ZURICH, March 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With the
commercial launch of more than 180 solutions and services today,
ABB is unlocking value for customers in the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. By combining ABB's deep domain expertise with network
connectivity and the latest digital technologies and innovations,
ABB Ability creates powerful solutions and services that solve real
business problems and produce tangible business opportunities.
ABB Ability helps customers in utilities, industry, transport
and infrastructure develop new processes and advance existing ones
by providing insights and optimizing planning and controls for
real-time operations. The results can then be fed into control
systems to improve key metrics such as factory uptime, speed and
yield.
The offering builds on ABB's pioneering technology and more than
four decades of industrial digital leadership. It will enhance
customers' ability to innovate and compete in the emerging
digital-industrial marketplace.
"As a pioneering technology leader in digital solutions, with an
installed base of more than 70 million connected devices and 70,000
control systems, ABB is uniquely positioned to support its
customers' digital transformation," said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. "With ABB Ability, we are
combining ABB's entire portfolio of digital solutions and services.
We are creating additional customer value by bringing together
ABB's domain expertise, advanced connectivity and the latest
digital technologies. With this, our customers can achieve
unprecedented improvements in operational performance and
productivity."
Digital offerings provided by ABB Ability include performance
management solutions for asset-intensive industries; control
systems for process industries; remote monitoring services for
robots, motors and machinery; and control solutions for buildings,
electric-vehicle charging networks and offshore platforms. Some of
the more specialized offerings address energy management for data
centers and navigation optimization for maritime shipping fleets,
among many others.
Customers who are already using the portfolio of digital
solutions that are now part of ABB Ability include some of the
world's leading utilities, manufacturers and service providers,
among them Shell Oil, CenterPoint Energy, Con Edison, BASF, Royal
Caribbean, Cargill, Volvo, BMW and many others.
ABB Ability's next-generation digital solutions and services are
being developed and built on Microsoft's leading Azure cloud
platform, based on a strategic partnership with the software
company.
"Building our solutions on the Azure platform means we can take
advantage of all of its capabilities and add value with our
domain-specific offering," said ABB Chief Digital Officer
Guido Jouret. "In effect, we are
turning ABB's decades of industrial domain expertise into software
offerings that our customers can access through the world's largest
and most advanced digital platform. From being a hidden digital
champion, we are becoming the partner of choice for customers
embarking on a digital transformation. They can now know more, do
more, do better, together. We can help them assess, automate,
optimize and collaborate."
Among the new ABB Ability innovations showcased in Houston are:
- ABB Ability System 800xA – One of the solutions provided by ABB
Ability builds on the market-leading automation platform System
800xA. Select I/O, a new addition to System 800xA, is a redundant,
Ethernet-based, single-channel I/O system. It supports ABB's
next-generation project execution model, Intelligent Projects,
which offers a range of efficiency improvements for automation
projects. With Select I/O, customers can undertake major projects
on a faster schedule with fewer cost overruns. It uses standardized
cabinets that allow installers to digitally marshal signals instead
of using labor-intensive marshalling panels. Loop checks can be
done before the rest of the system is delivered, minimizing the
impact of late changes and allowing for project tasks to be
executed in parallel.
- ABB Ability Asset Health Center – Among the first ABB Ability
solutions to be launched on Azure is ABB's next-generation asset
performance management solution, Asset Health Center 3.0. Available
since January 2017, it uses
predictive and prescriptive analytics and customized models to
identify and prioritize emerging maintenance needs based on
probability of failure and asset criticality.
- ABB Ability Collaborative Operations – This powerful solution,
now being brought to scale across industries, helps customers
collaborate more effectively. It allows experts to work together
across organization boundaries, using the same data and analytics
platforms. It focuses on such outcomes as improving productivity,
reducing equipment failures, lowering the cost of asset maintenance
and transforming overall business performance. This is done while
maximizing security and protecting data, people and assets at every
level of integration. The solution has been delivering sustainable,
long-term results to early adopters.
- ABB Ability Digital Substation – ABB's digital substation
provides customers in the utility sector with unmatched control and
efficiency. The digital substation incorporates fiber optic current
sensors and disconnecting circuit breakers to reduce maintenance
requirements and the need for miles of conventional cabling. ABB
Ability takes these advances several steps further by combining the
latest electrical gear with digital sensors and cloud computing.
The result is that grid operators can make decisions based on
comprehensive, up-to-the-moment information, while predictive
algorithms can improve maintenance practices and asset
management.
- ABB Ability Smart Sensor – This smart sensor solution, unveiled
last year, connects low-voltage electric motors to the Industrial
Internet, allowing them to be monitored continuously. The solution,
which can be easily affixed to a motor, transmits data on
vibration, temperature, loads and power consumption to the cloud.
Alerts are generated as soon as any of the parameters deviates from
the norm, allowing the operator to take preventive action before
the motor malfunctions. Early indications are that the smart sensor
solution leads to a reduction in downtime of motors by up to 70
percent and extends their lifespan by up to 30 percent. Acting on
the data to optimize the motor's performance reduces energy
consumption by as much as 10 percent.
The list of innovative and versatile solutions associated with
ABB Ability continues, with such offerings as ABB Ability Asset
Insight, ABB Ability Ellipse Enterprise Asset Management software,
and the ABB Ability Data Center Automation infrastructure
management software. With solutions like these and many more, ABB
Ability will serve customers in utilities, industry, and transport
and infrastructure. It will leverage the power of the digital
revolution by enabling reduced maintenance costs, longer asset
life, more efficient operations, reduced environmental impacts and
improved worker safety.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology
leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial
automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities,
industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing
more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing
the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and
Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100
countries with about 132,000 employees. www.abb.com
For more information, please contact:
Media Relations
Phone: +41 43 317 65 68
Email: media.relations@ch.abb.com
Investor Relations
Phone: +41 43 317 71 11
Email: investor.relations@ch.abb.com
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SOURCE ABB