September 2021

46 n INSIGHT September 2021 www.drivesncontrols.com Has the new normal changed the way that we do servicing? T he past 18 months have had a profound impact not only on our personal lives, but also on the way that way that we run our industrial businesses. The pandemic made it impossible to service and maintain industrial equipment in the way that we have traditionally done. Mari E. Haapala, who leads ABB Motion’s digital solutions business, believes that this experience has fundamentally changed our approach to industrial servicing. The possibility of connecting assets via cloud- based services such as condition monitoring and remote assistance means that servicing will be very different in future. Drives & Controls asked her to expand on her views. D&C: How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the maintenance of assets such as motors and drives? How have end-users – and service providers – responded to the challenge? Mari Haapala: Maintaining the reliability of business-critical equipment such as motors and drives became a significant challenge during the pandemic. Travel restrictions and social distancing made it difficult to get service teams on site to carry out traditional maintenance and repair. Many of our customers therefore re- evaluated their service needs to embrace digitalisation and remote access. Now, they want to take the next step by using digital technology to add tangible value across their business. How are digitalisation, enhanced connectivity and cloud technologies affecting servicing?What benefits can end- users expect from these technologies? Are there potential spin-off benefits in other areas of industrial activity? Digitalisation and enhanced connectivity through the cloud have been crucial in tackling the access problem. Remote-access services have increased safety, since teams don’t need to be on site. Yet companies can still receive the services they need to keep their operations up and running. Gathering and processing real-time data on how equipment is performing adds significant value by delivering sharper business insights. The result is better decision making that maximises productivity, improves resilience and reduces costs. Many potential users are worried by the prospect of digitalisation. They feel it means they will have to operate outside of their comfort zones, and that such schemes are costly and complex to implement. How difficult are these technologies to realise in practice? We aim to help customers understand that digitalisation should not be compartmentalised. Rather, it complements their traditional service activities, offering a new aspect that expands and enhances what we offer. It does not always have to be a“big bang”. A stepwise approach is possible that enables customers to progress at whatever pace they find most comfortable. Digitalisation will deliver tangible benefits even when applied to a single motor or drive. Although the benefits multiple rapidly when connectivity is rolled out to an entire industrial powertrain. An important, and often overlooked, point about digitalisation is that success requires rather more than simply connecting equipment. A partner with service expertise is essential to make effective use of the data collected. Another concern is that relying on cloud- based services can mean that users can lose control of their data and that have to trust the service providers to safeguard the data. Are these worries justified? Before the pandemic, customers often said “We don’t want to be in the cloud”. However, over the past year, industrial companies have Traditionally, drives and motor users have paid service companies to come to their sites to carry out maintenance. But Mari E. Haapala, who leads the ABB Motion digital solutions unit, believes that the Covid pandemic has changed the way that companies are approaching service. Drives & Controls asked her to explain. Mari E. Haapala ABB Motion Digital Lead Mari E. Haapala leads ABB Motion’s digital solutions operation. She is responsible for expanding the service and solution business through digital offerings that connect customers’motors and drives securely and efficiently. She is passionate about innovation, technology and customer experience. Mari has more than ten years of experience working with industrial applications and in different segments, and has lived and worked in both Europe and Asia.