OREANDA-NEWS. GE (NYSE: GE) today announced that GDS International LLC, otherwise known as Global Drilling Support (GDS), has implemented its Equipment Insight solution at drilling rigs located in the Marcellus region of Pennsylvania to improve data collection, analytics and management capabilities. Powered by Predix, the software-as-a-service offering enables GDS — a leading provider of top drive manufacturing, maintenance and repair — to better monitor the health of its top drives, helping to optimize operation and maintain rig uptime.

GDS is utilizing GE’s Equipment Insight solution for a six-month pilot program with Orion Drilling Company that includes the installation of two field agents on GDS’s top drives on rigs operating in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. These top drives are essentially the engine of the drilling rig, so improving data monitoring and management capabilities on the equipment can have significant benefits. With the cloud-based solution, GDS is able to monitor data points including load, rotations per minute, flow, pressures, temperatures and torque. This critical data provides valuable insight into the operating performance of the drill.

“GE’s robust Equipment Insight solution enables us to receive a continuous flow of data from our top drives and other automated oilfield equipment,” said Keith Holliday, president, GDS. “With this technology, we will be able to get a better look at valuable operating statistics and performance management data, helping us to improve functionality for our customers and increasing the amount of time between planned service intervals. GE’s solution offered us the easy-to-install, subscription-based service model that we were looking for. In addition, GE’s continuous investments in the Industrial Internet demonstrate that it is committed to changing and improving how data is used to provide both short-term results and to better position us for the future of big data.”

With GE’s cloud-based Equipment Insight solution, GDS is able to provide advanced remote monitoring and diagnostics to its customers without having to make a large up-front investment in expensive software or data centers to manage the data and without replacing existing hardware technology. The solution can be installed and running in two days and comes with training support from GE’s experts. This training teaches customers how to install and program additional units if they choose to expand the number of installations on their network of rigs. In addition, GE provides GDS with a customer success manager who ensures technical satisfaction. This manager supports the original equipment manufacturer’s efforts to franchise its solution to expand its aftermarket service capabilities and revenues.

“Harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet, our Equipment Insight technology enables GDS to better serve their customers by utilizing field data from distributed assets to optimize the performance of their machines,” said Steve Pavlosky, general manager of Equipment Insight for GE’s Automation & Controls solutions. “Our goal is to use our advanced data management technologies and expertise in industries such as oil and gas to make the Industrial Internet real for our customers.”

GE’s Equipment Insight can be layered on top of almost any intelligent industrial device, making it a universal solution for data management. This capability enables companies like GDS to easily expand their monitoring capabilities to other oilfield equipment such as drawworks, mud pumps, catwalks and generators. Armed with data from Equipment Insights, these companies can better predict operational events before they happen, reducing maintenance costs and downtime — which can be devastating to both people and the environment.