Predictive Analytics can protect more than you think

In fact, Predictive Analytics can protect our access to the basic necessities or energy and water in a time of extreme volatility.

According to NASA’s Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit (ESRS), there have been 24 natural disasters so far in 2022. These includes floods, tropical storms, wildfires and landslides. On top of that, micro-disasters such as local flooding seen in Mississippi is leaving more than 150,000 people without clean water. This is due to a failure at a water treatment facility caused by a dramatic rise in the Pearl River’s water levels. These disasters can strike in the matter of seconds and create a ripple effect that spans days, or even months.

To be prepared for a more volatile world, it is imperative to align software to the most critical aspects of your business. In the case of Mississippi’s water shortage, pumps in the filtration system failed due to being overworked, making it impossible to support key processes.

As of now it is unclear if software was being used to support maintenance and production. But, if it were, it could be leveraged in the following ways to help avoid similar situations in the future:

• Implementing Performance Digital Twins on the most critical assets: in this case, pumps and the train of equipment supporting them could be embedded with Digital Twins. This digital representation collects real-time performance data, external environmental data, and gives a user the chance to run simulations. In the case of Mississippi, a Digital Twin could have alerted of potential shifts in the operating environment.  

• Layering in Predictive Analytics & Diagnostics: Analytics do not have to be “all or nothing.” In fact, there is incredible business value aligning them to the processes that are most important to an operation. In the energy space, the pursuit of total digital transformation takes time and money, but that doesn’t mean the process can’t start today. Take the pump for example, it is just one piece of an overall production puzzle but is integral to meeting operational goals. By aligning analytics to the pump, the plant could have leverage historic and real-time data to quickly identify changes in performance. The analytics could then be translated into diagnostics that give plant operators a clear path forward to ensure uptime. As Digital Twins work on collecting external data, diagnostics can give insights into what needs to happen at the plant to make sure environmental changes don’t cause a shutdown

• Tack on Production Loss Analysis (PLA): Sadly, there is no way to fully prevent disasters at the plant level. PLA, however, provides a capability that allows you to manage production goals, collect actual production values, track production events and impacts, and reconcile production targets. This makes it easy to visualize production losses and their impacts so that you can accurately measure, analyze, and communicate production performance. In the scenario where production is impacting over 150,000 people, PLA can be a concise way for an organization to report clearly on the impact and provide a view into when a potential reconciliation can be made.

In a time where volatility is increasing, organizations need to be ready to stay online no matter the circumstance. Across Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Renewables, Metals & Mining, and others, it is now almost a requirement that business become more agile. With Performance Digital Twins monitoring external factors, Predictive Analytics and Diagnostics scanning real-time data, and PLA compartmentalizing performance to be communicated clearly, an organization can gain a deeper understanding of its innerworkings and ensure continuity no matter the situation.