According to Kyle Daughtry, digital reality capability architect with Exxon-Mobil, there’s a “tsunami of data” on the horizon that’s about to hit the shore.
“One study revealed that between 2016 and 2021 there was an increase in data of about 4300 percent,” Daughtry said. “The amount of data has grown exponentially since then and will continue to grow.”
Data has become the biggest component of people’s journeys and strategies over the past decade, and “we need new ways to interpret and understand that information and data.”
For the industry to effectively move from the age of data to the age of experience, Daughtry said, leaders must better determine what they do with data and how they visualize and understand it.
Athicha Dhanorchitphong, enterprise 3D architect for ExxonMobil’s digital reality ecosystem, applies the data to the example of consumers buying online from Amazon.com.
“Do you look at reviews to make decisions? Those reviews summarize human experience. They are written data of that human experience, with supporting images,” he said. “Sometimes, a 3D aspect actually shows how the product fits in your home. That’s what we mean by the age of experience.”
“We have maintenance records, isometric drawings, equipment records, risk – you name it,” he continued. “We’re trying to scale it, but how do we do that when we’re still stuck in a 2D world?”
Daughtry said the era of experience is creating “a future where an operator can go out into the field and have access to all this information in real-time, at any time,” with mobile devices that allow for digital evaluation. area
“Or from a device you wear on your head that allows hands-free access to information,” he said.
Dhanorchitphong shared four “cornerstone pillars” to help implement this transformation of digital reality systems.
The first pillar is to democratize 3D data capture.
“Let’s start by hearing stories from our operators and exactly what they do,” he said.
The second pillar is determining a centralized storage point for that data and then building autonomous pipelines to access the data.
“There are many ways we can deliver this,” Dhanorchitphong said at the recent Industrial XR Global Summit in Houston.
The final pillar is to allow data to be consumed anytime, anywhere by determining the methods of that data.
“‘Capture, store, distribute and consume’ is what we call the lifecycle of our 3D assets,” he said. “It’s a new way, but it helps align the corporation.”
Dhanorchitphong emphasized that 3D must be at the core of this endeavor and must be connected.
“We have problems with systems that we can’t get out of, but we have to work with each other,” Dhanorchitphong said. “I need to be able to transport and segregate my data in and out. It needs to be modularized and integrated to corporate scale.”
The ultimate goal is to extend the life cycle of 3D assets through a wide range of methods, including augmented reality, virtual reality and a hybrid of the two, Dhanorchitphong said.
“We need to build this ecosystem to allow the integration of data to move to a more visual way of working,” he said.
The transition to the age of experience is already happening, but Daughtry said the biggest challenge to that transition lies in the mindset and attitude of the workforce.
“Why do we work in a 2D world or environment on an object that is actually a 3D world?” he asked. “Really, the biggest transformation for us is in our head — how we move to a more visual way of working and, in doing so, allow transformation along the line of business.”
