After receiving his B.S. in Mathematics at Purdue University and serving as a submarine officer and fleet integration director in the US Navy, Jeff Peterson earned his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. During this time, Jeff found his niche in the energy and natural resources industry. He kicked off his career as an engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company and has now moved into strategy and business development.
Hi Jeff! Tell us about Cyient and your role.
Cyient provides engineering design services, manufacturing, and analytics, as well as networks and operations. Our technical expertise, domain knowledge and industry offerings differentiate us as a design-build-maintain partner, who can fulfill greater needs, solve more problems, and provide solution ownership across our clients’ value chain.
My primary focus is to create new solution offerings and look for new markets across industrial original equipment manufacturers and the entire energy and natural resources value chain.
What challenges are your clients currently facing?
Our clients are facing continually increasing cost pressures in the midst of delivering larger and more complex plants, products and services. These pressures drive the need for increased operational efficiencies, more effective collaboration between internal and external stakeholders, higher quality early in the project lifecycle, and increased reliability throughout their operations. Industry 4.0 serves as a means to achieve these business goals through a platform that connects, collects, analyzes, and visualizes data across our clients’ operations, enabling data-driven business decisions across the globe.
What value does Industry 4.0 bring to your customers or any end user?
Fundamentally, Industry 4.0 is intended to provide an integrated, digital network of machines, processes, and internal and external stakeholders to enable data-driven decision making through real-time insights. This provides end users with business outcomes focused on increased productivity, efficiency and quality throughout the design, build, operate, and maintain lifecycle of their products. Since Industry 4.0 represents a highly scalable implementation of technologies, it has had an impact on a range of our clients’ products, from individual components to global enterprise assets.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a broad concept. How does Cyient view its influence on Industry 4.0?
Because Industry 4.0 is intended to connect, collect, analyze and visualize data, a digital platform that enables these functionalities is imperative. IoT serves as the platform that enables the collection and exchange of data and data-driven insights from globally dispersed assets to the appropriate stakeholders. IoT is, therefore, a critical component in successful Industry 4.0 initiatives that unlocks the true value embedded in the integration of these different processes.
Given the growth of digitization, how do you see the roles of engineers changing as products become ‘smarter” and more connected?
The digitization trend drives deeper integration of systems traditionally considered disparate by engineering teams. To design a “smart” product with the greatest value, engineers of all disciplines must collaborate earlier and more comprehensively to ensure the appropriate operational product data can be collected and leveraged efficiently. As end customers gain more insight into the intimate details of a product through enhanced connectivity, fostering a positive user experience becomes an even more significant driver for engineers at every level.
What do you view as the most difficult hurdles to overcome in the widespread adoption of digitized operations?
Our clients’ challenges vary and are largely dependent upon where they are in their digital journey. Looking beyond the foundational areas, such as platform standards, connecting big data, security, technical skills, creating ROI, and staying ahead of disruptive competitors, a common challenge is understanding how to implement a cultural change within their organizations to capitalize on digital. ‘Does the executive leadership team understand the change that is required to transform and balance short-term wants with long-term needs?‘ These are the kinds of questions our clients are asking.