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Annual report 2014

Collaborative Analytics Platform opens digital dialogue at Picanol

Picanol specialises in the development, production and sale of high-tech weaving machines. Increasingly, these machines are capturing large quantities of operational data and settings that could generate a lot of useful information. How all this data can best be converted into useful data-driven services has been the subject of a two-year intensive dialogue between Picanol and Sirris.

When it comes to digital interaction with machines in the field, Picanol – like many other companies – is finding itself in uncharted territory. How can innovations be embedded in existing production lines and services? Which technology can be deployed? And how can all this be presented to customers?

Technology Adoption Coaching

Sirris provides Technology Adoption Coaching to help explain how to maximally exploit the opportunities offered by digitisation. The focus is not just on implementation, but mainly on optimally exploiting new technology. “It is an interactive process, where cooperation and exchange of knowledge and know-how are crucial”, explains Steven Van den Berghe (Senior Advisor Software Engineering & ICT at Sirris). In addition to architectural studies, it also includes experiments with data interaction and visualisation, among other things.

Collaborative Analytics Platform

One specific example is the Collaborative Analytics Platform project (CAP). The data from the weaving machines, and the surrounding know-how, are collected in a central ‘data lake’. Thanks to the CAP people with different backgrounds and different kinds of expertise can work more efficiently on the same data.

“Machines these days are very complex,” Steven adds. “Optimising and integrating them requires a lot of detailed knowledge that is often spread out among different experts. CAP enables them to interact with the data,sometimes even remotely. This makes it possible to offer new, high-quality digital services in addition to the machines. The collected data also give valuable insights into the operation and use of features, opening up new opportunities for the future.”