Abstract

This case discusses the digital transformation that New York-based industrial conglomerate, General Electric (GE), achieved with its Industrial Internet initiative. The initiative started in 2011 with GE setting up a center at San Ramon, California, aimed at adding networking and distributed intelligence capabilities to all its machines ranging from industrial and grid control systems to aircraft engines. The data derived could be analyzed to increase efficiency since each and every aspect of an industrial operation could be monitored and tweaked for optimal performance, thus reducing down-time and enhancing productivity across all the verticals the industrial giant served. As part of its Industrial Internet strategy in 2012, GE launched its Predictivity line of IoT services. According to GE, the Predictivity platform could help companies in industries such as aviation, healthcare, energy, transportation, and manufacturing to benefit from real-time insight and analytics. By 2013, GE’s Predictivity solutions had clocked revenues of US$ 290 million. In June 2013, GE launched its Big Data and analytics platform for the Industrial Internet, robust enough to manage the huge data produced by large-scale industrial machines in the cloud. GE stated that if the data generated through its equipment could be used to improve efficiency by just 1 percent across its key sectors such as power, aviation, rail, oil & gas, and healthcare, it could result in savings of US$ 300 billion over a period of 15 years. In 2014, GE estimated that the Industrial Internet offered the tremendous potential to add US$ 10 to US$ 15 trillion to the global GDP by 2034.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Critically analyze GE’s Industrial Internet initiatives.
• Understand the benefits that could be achieved by industries by implementing the Industrial Internet.

Keywords

General Electric, Industrial Internet, Internet of Things, Digital capabilities, Predictivity, Big Data, Analytics, Predix, Proficy Historian, Brilliant Factory, Advanced Manufacturing Works, Industrial Internet Incubator