GE Digital (NYSE: GE) and SIG, a leading provider of packaging systems and solutions for the food and beverage industry, announced a strategic partnership to power digital innovation in food and beverage packaging. SIG will deploy GE Digital’s Predix Asset Performance Management (APM) and Predix ServiceMax industrial applications across more than 400 customer factories worldwide to drive new levels of efficiency, create intelligent solutions and enable new possibilities for its customers.
In the region, the key implementation sites for these solutions will be the manufacturing facilities under SIG’s joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Obeikan Investment Group. SIG Combibloc Obeikan has a strong presence across the Middle East and Africa, and through this initiative, will continue to be a leader in the digital future of food packaging manufacturing.
The food and beverage industry is ripe for digital transformation, with consumers increasingly seeking innovative, convenient products that are not only safe and sustainable but also affordable and differentiated. At the same time, producers are facing competitive pressures, supply chain complexities and ever-shorter production cycles – creating an increased need for technologies that can enable producers to quickly identify, predict and act on changing consumer and market demands.
The unique combination of GE Digital’s APM and ServiceMax applications will enable SIG to build an end-to-end digital platform that will bring a new level of insight and data-driven intelligence to its customers worldwide – helping them and SIG transform how they predict, manage and service the entire lifecycle of SIG filling lines. By automatically collecting and analyzing asset data – tapping into billions of data points across its operations globally in real time – SIG and their customers can move beyond traditional asset monitoring and predictive service models to reimagine their supply chain, enhance quality control technologies and evolve their portfolio mix.
“Our ability to harness data is central to delivering on our promise of opening up new opportunities for our customers,” said Rolf Stangl, SIG, CEO. “By tapping into information in new and innovative ways, we will be able to deliver an unmatched level of performance, security, transparency and creativity across the entire food and beverage supply chain – through to the end consumer.”
SIG’s customers fill more than 10,000 unique products into SIG packaging across 65 countries worldwide. In 2017 alone, SIG produced 33.6 billion carton packs for its customers.Through this large-scale partnership, SIG and GE Digital will co-innovate packaging solutions and technologies to address the industry’s two biggest needs today: improving asset performance and optimizing service delivery.
“Digital is reshaping every sector, and industrials know they need to own the productivity of their assets to succeed,” said Bill Ruh, GE Digital, CEO. “By adopting Predix applications, SIG is establishing itself as a leader in the transformation of food and beverage packaging. This partnership brings our teams together to write a new chapter for SIG and for the industry.”
The new digital service model will also enable SIG to deliver new solutions and business models based on advanced performance metrics, including as-a-service delivery, performance-based and subscription solutions.
“This will be a true global strategic partnership,” said SIG’s Rolf Stangl. “We are excited to work alongside an experienced digital industrial company to collaborate on innovative solutions – from 3D-printed spare parts to a fully connected, intelligent supply chain to innovative ways to bring advanced tracking and intelligence direct to the consumer.”
The initial deployment is expected to go live in July 2018 with the global rollout anticipated to begin in January 2019.
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