The Industrial Internet is driving new efficiency gains and accelerating productivity, promising substantial economic benefits for Africa.
The Industrial Internet merges big data with big iron, integrating cloud-based analytics with industrial machinery, resulting in greater efficiency and reduced down time.
Together, these trends are shaping a future where traditional industrial assets become interconnected devices.
It is changing the nature of economies of scale, and blurring the lines between manufacturing and services.
Advanced manufacturing can help African industry bypass traditional models of industrialisation, as the sizeable investment that enables large factories are no longer necessary for experimentation.
But the Industrial Internet can feel unfathomable, partly because so much of the action is taking place offscreen—beyond our view.
Computer programs sift machine-performance data in real time for patterns and anomalies, and embedded algorithms in the software determine what the computer will tell the machine to do next.
This enables industrial applications, where machines work in unison or in co-operation—think wind turbines or the machinery in a manufacturing plant—to become much faster, and more efficient.
GE software engineers are currently using a “first-of-its-kind” industrial-strength software development platform called Predix to build Industrial Internet applications.
The platform enables industrial-scale analytics for asset and operations optimization by providing a standard way to connect machines, data, and people.
Predix is the foundation for all of GE’s Industrial Internet applications, providing powerful, consistent, secure, and scalable support for the solutions Africa can rely on to optimize its businesses.
The following video shows examples of Predix in action.
