Daryoush Ziai, CEO of Schindler China, explains how IoT is propelling reliability and service solutions across all sectors.
Daryoush Ziai is a seasoned business leader with over 30 years of experience in leading businesses and teams across Asia, Europe and North America. Born and raised in Tehran, he received much of his education in the US, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering and an MBA. He started his career at Otis Elevator Company, and has worked at Carrier Corporation and Schindler Group, where he is currently CEO of Schindler Group China. He is fluent in English and Farsi, and speaks Mandarin; transitioning almost effortlessly between cultures. Daryoush is based in Shanghai with his wife, who is Chinese, and their two boys and a girl. All three languages spoken at home and the family spend holidays visiting family in the US or Iran, or, going somewhere remote, to relax and learn, and where Daryoush can disconnect from work in a constantly connected world.
Callum Sarsfield: During our last conversation, we spoke about how IoT can help OEMs and service providers reduce costs and improve productivity. During this discussion, we explore how IoT can enable OEMs and service providers to improve the reliability of their products and improve the services which they deliver to their customers. How do you see this evolving?
Daryoush Ziai:
The opportunities here are varied and numerous. Broadly speaking, below are three keyways in which IoT can help improve customer experience and product reliability.
1. IoT powered by greater volume, depth, and diversity of data
Usage levels, environmental conditions and age of equipment create wear and tear in equipment. More specifically, certain parts fail earlier than others, either because they experience greater stress, or are designed to different levels of tolerance, reliability and/ or longevity. Nonetheless, in many cases, these component failures result in overall equipment failure. The rich and broader data delivered by IoT enables companies to achieve order of magnitude improvement in product and component failure simulation capability. OEM product reliability is further enhanced through big data analytics and AI tools.
2. Remote diagnostic & issue resolution enhance customer service
IoT can enable 2-way data communications. This capability enables OEMs or service providers to frequently upgrade equipment software through the cloud, resulting in improved reliability, enhanced product functionality, and a reduction in site visits by technicians. It also means such actions can take place at a time which creates minimum negative impact on product user operations. This same 2-way data communications, enables OEMs and service providers to remotely correct and fix some product malfunctions, thereby reducing down time and removing the need for a technician to visit the site. In some cases, users may not even be aware that there has been a malfunction or a product problem. Even in cases when a person must be dispatched to a site, speed of troubleshooting and repair is improved by providing fault information and possible causes to the technician or engineer even before they arrive at the site.
3. Operational efficiencies driven by performance data & predictive service models
Greater uptime and reduction in operational interruptions due to timely or near just-in-time preventive service. The ability to predict failures with a high level of accuracy based on precise predictive models and real time operational and performance data from equipment in the field, means that OEMs and service providers can schedule the replacement of components which are about to fail, before the failure occurs. Also, adverse impact on the performance of the equipment caused by component degradation or software bugs, can be discovered before they lead to a failure or shutdown and thus corrected.
Interview series for Pullmann in Focus led by Callum Sarsfield, Partner at Pullmann Global | October 13, 2020
