能够面向所有有意开发工业解决方案的企业，以便激励更多的公司参与其中。

    另外，GE还在与思科系统公司（Cisco Systems）和英特尔公司（Intel）携手合作，确保未来的路由器及其他联网设备支持自己的技术。为了解决安全问题，GE旗下的网络安全子公司Wurldtech正在测试一种防火墙，这种防火墙将专门用于为传感器、变电站、火车及其他工业设备提供特殊保护。

    在这次的简报会上，GE的几位客户指出，鉴于2020年的联网机器数量预计将达500亿台，GE的工业互联网战略所面临的最大挑战不是技术，而是必要的流程再造，这不仅是为了理解数据，也是为了根据数据采取有意义的行动。亚航的吉尔说：“别忘了其中人的因素。如果没有人来提取数据，从而让工业互联网成为现实，那么这一切都是空谈。”(财富中文网)

    The square, squat robot scuttles across the stage on command, pausing next to a massive model depicting a locomotive engine.

    Its sensors probe the surroundings, collecting and analyzing temperatures. Detecting an unusually high reading, it calls for help from a field service agent. When his human colleague arrives, the robot sends its report to his smart eyeglasses, offering step-by-step repair instructions it downloaded from a cloud database.

    Meet the “Guardian,” a new breed of service robot known as an autonomous ground vehicle envisioned by General Electric’s intelligent systems research laboratory.

    The demonstration scenario shared during a New York briefing suggests a future in which robots handle dull, dirty and dangerous work across a range of health care, manufacturing and field service applications while humans handle duties requiring more advanced cognitive and fine-motor skills.

    For GE, this is the next phase of the “Industrial Internet,” its in-house phrase for what others call the Internet of things—the ever-growing collection of connected devices “talking” to businesses with valuable data.

    This phenomenon is worth an estimated $1 billion in incremental revenue for the company this year alone, mostly in the form of advanced asset performance management services, according to GE’s top executive. (GE’s services group generates $45 billion annually.) Last year, the strategy inspired GE’s $105 million investment in Pivotal, a data analytics company spun out from EMC.

    “If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to wake up this morning as a software and analytics company,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt told 100s of customers and analysts attending the third “Minds + Machines” summit. “This change is happening in front of us. GE wants to be your partner.”

    Using its Predix technology, GE already captures 50 million data points collected and communicated by 10 million sensors installed on $1 trillion worth of equipment ranging from medical imaging systems to locomotives to jet engines, Immelt said.

    Right now, that information is helping GE customers drive higher operational efficiencies, predictive maintenance and diagnostics that can reduce downtime, and synchronized fleet management applications.

    Kate Johnson, vice president and commercial officer for sales and marketing at GE, offers the example of an offshore oil rig operator that recently averted a potential failure after detecting changes in production performance data. The savings: $7.5 million in lost production by replacing the part proactively.

    Elsewhere, wind farm operator E.ON generates 4% more power from turbines it manages in collaboration with GE; and AirAsia Group stands to save up to $10 million in fuel costs this year by using Predix to reroute flight paths and optimize air traffic flow, based (among other things) on the performance data it collects about GE jet engines. “This data has been available for safety applications, now these livestreams could be used for flight planning,” said Rajesh Gill, group chief pilot technical and efficiency, AirAsia.

    By the end of 2014, there will be more than 40 applications and services based on GE’s platform but the company hopes to spur many others by making Predix available to businesses interested in developing industry-specific solutions.

    What’s more GE is working with Cisco Systems and Intel to make sure support for its technology is included in future routers and other connected devices. To address security concerns, GE’s Wurldtech division is testing a firewall designed for the unique protection considerations of sensors, substations, trains and other industrial equipment.

    With more than 50 billion connected machines predicted by 2020, the biggest challenge to GE’s industrial Internet strategy isn’t the technology it’s the processes reengineering that must take place not just to make sense of data but to take meaningful action on it, noted several GE customers during the briefing. “Remember the human interface. All this means nothing if you don’t have someone extracting this data to make it reality,” AirAsia’s Gill said.