What you always wanted to know about ABB Ability™
ABB Ability consolidates and expands all of the technologies we offer to connect our customers to the Industrial Internet of Things
We are all very excited about ABB Ability, our new digital offering that brings all of our digital solutions together on one interoperable platform. Our new and comprehensive offering is going to expand the reach and impact of the industrial internet exponentially, making it possible for entire business sectors to manage their facilities and networks with an unprecedented level of flexibility, ease and efficiency.
The ABB Ability scope and potential carry-on effects are so far-reaching that I am really enthusiastic about what it can do. I’d like to take this opportunity to offer a concise description of what it is and how it works.
Essentially, ABB Ability consolidates and expands all of the technologies we offer to connect our customers to the Industrial Internet of Things. While other companies are also working on aspects of industrial connectivity, ABB Ability is unique in the breadth of its approach. Going beyond simple connectivity, it integrates all of our services and domain expertise to turn raw data into analytical insights and direct action. ABB’s long-established leadership in control room technologies is at the heart of our ability to “close the loop,” turning data drawn from numerous sources into immediate control decisions that can generate significant customer value on a real-time basis.
ABB Ability represents a coordinated campaign to bring all of our digital capabilities under one umbrella, to harmonize them, make them more modular and universally applicable. Its purpose is to draw on our technological leadership and deep knowledge of our customers’ businesses, while building on our already considerable digital expertise, with the aim of creating real business value for our customers.
Let’s take a look at a concrete example. ABB Ability Marine Performance Optimization is a software package that provides ship operators with a way to monitor and assess all available inputs on weather, wave height, course, speed, cargo and more, to determine the most efficient route to their destination. ABB Ability Marine Performance Optimization, combined with ABB’s Collaborative Operations Centers, lets shipping companies monitor the performance of their operations in real time. The system uses satellite communications and internet connectivity to gather and analyze data from ships almost anywhere in the world. With support from the technicians at the operations centers, shipping companies can put together detailed maintenance schedules and even carry out troubleshooting routines remotely.
ABB Ability Marine Performance Optimization is one of the formerly standalone systems that is now being integrated into the more versatile and universally applicable ABB Ability platform. The result is that logistics companies will ultimately be able to use one integrated control and monitoring system to keep track of ships, cargo flights, trucking operations, warehouse operations and any other assets, all in one place. By bringing all the available data together on one platform, it becomes possible to see broader patterns, identify logistical bottlenecks that may not have been obvious before, and take preventive action to avoid evolving conflicts or maintenance issues that might previously have been completely unforeseeable.
In other words, ABB Ability is designed to unleash the full potential of big data, connectivity, smart sensors and other new technologies that have been largely isolated from each other up until now. And our company’s capacity to connect all that information and analysis directly to the control room, using it to make instantaneous operational decisions, is what makes ABB Ability truly powerful and unique.
ABB Ability is going to keep evolving and expanding to serve needs and solve new problems that our customers face. The fact that it can be constantly adapted for new applications is exactly why it is so important – both to ABB and to our customers around the world.
Winning with Digital takes ability. ABB Ability.