Co-Creating the Future: Part 1 - The Time Is Ripe for Change

In part one of our new Co-Creating the Future series with SIG, we’ll share insights into why the food and beverage industry is ready for digital transformation and a new era of opportunities.  This post was originally published on SIG’s SIGnals blog.

 There are few areas of life that haven’t been transformed by digital technology. For several decades, it’s been changing the way we work, shop, and communicate. Yet it’s only relatively recently that industrial companies have started unlocking the possibilities of digitization and the Internet of Things (IoT). Why? 

Unlocking insights-led innovation

The current period of the digital age is being marked by ever-more powerful software, algorithms, and machine learning capabilities that simply weren’t possible or affordable a few years ago. At the same time, many industries are now ready to embrace digital transformation, particularly the food and beverage industry.

Consumers are demanding innovative and convenient products that are not only safe and sustainable, but affordable and differentiated. On the other hand, food and beverage manufacturers are facing competitive pressures, supply chain complexities, and ever-shorter production cycles. This complex operating environment is creating an increased need for technologies that enable manufacturers to quickly identify, predict, and act on changing consumer and market demands.  

GE was an early mover in the digital space, driving digital transformation across a range of industries including power generation, aviation, and oil and gas. Powered by Predix Platform, the leading application development platform for the Industrial Internet, GE Digital industrial apps are solving customer challenges and driving outcomes. Customers are harnessing the power of the Predix portfolio to create new business opportunities, such as predicting failures before they happen with Predix Asset Performance Management (Predix APM) and optimizing the way field service technicians are dispatched with Predix ServiceMax. This means companies can improve operations, lower costs, and develop and monetize new data-driven services. And it’s having a huge impact – in 2017, GE Digital’s Managed Services team alone saved its customers over a billion dollars in production costs.

A digital industrial era

It’s because of this unrivaled digital expertise that SIG is partnering with GE Digital to power innovation in the food and beverage industry. Together, they are set to deploy GE Digital’s applications across more than 400 customer factories worldwide to drive new levels of efficiency, create intelligent solutions, and open up new possibilities in how SIG predicts, manages, and services its filling lines.

The new global partnership will see SIG and GE Digital collaborate on a broad range of innovative digital solutions—from offering 3D-printed spare parts to ensuring a fully connected and intelligent supply chain. By automatically collecting and analysing asset data—tapping into billions of data points across real-time operations—SIG and its customers can move beyond traditional asset monitoring and predictive service models to reimagine their supply chain, enhance quality control technologies, and evolve their portfolio mix.

“Our ability to harness data is central to delivering on our promise of opening up new opportunities for our customers,” says SIG’s CEO, Rolf Stangl. “By tapping into information in new and innovative ways, we will be able to deliver an unmatched level of performance, security, transparency and creativity across the entire food and beverage supply chain – through to the end consumer.” 

Co-Creating the Future blog series

In our Co-Creating the Future blog series, we’ll explore how SIG and GE Digital will drive a new era of co-innovation in which manufacturers can reach new levels of data-driven intelligence to transform their business. We’ll examine how businesses can prepare for the digital journey ahead and the key steps to take.

Stay tuned for part two when we’ll look at making the shift from paper to data, the common hurdles and the benefits awaiting those that make this crucial step.

Want to know more about SIG’s partnership with GE Digital? Check out this recent blog on the partnership announcement.

Read Part 2 in this blog series: Making Your Data Digital