Meet Jeremy Goossens
Jeremy Goossens has always wanted to work at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. His current role involves 30,000 compressors, generators and pumps – all sharing information with each other, our engineers and our customers. Millions of data points flow from the physical machines to the digital twins every second, enabling engineers to monitor the equipment as if they were in the same room.
Job: Program Leader, Connectivity, Power Technique Service
Specialist Subject: Digital Twin technology
Five years ago, Jeremy, who is now Program Leader, Connectivity, at Atlas Copco Group, was working at a company that specialized in 3D printing, a technology that enables designers to make prototypes and products at the touch of a button.
At the time, he was aware of rapid advancements being made in data gathering and artificial intelligence and felt drawn to the idea that machines could communicate with each other to solve problems that humans might not spot.
“One of the things that led me to switch positions was the impact of the data itself,” he says. “Everything is becoming more and more data driven. We can collect and analyze data and effectively create intelligence. I knew little about the Internet of Things, but I saw the vacancy at Atlas Copco Group and applied.”
Machines that live in the cloud
Jeremy is now responsible for managing Atlas Copco Power Techniques’ 30,000-strong network of digital assets – machines that live in the cloud but are exact replicas of real compressors, generators and pumps.
These digital twins are transforming our ability to anticipate maintenance interventions and foreseeing possible problems.
Millions of data points flow from the physical machines to the digital twins every second, enabling engineers to monitor the equipment as if they were in the same room.
“From a distance, we are now able to monitor a machine as if we are standing next to it,” Jeremy says.
By connecting all the digital twins, we can be predictive. We know what is happening and what is going to happen, and we will have the answer even before the problem occurs.
Easy-to-manage and actionable data
Jeremy visualizes incoming data via a fleet management portal called Fleet Link. The FleetLink connection hardware is built into and connected to the controller of the latest machines.
The hardware, known as a SmartBox or CoreBox, retrieves data from the equipment and sends it directly to the dashboard, where it is converted into actionable data that is easy to process and manage.
It’s not just the engineers that use the data. All relevant information is fed back to our sales teams, which enables them to provide tailored product suggestions, which results in better customer satisfaction in the long run.
“When we’re talking with customers about new equipment, we can look back at their old utilization data,” Jeremy says.
“We can then say, ‘the product that you would like to purchase is probably not the right one, we would recommend to buy this type of machine rather than the other one, because it's more suited to your application.’”
The system can only get better as we gather more data. The Fleet Link technology is enabling the team to see new patterns all the time, effectively enabling the team to see further into the future.
Instead of being reactive, we are starting to become proactive. The next step is to be predictive, and then prescriptive.
"As we gather more data, we will become more aware of the relevant patterns, we can anticipate various outcomes before they happen on other machines,” Jeremy concludes.
Listen to Jeremy on TechTalks
Jeremy Goossens was a guest on the first ever episode of the TechTalks podcast, where we discussed how to engineer the industry of tomorrow.
