Denise Weber
How does a wastewater treatment plant in Ontario, Canada leverage the industrial internet of things to make their water treatment facilities more efficient while giving managers the essential information they need at their fingertips so they can troubleshoot issues and find opportunities to optimize the system’s operation?
Through data visualization coupled with predictive analytics.
Predix and the Power of Predictive Analytics
Softtek, in partnership with GE, has developed several applications powered by GE’s Predix Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform for water treatment calculations, asset monitoring and customer issue tracking to enable customers’ improved visibility and analytics.
GE developed Predix as a way to digitally connect an organization’s industrial assets (e.g. Water treatment machinery, filters, drilling equipment, etc.), gather data on performance and operations, and analyze trillions of data points to predictively enable managers to proactively manage their
assets.
For example, it can enable a soft drink producer to optimize water usage in membrane cleanings, saving 3.5 million
gallons of water per year. It can also enable
an oil and gas producer to treat more water while experiencing less downtime, ultimately drive more oil production.
And speaking of wastewater treatment, it has enabled one producer to save $170 thousand
a year in chemical usage and costs in water
treatment.
Softtek’s Role
Softtek has played a critical role in the development of GE Water’s InSight platform, the particular analytics application designed specifically for the digital water division, by developing an easy-to-use GUI-based desktop as well as mobile application to enable non-technical users to gain access to data and predictive insights for more than 4,000 facilities and more than 40,000 assets.
By leveraging their long-term relationship with GE, their understanding of the IIoT, the water treatment business, and their deep expertise in systems integration and front-end development, Softtek is playing an important part in helping to solve the water crisis.
By monitoring and proactively keeping managers informed about the efficiency of the water treatment and processing machinery, technology such as GE’s Predix, and the InSight analytics platform as well as it’s GUI front-end apps, can help industrial concerns, farmers and water treatment plants avoid the wasteful practices that typified the last century, improve their efficiency, and create the clean water a thirsty world needs.
