by DavidSpratt | Jul 1, 2017 | ICT
A decade or more ago I used to defeat chess playing computers for a small wager. It was simple stuff really – just find a weakness and ruthlessly exploit it – in my mind computers were basically binary and thus “stupid”. Today chess masters are fair game for computers. My party trick is ancient history and I am frankly a little scared about what happens when computers can outsmart humankind. Terminator anyone?
Some would argue that we have nothing to fear. Others feel exactly the opposite.
Stephen Hawking recently wrote “The full development of AI could spell the end for the human race”.
Elon Musk – founder of PayPal, Solarcity and Tesla called it “Summoning the demon”.
The impact of AI in New Zealand
Putting aside visions of Arnie and terminators for the moment we should also look at the impact that AI might have on New Zealand businesses.
Most kiwi business owners and leaders are constantly aware of the need to innovate, optimise and seek competitive advantage by being cleverer than the guy overseas. Thus, we find ourselves asking:
- How do we get the best out of what we have?
- How do we employ better people and make them more effective?
- How do we use the limited space we have at our disposal?
- How do we get the machines that we paid heaps for to be more efficient?
The questions are endless but sadly the time and money we have is not. I cannot count the number of times I have spoken to business people who know what needs to be done to make companies better, faster or quicker but simply don’t have the spare time to do it.
Here is where Artificial Intelligence comes in. It not only analyses the data to answer the question but it can also act on the insight, often in real time.
Don’t believe me? How do you think Amazon remembers your book purchases and even title searches and then suggest others that may be of interest? AI also allows Amazon to identify your location, match it to the right supply chain service to execute the sale and delivery via the cheapest and most direct route.
Amazon’s arrival in Australia is causing tremors across the whole retail industry there. It’s not just books they sell, you name it, they have it, at a price too cheap to resist. At the heart of this frighteningly effective, multinational monster is Artificial Intelligence
We have always had AI – it has just been too expensive to make that much of a difference. Now it’s available as a service from the likes of Google (Google AI) and IBM – (Watson) and numerous clever startups.
The availability of world class AI a via Software as a Service model means that we don’t need supercomputers and massive budgets to take advantage of AI in New Zealand.
Next month I will describe examples of how AI is being used to optimise business’s use of energy and compute resources to save money and compete.
by Jon Rabinowitz | Jun 9, 2017 | Energy
The focus of the recent Energy Management Association of New Zealand (EMANZ) conference held in Wellington centered on disruptive technologies and how this would impact the traditional models of the energy supply chain. While presentations focused mainly on generators, distributors and retailers, customers also need to consider how emerging technology can drive strategic decision making when it comes to the consumption of energy.
The installation of smart metering over the last few years throughout New Zealand has assisted mainly companies that generate, distribute and retail energy with very little benefit being delivered to customers. In the retail space we are starting to see the application of time based pricing for SME customers but retail pricing products in this space remain in their infancy as the attitude of traditional suppliers appears to be a wait and see approach.
One thing is for certain, data will play a massive role in the future structure of energy supply and customers who control their data will be steps ahead of those that don’t. We truly believe that customers who take a proactive strategic approach to measuring consumption beyond the data available on their invoices (whether it be energy, ICT or waste) will have a competitive advantage in their market place compared with businesses who don’t.
The below article was written by Jon Rabinowitz, Head of Marketing – Panoramic Power, while US-centric there are strong commonalities that apply to the market in NZ. If your business would like to discuss how energy can become a strategic lever for competitive advantage, Total Utilities would welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Contact us here.
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by RichardGardiner | May 25, 2017 | Energy, ICT, Waste
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
Drawing is the honesty of the art.
Salvador Dali
Today Total Utilities announces its new branding. Over the last 18 years we have worked hard to assist companies in controlling consumption and cost. It’s an exciting day for us and we are proud to share this with you.
From today you’ll see a change in the way we look, including our new ribbon logo. The spherical shape represents the whole as we take a 360 degree approach to understanding our clients and their utility requirements, whether it be Energy, Waste and ICT or Insights, Strategy and Solutions.
What doesn’t change is our desire to create a sustainable future for New Zealand businesses and how they manage their utilities by continuing to deliver ongoing value for our clients.
We continue to work hard to provide new services to assist our clients such as Energy Monitoring and Targeting through wireless non-intrusive energy senors, Cloud Computing Analytics for consumption of computer services and qualitative and quantitative reporting aligned to overall financial strategy.
Total Utiltities About Us Presentation
We remain committed to delivering a personalised service and assisting our clients navigate a rapidly evolving commercial market place by underpinning strategic thinking.
I would like to thank our existing clients for your continued loyalty and confidence in our company. To prospective clients, I hope that you will partner with us to discover real world solutions for sustainable utility consumption and cost optimisation.
by chris | May 12, 2017 | Energy
by DavidSpratt | May 5, 2017 | Energy, ICT
In the first two parts of this series I looked at what the internet of things (IoT) actually is and then at the Energy Management possibilities for businesses competing on the world stage.
In this, part three, of the series we get down to the nitty gritty of Manufacturing Production Management and how measuring energy flows and consumption can inform critical decisions.
I could make this complicated but if we really get down to the basics there are three main categories that require constant attention in a production environment: People, Processes and Technology.
People – Creating Feedback Loops
In the context of production management one of the most important variables is the performance of individual staff members. How someone uses equipment, works within a team, learns to adapt to new systems can make the difference between a highly profitable unit and one that is not.
What drives people’s decisions and actions will often come down to feedback loops. By using the Internet of Things to deliver energy monitoring information we can give people useful data about what is happening on their production line.
For example, if we can demonstrate that the team’s correct use of energy efficiency tools delivers a better product this not only reinforces their behaviour it also opens up the opportunity for them to take this information and find even better ways to improve efficiency.
How we use technology can be directly connected to the energy a unit or group of units consumes. If a lathe is running at full tilt throughout an eight hour shift does that necessarily mean that unit is being properly used? Or is the operator just running it on full because it that is what they were told to do when they first started years ago?
People make decisions at work every day. How you create feedback loops will inform those decisions more effectively and in doing so improved performance, job satisfaction and company results.
Processes
Every experienced Production Manager can tell you that each team on a production line is quite different and that their results vary considerably. The bigger question is “what causes this?”. By monitoring the flow of individual products and components through a production line we can identify bottlenecks, part shortages and defects quickly and effectively. With the Internet of Things we can break down a process into its smallest components, create various quality checkpoints along the way and eventually ensure near 100% accuracy, complete adherence to standards and instant identification of faults and tolerance variances.
Many would suggest that this is already the case in many well-run sites. But what happens off site with the parts we order and the products we ship?
The key to the internet of things is that our production process begins at the point where a component is ordered , right through the creation of unique SCU’s or products and all the way to the end user’s home, office or factory. This is because we can now potentially track billions of components throughout the supply chain at a cost much lower than we ever thought possible.
Technology
Remember the Internet of Things is not just adding an RFID tag to a unit and tracking it. It is about potentially billions of components that communicate. This can be back to a central point, with multiple other components, with the warehouse, the truck and of course with the end user.
By integrating Internet of Things components to the technologies we use in making things we can establish how one production line consumes energy at a fairly constant rate while another’s consumption appears to ebb and flow throughout the day.
In this instance we might have identified human errors, a malfunctioning device or quality issues with the parts or components being used on this line.
For the first time in our history we can easily measure our technology’s performance down to the tiniest detail. We are no longer limited by the number, location or stage of development of any component.
The Internet of Things opens a world of opportunities for us to deliver better quality at a lower cost and more reliably than ever before.
by DavidSpratt | Feb 27, 2017 | Energy, ICT
Over Christmas 2015 I spent a lot of my beach time getting sun burnt and considering the threat of global warming to my kids and to their kids.
I eventually decided that, to save the planet, I could start by measuring the energy consumption of every electrical device in the world. This would help people understand how to use these devices more efficiently, they would use less energy and “voila” world saved!
The only problem is – how the heck do I talk to every electrical device in the world? More importantly – how do I get them to talk back to me?
Welcome to the emerging world of the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things? What the heck is that?
All many of us know about this topic is via TV or the newspaper with an over hyped American guru telling us how our new fridges will know whether we are about to run out of milk and will place an order for delivery that day.
Now, to be honest, I don’t want Countdown to know that every week I drink four dozen beers, scoff sixteen packets of crisps and kill my inner sadness with endless king size bars of dairy milk chocolate.
So why am I writing an article trying to explain and justify something that sounds a little bit too much like big brother is watching? Because it matters. Because the Internet of Things is about how our businesses can sustainably compete in the future.
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