Astina has been supporting ABB for over twelve years in a close relationship with various applications ranging from installed base management, service tools, configuration management to the automatic creation of services based on the underlying data. The portfolio of provided services is growing year by year and constantly opens up new opportunities besides selling products.
The extensive requirements are ensured by the implementation of the "Living BoM" (Bill of Materials), which primarily means that a single product is accompanied from creation to end of life in order to generate the best possible added value for ABB's customers.
Installed Base Management
Installed Base Management defines the structured storage of already installed products or future installations including the relationship to the customer as well as further information necessary for the maintenance of the services. Installed Base Management thus defines the basis for further services.
It is important that the data is stored in the appropriate quality so that no incorrect conclusions are drawn. This aspect was solved by introducing various control mechanisms in the installed base software, supported by automatisms that directly prevent incorrect input.
The installed base management software has been in operation for over ten years and is regularly adapted to changing needs. The system's data is also made available to various other internal services and applications for further use.
Support for the service business
Since many ABB products have a very long service life, a certain portfolio of services is required, which can be performed once or at regular intervals. A service can be very complex, as employees may have to perform the service by helicopter or under other difficult conditions.
Such an undertaking thus requires extensive preparation and planning. Especially in this area, services have been developed to support the process from planning to execution and final reporting.
The reported data flows back into the linked systems and triggers a fully automatic adaptation of the underlying data to the new conditions in the sense of "Living BoM". Thus, the services performed on ABB products provide a large part in the whole ecosystem.
Generation of service offers
The highest possible quality of information provided gives ABB the opportunity to generate additional services that can be offered to customers.
Examples include preventive maintenance, upgrades to enhance a product, through to spare parts sales or service agreements.
The developed service quote generation application allows the definition of static quotes that are created without underlying additional information. It also allows the creation of complex quotations, each of which incorporates installed base and product configuration data and generates the quotations based on defined rules.
The mechanisms developed thus allow an extremely flexible solution that generates offers tailored to the customer and offered through various channels such as local sales teams or online customer portals.
Further use of the data
The installed base data as well as all service-relevant information and service offers are made available for further internal purposes via various interfaces.
The integration of Data Lakes serves data analysts, among others, who in turn provide important evaluations for various departments, for example, to reduce defective components.
Other interesting application areas include integrations with on-site service tools and the ABB Ability™ Platform.
Conclusion
Over the years, a comprehensive ecosystem of Paloma services has emerged, generating a variety of options for both ABB and ABB's customers to add the most value.
The services provided are very flexible and are constantly being adapted and expanded to the latest circumstances. Some services have already been in use for over ten years and are also being continuously expanded. Supplementary systems are simply integrated into the ecosystem.
The greatest demands, however, lie mostly in the provision of the appropriate quality of the data, since these ultimately represent the basis of any construction. With certain mechanisms, it has been possible to raise this basis to a high level.
