We help businesses generate new value through innovation, says Robbert Brand, founder and managing director, AIVHY.

For four months, Robbert Brand, founder and managing director of operational technology company AIVHY, travelled around Europe, looking for a country where he could set-up base for his company with the aim to bring a revolutionary approach to innovation for industrial companies. His last ticket was to Malta – and indeed, this last destination was the proverbial ‘save the best for the last.’

“As soon as I arrived in Malta, I knew it was the right fit,” Brand says. “Standing in between two continents, Malta allows for quick access to mainland Europe, and is a gateway for different markets. Moreover, its size makes it a perfect testing ground for solutions – the market is small and manageable, and so is a good indicator of when to take product to market, scale up and grow.”

Brand then spent the following year finalising a business plan, before launching AIVHY.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“We launched at a very difficult time – yet with the shift to remote working arrangements and a significant customer base in lockdown, for many companies, this was a wake-up call to digitise their processes and offerings,” says Brand.

“The pandemic brought with it a significant demand for automation and digitisation,” says Brand. “And this is exactly what we do – we provide expertise and services to facilitate expansion and growth through automation and innovation.

“For instance, we could digitally and cyber securely connect machines to provide real-time insight in performance and quality across the production process. We ensure that this improvement enables further innovation, such as predictive maintenance, energy use optimisation, or even opening new revenue streams.”

This is only an element of what this young company proposes – as AIVHY focuses on providing a holistic service and addressing every aspect of a challenge. Apart from the technical elements, innovation involves other aspects, like organisational change, financial planning and maintenance of the solution.

And thanks to the experts that the company can rely upon – a tailored team that can be assembled and scaled according to the challenge at hand – AIVHY helps businesses address a challenge in all its aspects, starting from pre-investigative work leading to an actionable roadmap, followed by implementation of future-proof, fully operational solutions.

Data is one of the big drivers of modern innovation

“In turn, this relieves our customers and frees up their time and resources to focus on their core business,” Brand adds.

Key to AIVHY’s unique approach is Industry 4.0 – a movement that applies emerging technologies to industries and facilitates horizontal and vertical digitalised integration within an organisation and across the supply chain, with the aim of reducing cost, waste and error while improving quality, efficiency and performance. Of course, all in a cyber secure manner.

Industry 4.0 is mostly data-driven, relying on technology to generate, collect, transport, share, store and transform data into value – with the more popular examples of such technology being IoT, blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and real-time dashboarding and visualisation.

“Data is one of the big drivers of modern innovation,” says Brand. “It is useless to collect data without using it. Rather, data, and its use, should be a key driver for innovation and adds value to businesses.”

Also, Industry 4.0 spills over other technologies which might not be directly related to data that are still further empowered by the use of data-related innovations, boosting operational flexibility.

“The technology and innovation on which Industry 4.0 relies is still developing at a rapid pace – so its full potential is still to come,” says Brand. 

“Monthly breakthroughs are still achieved in the field of machine learning, 3D printing is still evolving rapidly, and most other technologies driving Industry 4.0 follow similar progress. The latest developments must still find their way to the industries, meaning that Industry 4.0 is not even close to its true potential.”

“To give an example: A company finds itself in the need to optimise their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) through smart use of data and real-time insight, open new revenue stream through IoT and servicification of their products, or have set an ambitious future goal for which big innovation is required with an achievable and stepwise approach. The principles of Industry 4.0 combined with AIVHY’s real-world approach form the perfect answer for such cases.

“AIVHY has the knowhow and experience to lead this entire journey to success, taking care of every aspect of this transition.”

An excellent starting point is AIVHY’s Kick Starter. “With this service, we provide an accessible starting point for production companies, warehousing and logistics operators, ports, and any other companies that work in an industrial environment, to continuously reach optimal business potential and open new revenue streams. Our Kick Starter makes this possible through accessible innovation, technology, and smart use of data built on existing assets.”

“Such existing assets, for instance, contain data that is easily made available, but underutilised. This data has significant potential,” Brand explains.

“Moreover, this potential is usually low-hanging fruit. With each low-hanging fruit that we pick, we ensure that we reduce the barrier for the next improvement. This way, the route to big innovation becomes achievable, by taking small steps that pay for themselves.”

Change is crucial for survival.

“This is our aim,” Brand adds. “With quick wins leading to big innovation, we help our customers generate new business value through innovation and agility. That way, businesses survive and grow.”

For more information and to speak to AIVHY visit https://aivhy.com/.