As AspenTech’s OPTIMIZE 2021 conference, the premier global event for operational executives and digital leaders within capital-intensive industries, wraps up – we have captured the key highlights and takeaways from the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) team to help you navigate through the recorded sessions to learn more about how to leverage Industrial AI in your organization. Please note that all these recorded sessions will only be available on-demand until June 30th, 2021.

 

Step 1: Build an AIoT Vision and Strategy for the Future 

 

 

To get started, we recommend viewing the session by SVP & GM of AIoT Solutions, Bill Scudder - Unlock the Industry of the Future When AI Meets IoT: Get Your AIoT Strategy Right. Bill explains the confluence of AI and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and describes how it accelerates the digitalization journey across industries. He describes the next generation of Industrial AI applications and explains how they will interpret, and often predict, using deep analytics and machine learning techniques, transforming industrial data into business outcomes. In this session, Bill also discusses the impact of technologies such as 5G, Industrial AI, big data, intelligent edge, smart machines, and robotics. He also shares an AIoT vision for the future – underpinned by the award-winning Aspen AIoT Hub™. To get the gist of this presentation, check out our blog article as well.

 

Step 2: Outline your AIoT Solution Architecture 

 

 

Once you have understood the strategic drivers, you are ready to chalk out your AIoT solution architecture to align with your business goals. To learn more, we encourage you to watch the session with Fred Bastien, VP of AIoT Products and R&D - Realizing the Vision: When Artificial Intelligence Meets the Internet of Things. Fred outlines how the Aspen AIoT Hub provides the integrated data management, edge and cloud infrastructure and production-grade AI environment to build, deploy and host Industrial AI applications at enterprise speed and scale. He explains in insightful detail how the Aspen AIoT Hub is a fit-for-purpose, cloud-ready and built-for-industry Industrial AI infrastructure solution. Joining him in this session is Yaacoub Awad, Principle Consultant Specialist, who provides a complete real-world, end-to-end solution demonstration of the Aspen AIoT Hub in action. To review highlights of this presentation, you can check out this blog article.

 

Step 3: Make AIoT Real for Your Enterprise – Proof Points for AIoT Solutions in Action 

 

 

We strongly advocate for an evolutionary approach to digitization, and as such we believe in proving the value of the AspenTech AIoT solutions by showing them in action and addressing real-world use cases. Throughout OPTIMIZE 2021, we included several compelling product demonstrations that brought the AIoT solutions to life – and the customer responses have been incredible. Here are four hand-picked demos for you to explore further:

 

1. Aspen AIoT Hub Overview Product Demonstration: In this session, the AIoT Hub product managers showcase how customers are employing cloud-ready AIoT solutions to harmonize industrial data management, accelerate time-to-insight and streamline their Industrial AI deployment pipeline.
2. The Aspen AIoT Hub Full Stack Solution Leverage the Industrial AI-Ready Infrastructure: The AI and IIoT ecosystems are highly fragmented in terms of vendors and products. With its comprehensive suite of products, the Aspen AIoT Hub offers a complete and readily available Industrial AI and Industrial IoT full-stack solution – all the way from capturing data to driving meaningful business decisions. This presentation elaborates on this integration and showcases how data from on-premise historians is streamed to Aspen Cloud™, and how apps such as Aspen Enterprise Insights™ can leverage this AI-ready infrastructure to transform business workflows.
3. A Vision for the Aspen Intelligent Edge: This demo presents our vision for an end-to-end edge solution that increases on-premise autonomy and reduces latencies. The session illustrates the lifecycle of two Industrial AI models being created and stored in the cloud – and one of them deployed and executed at the edge.  Also shown is how to stream the required input data to the model and periodically expose monitoring metrics that are visualized.
4. Improving Enterprise Performance with Aspen Enterprise Insights Apps:  In this demo, you will see how Aspen Enterprise Insights™ can help organizations improve enterprise performance management, integrating people, data and workflows into their daily processes. These processes can be easily adapted to evolving business needs to support the typical governance and sustainability challenges customers might regularly face.

 

Step 4: Realize Business Value Through Aspen AIoT Hub Customer Success Stories 

 

 

Real-world customer validation and measurable business value are critical to proving out the benefits of any technological investment – and AIoT is no different. Several of our customers presented at OPTIMIZE 2021 and shared their success stories on how they are using Aspen AIoT Hub-enabled solutions to power their digitization strategies. 

 

1. BP - Dr. Sean Goodhart, Advisor, Control & Automation presented on the topic of Track Performance and Preserve Benefits. With regard to the AIoT solutions, he spoke of the cloud-hosted performance monitoring system for APC applications based on Aspen InfoPlus.21™ (IP.21) data historian and aspenONE Process Explorer™ technologies, using secure IP.21 data replication over HTTPS. He delved into the key challenge of navigating the digital security barriers (including DMZs) between the process control networks and the cloud.
2. GSK - Andrew Jenkins, Director, Manufacturing Platform presented on the topic of Building a Future-Ready Supply Chain with Electronic Batch Records. In its Pharma Supply Chain (PSC), GSK is taking bold steps on inventory, productivity and procurement to maintain a balanced scorecard and provide the cash to reinvest in innovation. Digital Data & Analytics (DDA) is one of three key tools that will enable GSK to deliver its PSC Future-Ready Ambition. Making the most of DDA is one important way it will drive productivity. By leveraging the Aspen AIoT Hub products, and having the right data at the right time, GSK is able to have end-to-end supply chain visibility, minimize data integrity issues, reduce errors and  waste and make smarter, quicker and more informed decisions. GSK's eBRS or Electronic Batch Record System (see image at the top of this section) is one of the important systems it is deploying to make its DDA strategy a reality.
3. Marathon Petroleum Corporation - Michelle Broad, Senior IT Business Analyst, and Courtney La Borde, Accounting Analyst presented on the topic of Applying Innovation to Production Accounting. They explain how in the Fall of 2019, Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) embarked on a journey to create a new centralized production accounting business function, establish a unified production accounting business process and roll out a standardized software solution across 17 sites, including 16 refineries and a biodiesel plant. In this presentation, you will learn what made the MPC production accounting initiative a success and what the MPC-AspenTech project team has learned during the first phase of Aspen Operations Reconciliation and Accounting (AORA) implementation in MPC as well as benefits achieved thus far.
4. Oryx GTL Ltd. - Aadil Syed, M.E.S. Specialist presented on the topic - First Step of Digitalization - Data Optimization & Value Addition Through Traditional MES Implementation – In this presentation, Aadil from Oryx GTL Ltd. discusses the need for organizations to leverage new technological opportunities or face the growing pressures of market and competitive risks. He shares how the proper implementation of a core Aspen AIoT Hub solution and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) has and will empower their digital initiatives. In fact, the session shows how MES is the key first-step enabler of digital transformation and how all newer technologies can be leveraged to enhance and obtain more sophisticated MES functionalities (see image above). This approach aligns very well with how we believe data historians have evolved to make industrial data actionable – you can read more in our recent CIO.com article.
5. Aditya Birla Group -  Ashish Desai, CIO, and Dhruv Jain, Digital and Industry 4.0 Lead presented on the subject, Central Manufacturing Cockpit: Operations Excellence for Manufacturing Efficiency. Aditya Birla Chemicals is part of the Aditya Birla Group, a $46 Billion organization that has a global footprint across all continents in multiple manufacturing businesses. Aditya Birla Chemicals focuses on Chlor-Alkali manufacturing and is the largest player of chlor-alkali (1147K TPA) business in India. The Chemicals business currently has eight manufacturing locations across different geographies in pursuit to drive standardization and sustained cost savings in manufacturing operations by internal benchmarking, shortening the reaction and decision cycle by real-time visibility of data and processed information, and getting quick access to data for ad hoc analysis. Aditya Birla Chemicals conceptualized a technology platform-centric solution, Central Manufacturing Cockpit (CMC - see image at the top of this section), leveraging AspenTech and Microsoft technologies. The CMC system today is an integral part of business excellence as it helps to: 1) remotely monitor plant performance, 2) quickly identify KPI deviations, 3) enable access to data for ad-hoc analysis, and 4) connect different stakeholders with a single version of truth.
6. Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company - Mohammad Abrar, Senior Analyst presented on the subject, Operational Excellence Through Batch Performance Management. In the modern era, material traceability is not only necessary to stay competitive in the 21st century, it is necessary to stay in business. Material tracking and tracing requires a major effort - it is extremely time consuming and the consequences of errors can translate to substantial impact on business. The accessibility of integrated Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) (see image at the top of this section) has made it possible to drastically reduce the cost of data acquisition needed to track and trace those sources. aspenONE^® MES, part of the Aspen AIoT Hub products, has taken the company to the next stage of digital transformation by improving key business areas across the asset lifecycle. This solution helps to improves production execution by enabling automated workflow and order tracking, which facilitates improved consistency, better production tracking, and reduced errors, while also providing real-time process insights.  

 

Step 5: Make Your AIoT Strategy Part of Your Organizational Culture 

 

 

On a closing note, we received very positive feedback from the attendees and participants with many of them sharing insights on how they believe the conference provided an excellent foundation to deepen their institutional knowledge on AIoT and view this new digital solution category as a key enabler of business value from industrial data. Here are a few select sessions we wanted to recommend to further gain AIoT expertise:

 

• Next-Gen Industrial Data Management: The Evolution of MES and Historians in an AI World - As companies look to embrace AI, they are challenged with data collection and data integration – which are key to realizing AI’s full potential. In addition, as IIoT becomes prevalent and gathers momentum across industrial organizations, some firms struggle with coalescing their existing manufacturing execution systems (MES) with future-proof data management and AI solutions as it pertains to their digitalization initiatives. AspenTech envisions the evolution of MES management, complemented by cloud and AI technologies, where you can streamline the collection, manipulation, analysis and dissemination of industrial data digitally. 
• AIoT at the Edge: Why Edge Technologies are Important for Successful Deployments - As the industry evolves from pure IoT, which focused mainly on connecting assets, to AIoT where intelligence is king, we are experiencing a compounding demand for edge technologies that work in concert with cloud workloads. These edge technologies include Edge Compute, GPUs for model training and edge inference and edge historian servers. This session discusses the trends, technologies and use cases surrounding the transformation from IIoT to AIoT at the edge.
• The Connected Enterprise:  - The Aspen Connect™ family allows aggregation, integration and mobility of industrial data across historians and other data sources into cloud-based destinations such as an Aspen MES Collaborative™, Aspen Cloud Connect™ and data lakes for enterprise-wide analytics and insights. This session speaks about delivering AI-ready operational data to production-grade AI environments to rapidly train, test and build Industrial AI models. 
  
  

Enjoy the videos and we hope to see you at the next OPTIMIZE conference!