New IBM study: How business leaders can harness the power of gen AI to drive sustainable IT transformation

As organizations strive to balance productivity, innovation and environmental responsibility, the need for sustainable IT practices is even more pressing. A new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value reveals that emerging technologies, particularly generative AI, can play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable IT initiatives. However, successful transformation of IT systems demands a strategic and enterprise-wide approach to sustainability.

The power of generative AI in sustainable IT

Generative AI is creating new opportunities to transform IT operations and make them more sustainable. Teams can use this technology to quickly translate code into more energy-efficient languages, develop more sustainable algorithms and software and analyze code performance to optimize energy consumption. 27% of organizations surveyed are already applying generative AI in their sustainable IT initiatives, and 63% of respondents plan to follow suit by the end of 2024. By 2027, 89% are expecting to be using generative AI in their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of IT.

Despite the growing interest in using generative AI for sustainability initiatives, leaders must first consider its broader implications, particularly energy consumption.

64% say they are using generative AI and large language models, yet only one-third of those report having made significant progress in addressing its environmental impact. To bridge this gap, executives must take a thoughtful and intentional approach to generative AI, asking questions like, “What do we need to achieve?” and “What is the smallest model that we can use to get there?”

A holistic approach to sustainability

To have a lasting impact, sustainability must be woven into the very fabric of an organization, breaking free from traditional silos and incorporating it into every aspect of operations. Leading organizations are already embracing this approach, integrating sustainable practices across their entire operations, from data centers to supply chains, to networks and products. This enables operational efficiency by optimizing resource allocation and utilization, maximizing output and minimizing waste.

The results are telling: 98% of surveyed organizations that take a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to sustainable IT report seeing benefits in operational efficiency—compared to 50% that do not. The leading organizations also attribute greater reductions in energy usage and costs to their efforts. Moreover, they report impressive environmental benefits, with two times greater reduction in their IT carbon footprint.

Hybrid cloud and automation: key enablers of sustainable IT

Many organizations are turning to hybrid cloud and automation technologies to help reduce their environmental footprint and improve business performance. By providing visibility into data, workloads and applications across multiple clouds and systems, a hybrid cloud platform enables leaders to make data-driven decisions. This allows them to determine where to run their workloads, thereby reducing energy consumption and minimizing their environmental impact.

In fact, one quarter (25%) of surveyed organizations are already using hybrid cloud solutions to boost their sustainability and energy efficiency. Nearly half (46%) of those report a substantial positive impact on their overall IT sustainability. Automation is also playing a key role in this shift. With 83% of leading organizations harnessing its power to dynamically adjust IT environments based on demand.

Sustainable IT strategies for a better tomorrow

The future of innovation is inextricably linked to a deep commitment to sustainability. As business leaders harness the power of technology to drive impact, responsible decision-making is crucial, particularly in the face of emerging technologies such as generative AI. To better navigate this intersection of IT and sustainability, here are a few actions to consider: 

1. Actively manage the energy consumption associated with AI: Optimize the value of generative AI while minimizing its environmental footprint by actively managing energy consumption from development to deployment. For example, choose AI models that are designed for speed and energy efficiency to process information more effectively while reducing the computational power required.

2. Identify your environmental impact drivers: Understand how different elements of your IT estate influence environmental impacts and how this can change as you scale new IT efforts.

3. Embrace sustainable-by-design principles: Embed sustainability assessments into the design and planning stages of every IT project, by using a hybrid cloud platform to centralize control and gain better visibility across your entire IT estate.

Source: ibm.com

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Using AI to conserve the endangered African forest elephant

In the Congo Basin, the second-largest rainforest in the world, the African forest elephant population has been in drastic decline for decades. This decline is the result of habitat loss caused by deforestation and climate change, along with rampant poaching.

We can observe the beneficial environmental effects of these species starting to disappear. As a keystone species in the habitat, the dwindling presence of the elephants has major implications you might not imagine. African forest elephants have been shown to increase carbon storage in their habitats. They are “ecosystem engineers” according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, clearing out lesser vegetation and making room for stronger, more resilient, flora to thrive.

While we know these changes will occur as the elephant population shrinks, actually seeing it happen presents challenges. The World Wide Fund for Nature-Germany aims to track and identify individual elephants to count them. With help from IBM, the WWF will be able to use a system of camera traps connected to software that enables automatic tracking as opposed to manual tracking.

Augmenting our vision with tech

That is where computer vision can serve as a fresh set of eyes. IBM announced earlier this year that it would team with WWF to pair camera traps with IBM Maximo® Visual Inspection (MVI) to help monitor and track individual elephants as they pass by the camera traps.

“MVI’s AI-powered visual inspection and modeling capabilities allow for head- and tusk-related image recognition of individual elephants similar to the way we identify humans via fingerprints,” explained Kendra DeKeyrel, Vice President ESG and Asset Management Product Leader at IBM. 

These capabilities allow for not only counting or spotting the individual elephants, but also tracking some of their behaviors to better understand their movement patterns and impact in the ecosystem. MVI particularly offers help in automating the process of identifying these elephants instead of having staff manually look at the images. Additionally, the AI’s advanced visual recognition capabilities can pull the identity of an elephant from an image that is blurry or incomplete.

“Counting African forest elephants is both difficult and costly,” Dr. Thomas Breuer, WWF’s African Forest Elephant Coordinator, said. “The logistics are complex and the resulting population numbers are not precise. Being able to identify individual elephants from camera trap images with the help of AI has the potential to be a game-changer.”

Strengthening our connection to the natural world

As more about the movement and migration of the African forest elephant is gleaned, more additional information can be pulled from our increased understanding of how the species is behaving and interacting with its environment. “IBM is exploring how to leverage IBM Environmental Intelligence above ground biomass estimates to better predict elephants’ future locations and migration patterns, as well as their impact on a specific forest,” DeKeyrel said.

That includes determining how much the African forest elephants can help with mitigating climate change. It’s understood that the presence of elephants helps to increase the carbon storage capacity of the forest. “African forest elephants play a crucial role in influencing the shape of the forest structure, including helping increase the diversity, density, and abundance of plant and tree species,” Oday Abbosh, IBM Global Sustainability Services Leader, explained. It’s estimated that one forest elephant can increase the net carbon capture capacity of the forest by almost 250 acres, the equivalent of removing a full year’s worth of emissions from 2,047 cars from the atmosphere.

Having a more accurate image of the elephant population allows for performance-based conservation payments, such as wildlife credits. In the future, this could help enable organizations to better assess the financial value of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) provided by African forest elephants, such as carbon sequestration services.

We know the animal kingdom is constantly shaping the planet, and being affected by our own activity even when we can’t see it. Due to continuing breakthroughs in technology, we’re increasingly getting a clearer picture of the world of wildlife that was previously difficult to capture. When we can see it, we can react to it, helping to protect species that need help and strengthening our connection to the natural world.

“Our collaboration with WWF marks a significant step forward in this effort,” Abbosh said, “By combining our expertise in technology and sustainability with WWF’s conservation expertise, we aim to leverage the power of technology to create a more sustainable future.”

Source: ibm.com

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Internet of Animals: A look at the new tech getting animals online

All living things on Earth are connected, in that we all affect one another, directly and indirectly. But more often than not, we don’t see or know what is happening in the lives of animals. Deep in the jungles and forests, far off in the deserts and prairies, many species of animals are seeing their behavior change as the planet warms in ways we can’t see.

Thanks to technological achievements in recent years, we are starting to have a clearer look into these environments that have previously been obscured from our view. Modern breakthroughs have made tracking tools less invasive, easier to manage, and have created the conditions for better seeing and understanding of wildlife, including how they move and behave.

A team of researchers has tapped these innovations to create a global network of animals, tracking the movement of thousands of creatures in a way that reveals never-before-seen activity. Through this data, we’re gaining a new understanding of animal migration, what is causing it, and how different species are adapting to climate change and rapid changes to their ecosystems.

Getting animals online

In 2001—before the Internet of Things was much more than a sci-fi-like fantasy, before even half of the United States was regularly online—professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Martin Wikelski had an idea for a global network of sensors that could provide never-before accessible insight into the activities of animals who live well outside of the human-dominated parts of the planet.

The “Internet of Animals” known as ICARUS (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) went from idea to reality in 2018 when, after nearly two decades of laying groundwork, a receiver was launched to the International Space Station and embedded on the Russian portion of the orbiting science laboratory, where it functioned as a central satellite-style receiver, collecting data from more than 3,500 animals that had been tagged with tiny trackers.

According to Uschi Müller, ICARUS Project Coordinator and member of the Department of Migration Team at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, the ICARUS receiver collected the data from the trackers and sent it to a ground station, where the information was then uploaded to Movebank, an open source database that hosts animal sensor data for researchers and wildlife managers to freely access.

The original version of ICARUS was groundbreaking but limited. “The ISS only covers an area up to 55 degrees North and 55 degrees South within its flight path,” explained Müller. Mechanical issues on ISS knocked the network offline in 2020, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought the tracking activity to a grinding halt.

Expanding the vision

“The dependence on a single ICARUS payload…demonstrated the vulnerability of the former infrastructure,” Müller said. Animals continued to carry the trackers, a burden that was no longer producing benefits for potentially understanding and protecting them. And the sudden absence in the database that counts on regular updates carried the potential for harmful consequences to scientific research. 

While it’s hard to say getting plunged back into darkness is ever a benefit to those who value data and information, the event was illuminating on its own. It sent the ICARUS team back to the drawing board, which also allowed them to build a system that wouldn’t just get them back online but would offer fail-safes that could mitigate risks of future outages.

“What was initially a shock for all the scientists involved very quickly turned into a euphoric ‘Plan B’ and the development of a new, much more powerful and much cheaper CubeSat system, flanked by a terrestrial observation system,” Müller said. 

The space segment of the new system will include multiple payloads, the first of which will be launched in 2025 in partnership with the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich. It will be the first five planned launches, which will send CubeSat satellites, nanosatellites that will hang in polar orbit and provide coverage across the entire planet rather than a limited range. 

They will work in collaboration with a terrestrial “Internet of Things” style network that will be able to generate real-time data from the ground. The result, according to Müller, will be “tagged animals can be observed much more frequently, more reliably and in every part of the world.”

These receivers will be picking up data from upgraded tags, which the ICARUS team has been working tirelessly to shrink down to a size that minimizes invasiveness for the animal. The tags that will be used for the latest version of the ICARUS system will weigh just 0.95 grams, but according to Müller, their transmitters have gotten incredibly small in recent years. 

“Thanks to the continuous technical development of animal transmitters, which now weigh just as little as 0.08 grams and are extremely powerful, even insects such as butterflies and bees as well as the smallest bats can be tagged for the first time,” she said.

Once the new ICARUS system is online, Müller and the team expect to see the clouded vision of the animal kingdom continue to clear up. “The migration routes and the behavior and interactions of animals about which almost nothing is known to date can be researched,” she said of the project. “We continue to expect great interest in the scientific world to use this system and to continuously develop and optimize it.”

Source: ibm.com

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How digital solutions increase efficiency in warehouse management

In the evolving landscape of modern business, the significance of robust maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) systems cannot be overstated. Efficient warehouse management helps businesses to operate seamlessly, ensure precision and drive productivity to new heights. In our increasingly digital world, bar coding stands out as a cornerstone technology, revolutionizing warehouses by enabling meticulous data tracking and streamlined workflows.

With this knowledge, A3J Group is focused on using IBM Maximo Application Suite and the Red Hat® Marketplace to help bring inventory solutions to a wider audience. This collaboration brings significant advancements to warehouse management, setting a new standard for efficiency and innovation.

To achieve the maintenance goals of the modern MRO program, these inventory management and tracking solutions address critical facets of inventory management by way of bar code technology.

Bar coding technology in warehouse management

Bar coding plays a critical role in modern warehouse operations.Bar coding technology provides an efficient way to track inventory, manage assets and streamline workflows, while providing resiliency and adaptability. Bar coding provides essential enhancements inkey areas such as:

Accuracy of data: Accurate data is the backbone of effective warehouse management. With barcoding, every item can be tracked meticulously, reducing errors and improving inventory management. This precision is crucial for maintaining stock levels, fulfilling orders and minimizing discrepancies.

Efficiency of data and workers: Barcoding enhances data accuracy and boosts worker efficiency. By automating data capture, workers can process items faster and more accurately. This efficiency translates to quicker turnaround times and higher productivity, ultimately improving the bottom line.

Visibility into who, where, and when of the assets: Visibility is key in warehouse management. Knowing the who, where and when of assets helps ensure accountability and control. Enhanced visibility allows managers to track the movement of items, monitor workflows and optimize resource allocation, leading to better decision-making and operational efficiency.

Auditing and compliance: Traditional systems often lack robust auditing capabilities. Modern solutions provide comprehensive auditing features that enhance control and accountability. With these capabilities, every transaction can be recorded, making it easier to identify issues, conduct audits and maintain compliance.

Implementing digital solutions to minimize disruption

Implementing advanced warehouse management solutions can significantly ease operations during stressful times, such as equipment outages or unexpected order surges. When systems are down or demand spikes, having a robust management system in place helps leaders continue operations with minimal disruption.

During equipment outages, quick decision-making and efficient processes are critical. Advanced solutions help leaders manage these scenarios by providing accurate data, efficient workflows and visibility into inventory levels, which enables swift and informed decisions.

Implementing software accelerators to address warehouse needs

Current trends in warehouse management focus on automation, real-time data tracking and enhanced visibility. By adopting these trends, warehouses can remain competitive, efficient and capable of meeting increasing demands.

IBM and A3J Group offer integrated solutions that address the unique challenges of warehouse management. Available on IBM Red Hat Marketplace, these solutions provide comprehensive features to enhance efficiency, accuracy and visibility.

IBM Maximo Application Suite

IBM® Maximo® Manage offers robust functionality for managing assets, work orders and inventory. Its integration with A3J Group’s solutions enhances its capabilities, providing a comprehensive toolkit for warehouse management.

A3J Group accelerators

A3J Group offers several accelerators that integrate seamlessly with IBM Maximo, providing enhanced functionality tailored to warehouse management needs.

MxPickup

MxPickup is a material pickup solution designed for the busy warehouse manager or employee. It is ideal for projects, special orders and nonstocked items. MxPickup enhances the Maximo receiving process with superior tracking and issuing controls, making it easier to receive large quantities of items and materials.

Unlike traditional systems that force materials to be stored in specific locations, MxPickup allows flexibility in placing and tracking materials anywhere, including warehouse locations, bins, any Maximo location, and freeform staging and delivery locations. Warehouse experts can choose to place or issue a portion or all of the received items, with a complete history of who placed the material and when.

MxPickup also enables mass issue of items, allowing warehouse experts to select records from the application list screen and issue materials directly, streamlining the process and saving valuable time.

A3J Automated Label Printing

The Automated Label Printing solution is designed to notify warehouse personnel proactively when items or materials are received through a printed label report. This report includes information about the received items with bar coded fields for easier scanning. Labels can be automatically fixed to received parts or materials, containing all the necessary information for warehouse operations staff to fulfill requests. The bar codes facilitate quick inventory transactions by using mobile applications, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.

Bringing innovative solutions to warehouse management

The collaboration between IBM and A3J Group on Red Hat Marketplace brings innovative solutions to warehouse management. By using advanced bar coding, data accuracy, efficiency and visibility, warehouses can achieve superior operational performance. Implementing these solutions addresses current challenges and prepares warehouses for future demands, supporting long-term success and competitiveness in the market.

Source: ibm.com

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Global effort produces first-ever decline in harmful HCFC levels

As much of the world’s nations struggle to make sufficient progress on reducing carbon emissions, new research has emerged showing that global collaboration can in fact reverse some of the harmful effects of human activity. A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change documented the first significant drop in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), harmful gases known to deplete the planet’s ozone layer.

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The study from researchers at the University of Bristol found a 1% drop in HCFC emissions between 2021 and 2023. While the drop-off might seem small, it marks the first time ever a decline in the compound’s presence has been detected. Even better, the findings suggest that HCFC usage peaked in 2021, nearly five years ahead of schedule.

A brief history on HCFCs

HCFCs are human-made compounds containing hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine and carbon, and are commonly used in refrigerants, aerosol sprays, and packaging foam. They were used as a replacement for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), more commonly known as Freon.

CFCs were widely believed to be harmless—they are nontoxic, nonflammable and don’t have any unstable reactions with other common chemicals. But, in the 1970s, scientists Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland managed to link the depletion of the ozone layer to the use of these chemical compounds.

That discovery was foundational to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty signed by 198 countries seeking to phase out the use of substances that harm the ozone layer, the planet’s shield against ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The agreement set forth a number of goals that would lead to the reduction and eventual elimination of ozone-depleting substances.

The first stage of the Montreal Protocol was the elimination of CFCs, and proved to be wildly successful. A 2022 report from the United Nations found that nearly 99% of all CFCs had been phased out. The report estimates that ditching CFCs, which are also greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, managed to avoid an increase of 0.5 to 1 degrees Fahrenheit to the planet’s temperature by 2100.

Promising results in the fight against ozone depletion

The success of the treaty now appears to be extending to HCFCs. The Freon replacement took off as a sort of harm-reduction strategy because it provided similar functionality as CFCs while doing less damage to the ozone. But, like CFCs before them, HCFCs are a greenhouse gas and contribute to planetary warming. The Montreal Treaty mandated a ban on this compound by 2020 for developed nations, and the latest study suggests the restrictions are working.

“The results are very encouraging. They underscore the great importance of establishing and sticking to international protocols,”  Dr. Luke Western, Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Bristol School of Chemistry and lead author on the paper, said in a statement. “Without the Montreal Protocol, this success would not have been possible, so it’s a resounding endorsement of multilateral commitments to combat stratospheric ozone depletion, with additional benefits in tackling human-induced climate change.”

The success of the Montreal Protocol isn’t just seen in the dwindling levels of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere, but can also be seen in the slow but steady decrease in the hole in the ozone layer. According to the UN, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 levels by 2040 for most of the world. That would mark a return to health for the protective part of the stratosphere that would match levels before holes in the shield were first discovered.

As nations continue debating the best way to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change, the Montreal Protocol offers a proof of concept for global cooperation. A concerted effort toward a common goal can make a difference.

Source: ibm.com

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An integrated asset management data platform

Part 2 of this four-part series discusses the complex tasks energy utility companies face as they shift to holistic grid asset management to manage through the energy transition. The first post of this series addressed the challenges of the energy transition with holistic grid asset management. In this part, we discuss the integrated asset management platform and data exchange that unite business disciplines in different domains in one network.

The asset management ecosystem

The asset management network is complex. No single system can manage all the required information views to enable end-to-end optimization. The following figure demonstrates how a platform approach can integrate data flows.

Asset data is the basis for the network. Enterprise asset management (EAM) systems, geographic information systems and enterprise resource planning systems share technical, geographic and financial asset data, each with their respective primary data responsibility. The EAM system is the center for maintenance planning and execution via work orders. The maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) system provides necessary spare parts to carry out work and maintains an optimum stock level with a balance of stock out risk and part holding costs.

The health, safety and environment (HSE) system manages work permits for safe work execution and tracks and investigates incidents. The process safety management (PSM) system controls hazardous operations through safety practices, uses bow-tie analysis to define and monitor risk barriers, and manages safety and environmental critical elements (SECE) to prevent primary containment loss. Monitoring energy efficiency and greenhouse gas or fugitive emissions can directly contribute to environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, helping to manage and reduce the carbon footprint.

Asset performance management (APM) strategy defines the balance between proactive and reactive maintenance tasks. Asset criticality defines whether a preventive or predictive task is justified in terms of cost and risk. The process of defining the optimum maintenance strategy is called reliability-centered maintenance. The mechanical integrity of hazardous process assets, such as vessels, reactors or pipelines, requires a deeper approach to define the optimum risk-based inspection intervals. For process safety devices, a safety instrumented system approach determines the test frequency and safety integrity level for alarm functions.

Asset data APM collects real-time process data. Asset health monitoring  and predictive maintenance  functions receive data via distributed control systems or supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA). Asset health monitoring defines asset health indexes to rank the asset conditions based on degradation models, failures, overdue preventive work and any other relevant parameters that reflect the health of the assets. Predict functionality builds predictive models to predict imminent failures and calculate assets’ remaining useful life. These models often incorporate machine learning and AI algorithms to detect the onset of degradation mechanisms in an early stage.

In the asset performance management and optimization (APMO) domain, the team collects and prioritizes asset needs resulting from asset strategies based on asset criticality. They optimize maintenance and replacement planning against the constraints of available budget and resource capacity. This method is useful for regulated industries such as energy transmission and distribution, as it allows companies to remain within the assigned budget for an arbitrage period of several years. The asset replacement requirements enter the asset investment planning (AIP) process, combining with new asset requests and expansion or upgrade projects. Market drivers, regulatory requirements, sustainability goals and resource constraints define the project portfolio and priorities for execution. The project portfolio management function manages the project management aspects of new build and replacement projects to stay within budget and on time. Product lifecycle management covers the stage-gated engineering process to optimize the design of the assets against the lowest total cost of ownership within the boundaries of all other stakeholders.

An industry-standard data model

A uniform data model is necessary to get a full view of combined systems with information flowing across the ecosystem. Technical, financial, geographical, operational and transactional data attributes are all parts of a data structure. In the utilities industry, the common information model offers a useful framework to integrate and orchestrate the ecosystem to generate optimum business value.

The integration of diverse asset management disciplines in one provides a full 360° view of assets. This integration allows companies to target the full range of business objectives and track performance across the lifecycle and against each stakeholder goal.

Source: ibm.com

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How generative AI will revolutionize supply chain

Unlocking the full potential of supply chain management has long been a goal for businesses that seek efficiency, resilience and sustainability. In the age of digital transformation, the integration of advanced technologies like generative artificial intelligence brings a new era of innovation and optimization. AI tools help users address queries and resolve alerts by using supply chain data, and natural language processing helps analysts access inventory, order and shipment data for decision-making.

A recent IBM Institute of Business Value study, The CEO’s guide to generative AI: Supply chain, explains how the powerful combination of data and AI will transform businesses from reactive to proactive. Generative AI, with its ability to autonomously generate solutions to complex problems, will revolutionize every aspect of the supply chain landscape. From demand forecasting to route optimization, inventory management and risk mitigation, the applications of generative AI are limitless. 

Here are some ways generative AI is transforming supply chain management: 

Sustainability

Generative AI helps to optimize companies’ supply chains for sustainability by identifying opportunities to reduce carbon emissions, minimize waste and promote ethical sourcing practices through scenario analysis and optimization algorithms. For example, combining generative AI with technologies such as blockchain helps to keep data about the material-to-product transformation unchangeable across different entities, providing clear visibility into products’ origin and carbon footprint. This allows companies proof of sustainability to drive customer loyalty and comply with regulations. 

Inventory management

Generative AI models can continuously generate optimized replenishment plans based on real-time demand signals, supplier lead times and inventory levels. This helps maintain optimal stock levels that minimize carrying costs and can improve customer satisfaction through accurate available-to-promise (ATP) calculations and AI-driven fulfillment optimization. 

Supplier relationship management

Generative AI can analyze supplier performance data and market conditions to identify potential risks and opportunities, recommend alternative suppliers and negotiate favorable terms, enhancing supplier relationship management. 

Risk management

Generative AI models can simulate various risk scenarios, such as supplier disruptions, natural disasters, weather events or even geopolitical events, allowing companies to proactively identify vulnerabilities or react to disruptions with agility. AI-supported what-if modeling helps develop contingency plans such as inventory, supplier or distribution center reallocation. 

Route optimization

Generative AI algorithms can dynamically optimize transportation routes based on factors like traffic conditions, weather forecasts and delivery deadlines, reducing transportation costs and improving delivery efficiency. 

Demand forecasting

Generative AI can analyze historical data and market trends to generate accurate demand forecasts, which helps companies optimize inventory levels and minimize stockouts or overstock situations. Users can predict outcomes by quickly analyzing large-scale, fine-grain data for what-if scenarios in real time, allowing companies to pivot quickly. 

The integration of generative AI in supply chain management holds immense promise for businesses seeking to transform their operations. By using generative AI, companies can enhance efficiency, resilience and sustainability while staying ahead in today’s dynamic marketplace. 

Source: ibm.com

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The journey to a mature asset management system

This blog series discusses the complex tasks energy utility companies face as they shift to holistic grid asset management to manage through the energy transition. Earlier posts in this series addressed the challenges of the energy transition with holistic grid asset management, the integrated asset management platform and data exchange, and merging traditional top-down and bottom-up planning processes.

Asset management and technological innovation

Advancements in technology underpin the need for holistic grid asset management, making the assets in the grid smarter and equipping the workforce with smart tools.

Robots and drones perform inspections by using AI-based visual recognition techniques. Asset performance management (APM) processes, such as risk-based and predictive maintenance and asset investment planning (AIP), enable health monitoring technologies.

Technicians connect to the internet by wearable devices such as tablets, watches or VR glasses, providing customers with fast access to relevant information or expert support from any place in the world. Technicians can resolve technical issues faster, improving asset usage and reducing asset downtime.

Mobile-connected technicians experience improved safety through measures such as access control, gas detection, warning messages or fall recognition, which reduces risk exposure and enhances operational risk management (ORM) during work execution. Cybersecurity reduces risk exposure for cyberattacks on digitally connected assets.

Sensoring and monitoring also contribute to the direct measurement of sustainability environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics such as energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission or wastewater flows. This approach provides actual real data points for ESG reporting instead of model-based assumptions, which helps reduce carbon footprint and achieve sustainability goals.

The asset management maturity journey

Utility companies can view the evolution of asset management as a journey to a level of asset management excellence. The following figure shows the stages from a reactive to a proactive asset management culture, along with the various methods and approaches that companies might apply:

In the holistic asset management view, a scalable platform offers functionalities to build capabilities along the way. Each step in the journey demands adopting new processes and ways of working, which dedicated best practice tools and optimization models support.

The enterprise asset management (EAM) system fundamentally becomes a preventive maintenance program in the early stages of the maturity journey, from “Innocence” through to “Understanding”. This transition drives down the cost of unplanned repairs.

To proceed to the next level of “Competence”, APM capabilities take the lead. The focus of the asset management organization shifts toward uptime and business value by preventing failures. This also prevents expensive machine downtime, production deferment and potential safety or environmental risks. Machine connectivity through Internet of Things (IoT) data exchange enables condition-based maintenance and health monitoring. Risk-based asset strategies align maintenance efforts to balance costs and risks.

Predictive maintenance applies machine learning models to predict imminent failures early in the potential failure curve, with sufficient warning time to allow for planned intervention. The final step at this stage is the optimization of the maintenance and replacement program based on asset criticality and available resources.

APM and AIP combine in the “Excellence” stage, and predictive generative AI creates intelligent processes. At this stage, the asset management process becomes self-learning and prescriptive in making the best decision for overall business value.

New technology catalyzes the asset maturity journey, digital solutions connect the asset management systems, and smart connected tools improve quality of work and productivity. The introduction of (generative) AI models in the asset management domain has brought a full toolbox of new optimization tools. Gen AI use cases have been developed in each step of the journey, to support companies develop more capabilities to become more efficient, safe, reliable and sustainable. As the maturity of the assets and asset managers grows, current and future grid assets generate more value.

Holistic asset management aligns with business goals, integrates operational domains of previously siloed disciplines, deploys digital innovative technology and enables excellence in asset management maturity. This approach allows utility companies to maximize their value and thrive as they manage through the energy transition.

Source: ibm.com

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Holistic asset management for utility network companies

Addressing challenges of the energy transition with grid asset management

The energy transition is gearing up to full speed as renewable energy sources replace fossil-based systems of energy production. The grid itself must green to operate within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives and become carbon neutral by 2050. This shift requires energy utility companies to plan their grid asset management holistically as they find a new balance between strategic objectives.

Sustainable asset performance has become one of the key drivers in decision-making for asset planning and grid modernization business processes. New emerging technology enables AI-powered digital twins to operate the smart grid. However, operators must balance intermittent renewable energy intake to produce a controlled, stable output.

A balanced transition between old and new systems

The demand to fulfill existing long-term contracts and an abundance of new demands for industrial electrification pose new challenges to grid management. Finding the right balance requires load forecasting and simulation to prevent net congestion. Economical optimization must factor in new market dynamics and ensure reliable operation.

Existing network assets are aging, and more intelligent asset management strategies must emerge to maintain and replace the grid within tightening budgets. Asset investment planning must find a balance between these systems while minimizing risk and carbon footprint.

To manage the grid of the future, utility companies must shift from traditional asset management to a holistic approach. This shift will broaden insights so these companies can take strategic, tactical steps to optimize operational network development and operation decisions.

Asset lifecycle management

Holistic grid asset management adopts a lifecycle view across the whole asset lifespan to obtain a safe, secure, reliable and affordable network. Utility companies must break down the internal departmental walls between the silos of grid planning, construction, operation, maintenance and replacement to allow end-to-end visibility. They must connect underlying technology systems to create a single pane of glass for all operations. A shared data model across operating systems serves as the basis for integration, simulation, prediction and optimization by using generative AI models to drive next-level business value.

The goal of asset management is to optimize capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx) in a seamless transition between the timescale of the planning horizons. The following figure demonstrates the complex planning and optimization objectives required for a holistic view of the asset management lifecycle:

A top-down strategic approach for whole-life planning of asset investment portfolio matching future ESG goals needs to connect with a bottom-up maintenance and replacement strategy for existing assets. Asset investment planning (AIP) results in project portfolio management and product lifecycle management to plan, prioritize and run asset expansion and replacement projects within the boundaries of available budget and resource capacity.

Real-time operational data provides an asset health view that drives condition-based maintenance and replacement planning. This is the domain of enterprise asset management (EAM) for maintenance execution and asset performance management (APM) for strategy optimization. Traditionally, a disconnect at the tactical level has separated these planning and optimization methodologies. At the same time, operational risk management requires respecting health, safety and environment (HSE) management and process safety management to manage potentially hazardous operations. The maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) spare parts strategy must align with the asset strategy in terms of criticality and optimal stock value.

Acknowledgment of the complexity of planning with multidimensional objectives on different timescales is the starting point for adopting a holistic view of asset management.

Source: ibm.com

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The advantages of holistic facilities management

Beyond the traditional challenges of today’s markets, many organizations must also address the challenges of real estate and facilities management. These issues include managing rising real estate costs, increasing lease rates, new sustainability goals and under-utilized hybrid work environments.

Successfully managing your facilities can directly impact employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Facilities management plays a role in the ongoing cost of the operation of your facility, its lifespan and its energy consumption, as well as how you optimize the use of your facility.

Too many businesses look at facilities from individual silos. Operations is concerned with facility maintenance, finance evaluates buildings from a cost perspective and business management fixates on employee productivity. But who in your organization is responsible for breaking down silos across teams and looking at your facilities from a more holistic viewpoint?

Individual solutions have advantages. They’re smaller to implement, don’t require consensus, are generally lower in acquisition cost and are usually easier to understand because they address only one problem. But point solutions don’t leverage common data or connect across your entire business operation, let alone produce a company-wide, easily digestible report on the state of your facility.

Building your own integrated environment with custom linkages between individual solutions presents new challenges. Developing and maintaining custom linkages often comes with a high price tag and usually doesn’t provide competitive benefits. In some cases, it even limits your ability to leverage any new capabilities that may be offered by your solution providers.

Successful organizations want the best of both: an integrated solution they can buy (not build) that can be implemented in logical phases to address their most pressing challenges and then grow over time. They want to treat their facilities as more of a strategic investment rather than just a necessary expense. So, there has been a growing adoption of more holistic real estate and facility management solutions. This approach not only enables successful facilities management processes but also builds an extensive single source of truth for your  real estate and facilities portfolio. This data repository is  invaluable for audits, acquisitions and divestitures, capital planning, lease management and evaluations.

IBM TRIRIGA Essential offerings provide a best-of-breed, focused solution that is part of the holistic architecture of TRIRIGA. This solution includes space management and reservations, capital planning and Facility Condition Assessment (FCA), or service and workorder management. These Essential packages offer the entry price of a focused solution with the capability to expand seamless management across the entire facility lifecycle.

These TRIRIGA Essential offerings enable your company to start with a ‘point like’ solution based on a holistic foundation. These solutions can easily be extended to other areas of facilities management while leveraging and expanding the shared facilities management data repository.

Source: ibm.com

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How blockchain enables trust in water trading

Australia pioneered water rights trading in the early 1900s, becoming a world leader in water sharing between valleys. The initiative extended throughout the states of Australia across the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). However, findings from the water market’s inquiry of the MDB, completed by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), highlighted a great many challenges of the system.

These challenges include a combination of paper-based and digital processing, slow processing, ambiguity and a loss of trust in the market. The outcomes of these challenges have manifested in various ways including reduced water quality due to shortages and reduced environmental flows. The impact of these outcomes were most expressively reported in the Australian media via images of fish kills.

Forecasts indicate that water scarcity will present a greater challenge in meeting long-term sustainability goals as the climate continues to change. While there is no silver bullet to solve the challenges of the water market, blockchain technology has the capacity to partially solve these challenges by increasing trust, transparency of trading and validation of market participants.

A path forward with a capable partnership

The ACCC recommended many changes to improve the water trading market, including using ‘distributed ledger technology’ and a ‘backbone platform’ for water trading. Arup and IBM saw these recommendations as an opportunity to take a leadership role and propose the implementation of a blockchain-enabled water trading platform.

Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking tangible or intangible assets in a business network. Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, reducing risk and cutting costs for all involved. As each transaction occurs, it’s put into a block. Each block is connected to the one before and after it. Transactions are blocked together, creating an irreversible chain.

Equigy, IBM Food Trust and Plastic Bank are instances of how blockchain can be successfully applied to tackle global societal problems across different industries, while ensuring trust and accountability of transactions.

Application of blockchain to water trading markets

A blockchain-enabled trading platform solves issues of transparency, incomplete information and lost opportunities. Where there is a lack of transparency of information, a distributed ledger shows all trades, allowing market participants to audit the blockchain at their convenience. A blockchain contains all the information (for all to access), which eliminates the issue of incomplete information. And blockchain only works with the buy-in and unanimous agreement of all participants, which creates trust.

Participants in the market enquiries conducted during the ACCC’s investigation acknowledged that the complexity of the market and the carriage of incomplete information (along with inaccessibility) led to inefficiency, lack of transparency and lost opportunities. The findings centered around four central areas of focus:

1. Integrity and transparency

2. Data and systems

3. Market architecture

4. Governance.

These areas aim to ensure water markets have integrity safeguards and participants have the information they need to make informed trading decisions.

Although the methodology that Arup and IBM proposed does not achieve all the recommendations made by the ACCC or by DCCEEW’s reports, it does provide a solution for actioning several recommendations to push the water trading market in the right direction. In response to these reports, Arup and IBM have focussed on what is achievable without the need for new policy to be written and agreed upon. Instead, the team focussed on recommendations made by the reports including improvement of market architecture and trade processes and information.

Next steps

The Arup and IBM team see this proposed methodology as a viable solution that should be tested in the real water trading market. In the same way that different states and territories across Australia trialled different COVID tracing measures (finally adopting the most successful methodology) we see this as one methodology to trial.

The complexities of the inter-valley trading (where a trade occurs across state borders) would be most robust to test against. Negotiating the state departments, differing nomenclature and varying approaches is a key sandbox for establishing a viable trading platform. The team have proposed inter-valley trading market locations where borders are shared between New South Wales and Victoria or Victoria and South Australia.

Achieving more from less is where digital technologies play a pivotal role, and we believe that a blockchain-enabled water trading platform for the Australian water markets will allow market participants to access sufficient supply, despite climate change forecasting less. A discussion paper on how blockchain technology can improve accountability and transparency within the Murray-Darling Basin can be downloaded below.

Source: ibm.com

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Creating a sustainable future with the experts of today and tomorrow

When extreme weather strikes, it hits vulnerable populations the hardest. In the current global climate of stronger and more frequent storms, heat waves, droughts and floods, how do we build more positive environmental and social impact? We have a responsibility to apply our technological expertise, resources and ecosystem to help the world become more resilient to these environmental challenges.

We need a three-pronged approach to long-term sustainability: preparing the workforce with skills for a greener future; forging strategic cross-sector partnerships; and empowering purpose-driven individuals and organizations with the right tools and technology to accelerate action.

Equipping the current and future workforce with green skills

According to new Morning Consult research commissioned by IBM, 71% of business leaders surveyed anticipate their business will emphasize sustainability skills criteria in their hiring in the next two years, with 92% expecting to invest in sustainability training in the next year. There is already a skills gap in technology and sustainability, and these results show that it continues to grow.

But when it comes to training and credentials in green and technology skills, there just aren’t that many options. IBM already has a strong track record of providing free skilling resources to communities that are underrepresented in tech, most recently with a commitment to skill 2 million learners in AI. So, to help prepare the experts of tomorrow with the green and technology skills they need, we are providing free training on IBM SkillsBuild.

Our initial curriculum offerings will include three courses: Sustainability and Technology Fundamentals, Data Analytics for Sustainability and Enterprise Thinking for Sustainability. Through these foundational courses, learners will explore topics like ecology, biodiversity and social impact to help them develop a comprehensive understanding of sustainability. 

Lessons will include real-life case studies and opportunities to learn about how AI can assist businesses in achieving sustainability goals and mitigating climate risks. The courses also provide instruction in data analytics contextualized around sustainability use cases. We will also add more advanced courses that take a deeper look at how data analysis and visualization skills can be applied to practical sustainability use cases, such as examining energy consumption in a community. 

These courses are available to high school students, university students and faculty, and adult learners worldwide. Learners are free to take as many courses as they want and to study at their own pace. Upon successful completion of some of these courses, learners receive a credential that is recognized by employers.

IBM SkillsBuild has a global reach, and it has already benefited many learners with the inspiration and resources they need to pursue careers in technology. For instance, in Nigeria, Clinton Chidubem Amam found employment as a graphics designer after completing IBM SkillsBuild courses, and his work was displayed at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Meanwhile, Oscar Ramirez, who arrived in the US as a child from Mexico, was able to investigate everything from AI to cybersecurity and project management while finishing his studies in Applied Mathematics and Computational Mathematics at San Jose State University.

Uniting sustainability experts in strategic partnerships

Whether it’s closing the green skills gap or tackling environmental challenges, you can’t go at it alone. Addressing big challenges requires collaboration and strategic partnership with experts that intimately understand the nuances of different domains.

That’s why IBM’s award-winning pro-bono social impact program, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, selects innovative organizations focused on solutions worth scaling. In this program, diverse cross-sector experts in topics such as sustainable agriculture and renewable energy come together from both inside and outside IBM. Using a human-centered approach along with IBM Garage, artificial intelligence, advances in data, cloud and other technologies, these teams collaborate on projects to help vulnerable populations become more resilient to climate change.

Five organizations are now joining this initiative on the path toward clean water and sanitation for all (UN SDG6):

• The University of Sharjah will build a model and application to monitor and forecast water access conditions in the Middle East and North Africa to support communities in arid and semi-arid regions with limited renewable internal freshwater resources.
• The University of Chicago Trust in Delhi will aggregate water quality information in India, build and deploy tools designed to democratize access to water quality information, and help improve water resource management for key government and nonprofit organizations.
• The University of Illinois will develop an AI geospatial foundation model to help predict rain fall and flood forecasting in mountain headwaters across the Appalachian Mountains in the US.
• Instituto IGUÁ will create a cloud-based platform for sanitation infrastructure planning in Brazil alongside local utility providers and governments.
• Water Corporation will design a self-administered water quality testing system for Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

We’re excited to partner with organizations that deeply understand the water and sanitization challenges that communities face. IBM has committed to support our sustainability accelerator projects, including our sustainable agriculture and clean energy cohorts, with USD 30 million worth of services by 2025.

Supporting a just transition for all

To build a more sustainable world, we must empower communities with the skills, tools and support they need to adapt to environmental hazards with resilience. By providing access to IBM technology and know-how, we can empower the communities most vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather and climate change. And by democratizing access to sustainability education through IBM SkillsBuild, we help the next generation of experts realize their passion for applying advanced technology to preserve and protect the environment. These efforts, along with our strategic partnerships, will lead us all into a more sustainable future.

Source: ibm.com

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Empowering farmers across the digital divide in Malawi with OpenHarvest

The landlocked country of Malawi, located in southeastern Africa, is home to rich, arable land and a subtropical climate suitable for farming. As a result, over 80% of the population is employed in agriculture, and their livelihood revolves around alternating rainy and dry seasons that dictate how the year’s planting, growing and harvesting will unfold. But the once predictable seasons that smallholder farmers rely on are steadily shifting due to climate change.

When the rainy season arrives later than expected, many Malawian farmers still follow outdated agronomy practices that may lead them to plant too early or too late. Smallholder farmers lack access to hyperlocal weather forecasting and data that can help increase their crops’ chances of success, which jeopardizes the productivity and profitability of their season. Their challenges are compounded further by inherent and unavoidable farming risks, such as pests, contamination and natural disasters.

But with access to advanced technology, smart farming recommendations and specialized weather forecasts, farmers can build resilient and flexible operations that can help maximize their fields’ productive potential. That’s why IBM and global nonprofit Heifer International collaborated through the IBM Sustainability Accelerator to develop OpenHarvest—a digital tool to empower Malawi’s smallholder farmers through technology and a community ecosystem.

OpenHarvest sets out to close a digital divide

OpenHarvest is an open source platform with a mobile application that expands access to visual agricultural data, delivers specialized recommendations to farmers through AI and climate modeling, and enables better farm and field management.

The OpenHarvest model assigns each participating farmer’s field a set of latitude-longitude points that trigger comprehensive recommendations according to local weather and crop growth stages. Additionally, it monitors soil composition data (nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrient levels) to identify how fertilizers should be applied.

From the beginning, Heifer International and IBM sought to develop a low-cost tool that maximizes output. A serverless architecture was ideal to keep infrastructure costs to a minimum under a “pay-per-use” model. IBM Cloud Code Engine allowed IBM developers to reduce time to deployment and focus on core objectives for Heifer International and the farms at the heart of the project—namely, being cost-effective, scalable and reliable.

Historically, Malawian farmers have relied on generalized weather information transmitted via radio to make operational decisions. Most farmers do not own smartphones, so Heifer International and IBM had to find an information-sharing method that could transmit precise crop and soil management recommendations generated by the OpenHarvest model, while remaining accessible and affordable to the end user. The solution was an SMS text message.

IBM Consulting also brought their sustainability experience to the pilot deployment of the OpenHarvest solution, joining a project ecosystem that included Heifer International’s community facilitators, volunteers from a local university in Malawi and smallholder farmers. It was crucial to support farmers not only with smart technology, but with a network of hands-on experts to help build trust and implement solutions.

Creating a profitable future

Climate change is not the only risk that smallholder farmers encounter in Malawi. Though the economy relies on agriculture, farmers have limited access to affordable credit or competitive markets. The cycle of poverty and lack of access to capital have historically pushed farmers in Malawi to purchase cheaper supplies (like recycled seed) which can result in low yields and subpar crops. For this reason, access to affordable capital can be an essential component to promote environmentally resilient practices and drive behavioral change.

IBM and Heifer International saw an opportunity to incentivize farmers to adopt best agricultural practices through a digital extension solution, while simultaneously facilitating connections to access finance and the formal market. Ultimately, the OpenHarvest platform is differentiated by this structure, which encourages farmers to embrace digital technology and retain new farming practices. This leads to long-term profitability and success in a changing environment and economy.

Expanding deployment for greater impact

OpenHarvest has now reached 200 users in the district of Mchinji in western Malawi. The application’s impact translates to about 1,000 direct beneficiaries, as Malawi has an average family size of about 5 people. The pilot deployment has now concluded with the sale of the year’s crops. Compared to previous years, most farmers saw increased yields, with some participants even doubling or tripling their output for the season.

As a next step, Heifer International plans to onboard around 300 additional farmers and expand the project into Kasungu, a district in the central region of Malawi. Looking ahead, the program is also evaluating other innovations, such as building out robust AI models and AI integrations based on a roadmap developed with IBM.

IBM and Heifer International are proud to help to change lives in Malawi and build sustainable farming solutions alongside farmers and their communities.

Source: ibm.com

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