Siemens Snaps Up Senseye to Expand Its Predictive Maintenance Expertise

Based in Southampton, United Kingdom, having had close ties with Southampton University since its founding in 2014, Senseye works alongside its customers (including Nissan, TATA, and Alcoa) to monitor their equipment, and with the application of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, to provide alerts about emerging issues ahead of time to avoid unplanned downtime and improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

In June, Siemens announced that Senseye will become a subsidiary of Siemens Holdings plc in the United Kingdom and be part of the Customer Services Business Unit of Siemens Digital Industries. The Siemens Customer Service Unit offers consulting, implementation, and optimization services, as well as a whole range of traditional and digital services, including, for example, Remote Services and Artificial Intelligence Services.

Senseye’s Predictive Maintenance (PdM) software can take information directly from any machines and/or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors attached to them to detect and diagnose issues that need the customer’s attention. Deploying Senseye can reduce customers’ maintenance costs because by using the software, they can schedule maintenance tasks as required, rather than on a routine basis. Furthermore, the proactive nature of the maintenance tasks means that firms can reduce their inventory levels and extend equipment lifetime.

Senseye works with customers to ensure that the PdM software is correctly capturing the key parameters affecting machine health and performance, such as vibration or electrical current. The software uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate analytical processes and refines the algorithms having analyzed the customer’s maintenance activities, as well as the equipment’s day-to-day operations. Once up and running, customers can then implement the solution on all their machines, share insights, and make changes to the algorithms across all their sites. The data can be integrated with other industrial software applications and enterprise tools, such as Microsoft Teams. In 2016, Senseye started analyzing 30 machines at Nissan’s factory in Sunderland, United Kingdom. In February 2019, eight of Nissan’s factories across Europe, North America, and Japan were working with Senseye to monitor more than 10,000 assets.

Senseye’s analytical engine automatically creates and maintains unique models for each machine using available process data, and entire enterprises can be monitored without requiring extra investment in data science resources or additional sensing. Senseye has also created “Senseye PdM Omniverse” to enable customers to design, deploy, operate, and refine a successful predictive maintenance program, translating maintenance successes to business outcomes and to inform change management programs.

Senseye has proven itself by reducing unplannede downtime at Nissan by 50% and direct maintenance tasks for Schneider Electric have been reduced by 20%. Both Nissan and Alcoa report that they have achieved Return on Investment (ROI) in fewer than 3 months. Many vendors have confidence that their solution will deliver ROI. In January 2022, Senseye announced a partnership with reinsurer SCOR, offering PdM customers Senseye ROI Lock. Put simply, if eligible customers do not achieve ROI in 12 months, Senseye will refund the PdM subscription.

Siemens and Senseye had previously worked alongside one another at client sites, and Senseye was already a MindSphere partner, which must have helped with the due diligence process. Now, it has acquired the firm, so the challenge for Siemens will be integrating Senseye’s expertise with other applications, while retaining Senseye’s innovative culture. For example, Siemens could expand the scope of ROI Lock and offer it by Siemens Financial Services as a guarantor for other use cases.

But integration should not distract from continuing to improve the Senseye application and Senseye PdM Omniverse (including adding the ability to perform root cause analysis and provide automated prescriptive maintenance) because other deep-pocketed competitors, such as Bosch, General Electric, IBM, and PTC, won’t wait.

For Senseye, Siemens will expand the Total Addressable Market (TAM) as a result of the firm’s global sales force and partner, network, and by encouraging existing customers to evaluate the solution. Currently, Senseye has a direct presence only in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, and Japan.

ABI Research expects that the challenging operating environment will fuel more acquisitions, as larger firms with strong balance sheets take the opportunity to provide a home to smaller suppliers.