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What’s driving the digital transformation?

13 April 2023

Gareth Jones discusses the key challenges that are driving the digital transformation today.

When it comes to digitalisation, sustainability is without a doubt very high up the list of priorities today. We are seeing more and more emphasis placed on it almost on a daily basis. There are several drivers behind this – firstly, there is now widespread acceptance that urgent action on climate is required. Not a week goes by without a new weather record being broken somewhere in the world, and it is clear that maintaining the status quo is simply not an option any more.

Meanwhile, the global energy crisis is also focusing minds on sustainability issues. Where previously if a company wanted to reduce their electricity costs they could shop around for a cheaper deal, now there are no cheaper deals, and so the focus needs to be on improving the energy efficiency of what we already have.

Upgrading legacy equipment comes with an upfront cost, yet increasing energy prices have, paradoxically, made the business case for energy efficiency even more compelling. Payback times that used to be measured in years are now becoming viable to a matter of weeks or months, and so applications that previously were too expensive or difficult to upgrade are now becoming viable and will very quickly make back the initial investment through reduced energy costs. 

Questions are being asked
Where sustainability was traditionally low down the list of priorities, people are now asking questions of their suppliers about how recyclable their equipment is. These are conversations that simply weren’t happening 10 years ago, and it goes to show that there is an increasing expectation among customers that products have to be greener and our more sustainable. Investors also increasingly want to invest in green companies, or companies that have plans to be green. To that end, the value of a business is now impacted directly by how credible their plans are to operate in a lower carbon world.

In response, ABB’s Energy Efficiency Movement has been developed to help organisations find the hidden energy saving opportunities across their facilities, while also providing the framework to support them in developing a realistic plan to reach Net Zero. 

We are also seeing the role of energy managers changing. These are now very senior roles, often reporting directly to board level and their remit is growing. They are now essentially ‘Change Managers’, managing the transition towards decarbonisation across all aspects of the business – from operations to fleet management.

Another major driver is technology, and specifically digitalisation. Today there is no such thing as too much information, and advances in sensor and analytics technology, underpinned by developments in cloud computing and digital connectivity, are now enabling application-specific insight and data-driven decision-making on an asset-by-asset basis.” 

Digitalisation facilitates granular analysis of a motor’s condition and energy performance by using smart sensors to measure actual performance directly and continuously, without the need for manual inspection. This allows minor problems such as overheating or excessive vibration to be detected and rectified before they turn into major failures, helping equipment to last much longer while saving time and money. To put this in context, replacing a worn bearing on a motor is typically a one-hour job, yet a major rewind caused by a bearing failure can put a motor out of action for several days, or mean that it must be replaced entirely.

Gareth Jones is Local Division Manager for Drive Products and System Drives for Motion at ABB.


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