GE and SIG Packaging Systems Partner to Provide Predictive Services

During a recent food and beverage panel discussion at the Manufacturing in America conference, many food end users, system integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) talked about how cloud pilots need to address low-hanging fruit in the factory, such as exception-based routines for operator and maintenance (O&M) teams. This announcement by GE and SIG Packaging Systems hit these immediate targets, as these two companies look to offer turnkey solutions to end users in the areas of work order management, closed-loop maintenance activities and implement health-monitoring for equipment.

Specifically, SIG will deploy GE Digital’s Predix Asset Performance Management (APM) and Predix ServiceMax industrial applications across more than 400 customer factories worldwide to drive new levels of efficiency, create intelligent solutions and enable new possibilities for its customers, according to the press release.

When Predix first appeared two years ago, GE targeted end users with the Predix platform and related remote monitoring solutions, such as the company’s SmartSignal application. In the case of the steel manufacturer, Gerdau, SmartSignal software as a service (SaaS) solution remotely monitored eleven, Brazilian steel plants via the GE’s Industrial Performance and Reliability Center, based in Illinois.

For the food and beverage industry, the pressure is on to start evaluating data/cloud pilot programs for possibly bigger implementations and to extend current equipment in the plant. SIG’s customers fill more than 10,000 unique products into SIG packaging across 65 countries worldwide. In 2017 alone, SIG produced 33.6 billion carton packs for its customers.

“Our ability to harness data is central to delivering on our promise of opening up new opportunities for our customers,” says Rolf Stangl, SIG, CEO. “By tapping into information in new and innovative ways, we will be able to deliver an unmatched level of performance, security, transparency and creativity across the entire food and beverage supply chain – through to the end consumer.”

Besides the low-hanging fruit aspect, OEMs are moving quickly to employ new services to end users and become part of the nascent digital transformation underway with many consumer packaging goods and food companies.

“This will be a true strategic partnership,” says Stangl. “We are excited to work alongside an experienced digital industrial company to collaborate on innovative solutions – from 3D-printed spare parts to a fully connected, intelligent supply chain to innovative ways to bring advanced tracking and intelligence direct to the consumer.”

The initial deployment is expected to go live in July 2018 with the global rollout anticipated to begin in January 2019, according to the press release.