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Four major business trends are impacting the test and measurement and industrial and embedded markets: mobile technology, cloud computing, big data, and predictive maintenance. Each trend presents an opportunity for your organization to innovate and cut costs. You can use the National Instruments ecosystem to take advantage of these trends.
Figure 1. The LabVIEW Tools Network is an ecosystem of products that extend the NI platform.
Mobile Technology
According to digital ad agency Vertic, enterprise tablet use is expected to grow 50 percent in 2012. To take advantage of this mobile trend, you can use a mobile app built by NI, called the Data Dashboard for LabVIEW, to monitor data points on iOS and Android devices. Additionally, Tools 4 Smart Minds, an NI Alliance Partner, offers a flexible programming tool called the Smartphone and Cross-Platform Communications Toolkit that you can use to connect LabVIEW system design software to custom apps with a mobile development framework.
Figure 2. With SCCT, you can create open solutions capable of exchanging data among a wide range of systems--from smartphones to Java apps and UNIX workstations.
Cloud Computing
In the 2011 CSC Cloud Usage Index, 82 percent of respondents said the cloud saves them money. Running software in the cloud drives down cost because you no longer need to purchase or manage an IT infrastructure. To help organizations that are considering the cloud, NI introduced the Technical Data Cloud. You can use this tool to access and manage your test data from anywhere. Another part of the NI ecosystem offering advanced cloud capabilities is third-party product Maintainable Test, which is particularly well suited for organizations involved in electronics manufacturing. It boosts effective manufacturing performance and test quality by connecting LabVIEW, NI TestStand, and NI DIAdem data to the cloud for test data management.
Figure 3. Maintainable Test is a cloud solution for collecting and analyzing test data from manufacturing and R&D.
Big Data
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the manufacturing sector can reduce total costs by 50 percent with a better understanding of data. Big data problems involve data sets that are so large and complex that they are difficult to store, search, analyze, and visualize to make business decisions. NI DIAdem software helps you tackle postprocessing problems that are too large for traditional tools like Microsoft Excel to handle. In addition, the CURE Library from Neural ID helps solve big data problems through unprecedented analytics that meet critical pattern identification challenges involving waveforms. CURE delivers value to the enterprise by enabling key business insights through better understanding of the data.
Figure 4. The CURE Pattern ID Toolkit offers Virtual Instrument Library (VIL) software for the NI LabVIEW development environment.
Predictive Maintenance
According to the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS), led by Dr. Jay Lee, 25 percent of wind energy costs come from maintenance. You can cut the maintenance costs of today’s complex, intelligent machines by using an advanced control process called predictive maintenance, which detects potential issues before they cause problems. To address the need for predictive maintenance, Dr. Lee’s research team at IMS developed a solution called the Watchdog Agent Prognostics Toolkit for LabVIEW.
Figure 5. The Watchdog Agent Prognostics Toolkit for LabVIEW uses a patented analysis technique and industry-standard analysis to add ready-to-use prognostics and health management (PHM) algorithms and graphic displays to your LabVIEW applications.
Conclusion
These four trends provide new opportunities to drive down costs. With NI software and hardware and the vast ecosystem of products on the LabVIEW Tools Network, your organization can stay ahead of these trends and continue to drive innovation while cutting costs.
Learn more at ni.com/labviewtools.
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