GE Digital (NYSE: GE) announced the launch of Predix Manufacturing Data Cloud (MDC), the first of its kind cloud solution purpose-built to consolidate and transform manufacturing data across plants for enterprise cloud storage and analysis. Used in concert with a traditional Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Predix MDC gives manufacturers operational analysis in the cloud and greater flexibility of deployment, helping reduce the size of on-premises systems and make them run more efficiently.
“Most companies are only just scratching the surface of realizing their data’s potential. In fact, today manufacturers are losing the value of 70 percent of collected manufacturing data,” said Matt Wells, Vice President of Product Management for GE Digital. “Predix MDC delivers the power of cloud computing to manufacturers, taking the burden of heavy compute loads out of the plant, enabling users to aggregate data from across the business and run analytics that can uncover new insights and unlock even greater efficiencies.”
Predix MDC provides next generation cloud functionality to GE Digital’s well-established manufacturing execution system offering, Plant Applications, used by organizations around the world to track and analyze production execution and workflow, as well as manage production data and quality control. Predix MDC provides manufacturers with a secure, reliable way to ingest and store data in the cloud, speeding process implementation by up to 50 percent and giving users rich views into information captured at individual sites as well as the ability to run analytics and comparisons across various locations and data types, including manufacturing, enterprise and asset data. Additionally, MDC can significantly reduce on-premise storage and maintenance costs, freeing up computing systems to focus on core capabilities. Furthermore, moving and storing manufacturing data in the cloud provides an additional level of certainty around data retention regulation compliance and auditing purposes.
Built to support manufacturing across industries, Predix MDC can help improve operations and insights for all varieties of manufacturing types, from discrete to process, across sectors like food and beverage, packaging, pulp and paper, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences.
“There is a bigger benefit here around innovation through digitization of operations, and how IT supports that innovation,” said Kevin Prouty, Group Vice President, IDC Energy and Manufacturing Insights. “IT is being told they have to be able to support, and not inhibit, innovation. An industry cloud platform like Predix MDC can become the foundation for that support. The end result is IT and operations supporting innovation through a platform that secures data and provides rational access to operational data."
