Air Liquide launches new EUR20 million remote operation centre in Southeast Asia
French multinational gas supplier Air Liquide has launched a EUR20 million remote operation centre in Southeast Asia. The Smart Innovative Operations (SIO) Center is located in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. This new SIO Center complements the one opened in Shanghai in September 2017.
The SIO Center enables the remote management of production for 18 Air Liquide Large Industries production units spanning eight countries across the region, as well as optimizing energy consumption and improving reliability at these sites.
The SIO Center integrates, optimizes and remotely controls the operations of Air Liquide’s production units, leveraging predictive analytics and digital technologies. These capabilities allow Air Liquide to better predict and accommodate changing customer needs across the region, especially regarding the supply of oxygen, nitrogen, argon and hydrogen.
This new SIO Center complements the one the Group opened in Shanghai in September 2017, dedicated to production units in China. Through big data combined with human intelligence, the workflow of each Air Liquide production unit linked to the SIO Center is adapted in real time to the needs of each customer. The SIO Center enables 24/7 responsiveness to customer demand, improves production-unit energy efficiency, and leverages predictive maintenance to ensure continuous facility run-time.
In the connected plants, new digital technologies are being deployed to simplify maintenance and inspection management operations. For instance, connected glasses allow operators to interface with experts located elsewhere while virtual reality-based training assist them in their daily tasks.
François Abrial, member of the Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee supervising Asia Pacific said: “With this new center, the Group is continuing its digital transformation, enabling Air Liquide to better anticipate industrial customers’ needs while strengthening the reliability of its production units. We are glad to implement the new Smart Innovative Operations (SIO) Center in Malaysia, a highly promising market with both a solid IT infrastructure and high-skilled professionals in big data analysis.”
Olivier Delabroy, Vice President, Research and Development of Air Liquide said: “We created this centre because digital is transforming every aspect of our lives. This world relies heavily on data,” noting that the centre collects 1 billion of data every day. He also spoke of the value that the new centre brings to its customers: “This centre provides the best service quality to our customers.”
Michael Warren, Director and Team Lead, Strategy, Advisory and Services, InvestKL Corporation, also spoke: “We chose to build the centre in Malaysia due to the talent, ecosystem and ease of doing business.”
Air Liquide is a supplier of industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. It began operating in Malaysia in 1927.