Why a centralized command center with real-time data visualization is key to improving operational safety, reliability and integrity

 

The heavy industries have had to revolutionize operations and approaches to meet shifting logistics, market and economic challenges over the past two years. Complexities introduced by the global pandemic put a lot of companies on a fast track to adopting intelligent technologies and platforms that would allow for them to streamline operations within tight budgets and even tighter strategic requirements.

 

The rapid move to Industry 4.0 and its sub-categories – Safety 4.0 and Manufacturing 4.0 – has, according to McKinsey, helped most companies to keep operations running throughout the crisis. The research firm also found that success lies in investing in technologies that allow organizations to revolutionize approaches and target the right priorities and operational efficiencies. This is where the centralized dashboard or command center comes in – a unified source of data and intelligence from across the organization and facility operations that offers one source with real-time data, for a full digital view of facility. Essential to ensuring optimized and streamlined control.

 

The value of a centralized command center also lies in its ability to connect people and systems in real-time, thereby enhancing site visibility and transparency while enabling the autonomous industry. This is where the brains of artificial intelligence (AI), connected worker platforms, the Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics come together into a central, cohesive whole.

 

Reading the data in the right way

The average facility generates vast quantities of data that should not be lost or wasted but instead processed and analyzed to provide decision-makers with invaluable insights that help them refine staff allocations, manage repairs, and streamline logistics. McKinsey’s research found that companies that used data and analytics to improve how they approached operational decision-making showed measurable results. From dashboards designed to support decision-making using real-time and historic data to autonomous systems and machine intelligence, McKinsey found that companies that commit to these levels of digital literacy and development report improvements in service levels and demand accuracy by up to 13%.

 

By leveraging AI and IoT and machine learning (ML) potential, decision-making is transformed. The connected workforce can identify negative deviation risks, implement corrective action, effect preventative action and optimize factory performance in near real-time.

 

However, every one of these benefits requires that the data be filtered to a centralized command center that allows for the information and insights to be visualized clearly. Having all the data doesn’t mean that the business can see the right way forward or that it understands what the data is trying to say. Companies have to know how to read the data and interpret it so it has value right now. Today.

 

Central command

A real-time, connected and visualized command center empowers decision-makers by providing them with an accessible and highly customizable platform from which they can affect real change. The command center should be integrated with everything from operations to safety to risk mitigation to daily activity management and more – it has to be connected to deliver real value in real-time. It’s goal is to go beyond the numbers by providing rich bidirectional communication across the field and pull this alongside connected insights, people, and planning to transform decision-making and operational capabilities. This can only be achieved using connected workers, integrated systems, and next-generation technologies.

 

With a real-time view of operational reality, managers and team leaders can now adopt a radically different approach to managing systems and people. They can dynamically manage work activities and actively reduce risks by using dashboard data, reporting and insights to make smart decisions that have a meaningful impact. A command center centralizes the data, which puts insights from a disparate mix of sensors, systems and human-derived activities in one space. Instead, it is a living map of the facility that evolves in real-time.

 

 

Insights and intelligence

The GOARC centralized, visualized command center puts decision-makers at the heart of the business by providing them with at-a-glance information across all safety-related activities and so much more. By combining command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence into a holistic whole, this solution delivers a full digital view of facility operations.

 

Forming part of the GOARC Safety 4.0 bouquet of products and services, the command center is an AI-driven dashboard that provides an ongoing analysis of dynamic data workflows from across the facility. It displays the data on a visual dashboard that offers a multi-layer view of hazards and work processes so that leaders can quickly identify risks and job conflicts, visualize hazards, and transform situational awareness. The platform allows companies to build a vibrant ecosystem on the foundations of intelligent insights and analytics, ML, AI, and data. It’s elegant in its simplicity and smart use of systems to connect people, places, and planning in real-time.

 

When it comes to safety, the GOARC Safety 4.0 Command Center sits at the heart of operations, alerting personnel in real-time, resulting in rapid responses and in the ability to automatically stop potential conflicts or dangerous actions using IoT and autonomous systems. This is further enhanced by the seamless voice and video capabilities that ensure fast and efficient communication. The future of safety and operational efficiency lies in the hands of people empowered by digital innovation and innovative technology, in the hands of GOARC Safety 4.0.