How digitalization is transforming turbocharging

A turbocharger turbine with an engineer in the background
Customers get better value throughout their turbocharger lifecycle as ABB turns to digital technologies.

Customers get better value throughout their turbocharger lifecycle as ABB turns to digital technologies.

The rapid advancement in digital technologies is transforming the way the world lives and does business. Broad internet connectivity, cloud and smart computing, cheaper and more sophisticated sensors and advanced analytics – to name just a few – are all creating huge opportunities for optimizing industrial processes and will change the way businesses operate. Truly leveraging these technologies and translating data into value therefore remains key.

What does this mean specifically for turbocharging and ABB’s customers? At ABB Turbocharging, digital transformation is not just a buzzword and it’s not just a “me-too” trend that the company wants to follow. Digital transformation means putting ABB’s customers’ operations at the center of its offerings. It means carefully evaluating customers’ operating environments by identifying pains and gains, and jointly exploring the opportunities provided by digital technologies to develop use cases that generate real value for customers.

ABB Turbocharging is now well- positioned to provide value-driven digital solutions that will allow the company and its customers to know more, do more, do better, together – with turbocharging experts that harness the power of digital to drive progress with their customers every day. The ABB Group has set the stage with ABB Ability™, providing unified, cross-industry digital capability that enables customers to have access to ABB Turbocharging’s expertise with an unmatched experience in connectivity.

« ABB’s digital transformation journey is based on clearly defined strategic principles: Know more, do more, do better, together. »

Know more
ABB’s “know more” principle is founded on combining customers’ operational data with ABB’s own expertise. Customers can benefit from operational transparency and data-driven decision making that supports enhanced operations and performance.

Do more
Digital transformation is about achieving more by means of enhanced processes. Leveraging digital capabilities to drive optimized efficiency and productivity, while keeping production and operational costs down are some of the key business cases for going digital.

ABB’s customers operate their businesses in some of the harshest environments – offshore drilling, unpredictable severe weather conditions, extreme temperatures, changing altitudes, etc. However, unplanned downtime and the associated loss of production is not an option. With a strong track record of field experience and its experts’ ability to assess different scenarios, ABB Turbocharging is capable of transforming data into actionable insights and providing maintenance advice. The result is increased customer application availability and improved business performance.

Similarly, analyzing operational data, supporting and advising customers’ crew and onshore technical personnel through remote support can directly translate into improved fuel efficiency.

ABB Ability™ - Cloud connectivity

Do better
Since the early 1990s, service has been an essential part of ABB’s strategic approach of putting the customer first and providing an excellent customer experience. The company has developed its processes and tools and invested in the skills of its people to drive excellence in service execution. Digitalization in turbocharging will enable ABB to take service excellence and the customer experience to the next level.

By monitoring and capturing operational data, ABB Turbocharging is not only able to record and analyze critical parameters for preventive intervention. The underlying understanding is that with these data, it is possible to go beyond preventing a failure from occurring; instead these data can be utilized to simulate operational scenarios – that is called Smart Maintenance. Using these insights enables the optimization of operational performance and productivity for ABB’s customers.

Together
ABB Turbocharging’s digital vision is to create a strong and collaborative partnership with its customers. Through two-way communication, data sharing and knowledge exchange, joint value can be created across the entire lifecycle – during operation or during maintenance, be it onshore or offshore.

Overall, the digital benefits for businesses of ABB Turbocharging’s customers, and therefore also for ABB Turbocharging itself, are manifold and far-reaching. In pilot projects with key industry stakeholders, huge potentials have been identified, and with the combination of ABB’s expertise and digital technologies they are already being successfully realized. This smart approach to maintenance is ABB Turbocharging’s answer to the market’s demand for digital services in the industrial world.

Image credit: Milan Mitrovic