Page 56 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

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the next five years. And while advanced economies have the highest
penetration rates of social media, East Asia, South-East Asia and Central
America are above the global average of 30% and growing fast. WeChat
(Weixin), a China-based mobile text and voice messaging service, gained
around 150 million users in just 12 months to the end of 2015, year-on-year

growth of at least 39%. 36

3.2.2 Data-Enhanced Products

New technologies are transforming how organizations perceive and manage

their assets, as products and services are enhanced with digital capabilities
that increase their value. Tesla, for example, shows how over-the-air
software updates and connectivity can be used to enhance a product (a car)
after purchase, rather than let it depreciate over time.

Not only are new materials making assets more durable and resilient but
data and analytics are also transforming the role of maintenance. Analysis

provided by sensors placed on assets enables their constant monitoring and
proactive maintenance and, in doing so, maximizes their utilization. It is no
longer about finding specific faults but rather about using performance

benchmarks (based on data supplied by sensors and monitored through
algorithms) that can highlight when a piece of equipment is moving outside
its normal operating window. On aircrafts, for example, the airline control
centres know before the pilots do if an engine is developing a fault on a
particular plane. They can therefore instruct the pilot on what to do and

mobilize the maintenance crew in advance at the flight destination.

In addition to maintenance, the ability to predict the performance of an asset
enables new business models to be established. Asset performance can be
measured and monitored over time – analytics provide insights on
operational tolerances and provide the basis for outsourcing products that

are not core or strategic to the needs of the business. SAP is an example of a
company that is leveraging data from physical products embedded in
agriculture to increase uptime and utilization.

The ability to predict the performance of an asset also offers new
opportunities to price services. Assets with high throughput such as lifts or
walkways can be priced by asset performance, and service providers can

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