Xerox’s PARC Announces Novity, a New Venture to Address Unplanned Downtime in Industrial Manufacturing

Venture Is Focused on Predictive Maintenance Technology That Aims to Bring Customers Closer to Ultimate Goal of Zero Unplanned Downtime

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PARC, a Xerox company, announced today the launch of Novity™, a new venture to commercialize predictive maintenance (PdM) technology that reduces unplanned downtime in industrial manufacturing operations.

Unplanned downtime is a key pain point for manufacturers, with recent studies indicating that it costs industrial manufacturers an estimated $50 billion each year.

The Novity solution is an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology that uses equipment sensors and proprietary algorithms to enable industrial manufacturers to see the future health of their production assets. The Novity TruPrognostics™ engine relies on a combination of machine learning and physics-based models of equipment. This allows Novity to predict equipment failures with 90 percent or better accuracy and lead times of months, not weeks or days.

“Over the course of many conversations with customers in the industrial manufacturing industry, we identified critical problems where current solutions fall short: they require too much data, they aren’t accurate enough, and they don’t give users enough advance notice to act before it’s too late,” said Novity General Manager Markus Larsson. “Our goal with this solution is to solve these problems, ultimately enabling zero unplanned downtime.”

Pennsy Supply, the leading manufacturer of aggregate, sand, asphalt, and concrete throughout the North and Central Regions of Pennsylvania, has installed a pilot deployment of the Novity technology and is already seeing benefits.

“Novity’s solution has proven itself effective very quickly. Novity has delivered an excellent PdM solution for Pennsy,” said Larry Kessler, Director of Operation Support, Pennsy Supply. “Within the first month, the system picked up a potential issue with a mill, allowing us to take preventative action, avoiding costly unplanned downtime.”

In addition to increasing the accuracy and prediction horizons of the solution, Novity’s TruPrognostics™ engine also reduces the need for large amounts of data to deliver results. By leveraging a library of pre-built physics-based models, predictive maintenance is accessible to customers who lack the historical data required by other solutions.

“As more manufacturers embrace new technologies that help their plants and factories run more efficiently, one of the things we’ve heard over and over from customers is they need a solution they can rely on to make actionable decisions,” said PARC President Naresh Shanker. “With Novity, we’re leveraging PARC’s expertise in AI, sensors and manufacturing to provide an exceptionally accurate predictive maintenance solution. This means less downtime, more productivity and profitability for our customers.”

Novity is the latest offering in PARC’s broad entry into the industrial IoT market. In 2021, Xerox announced the launch of Eloque, a joint venture with the Victorian Government (AU) to commercialize new technology that will remotely monitor the structural health of bridges and other critical infrastructure. Last year Xerox also announced that PARC is working with the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a technology that can enable large-scale monitoring of seas under the Ocean of Things program.

About Xerox

For more than 100 years, Xerox has continually redefined the workplace experience. Harnessing our leadership position in office and production print technology, we’ve expanded into software and services to sustainably power today’s workforce. From the office to industrial environments, our differentiated business solutions and financial services are designed to make every day work better for clients — no matter where that work is being done. Today, Xerox scientists and engineers are continuing our legacy of innovation with disruptive technologies in digital transformation, augmented reality, robotic process automation, additive manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things and cleantech. Learn more at xerox.com.

About PARC

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated (PARC), a Xerox company, is in the Business of Breakthroughs®. Practicing open innovation, it provides custom R&D services, technology, expertise, best practices and intellectual property to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, startups, and government agencies and partners. The company creates new business options, accelerates time to market, augments internal capabilities and reduces risk for clients. Since its inception, PARC has pioneered many technology platforms – from the Ethernet and laser printing to the GUI and ubiquitous computing – and has enabled the creation of many industries. Incorporated as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox in 2002, PARC today continues the research that enables breakthroughs for businesses.

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Contacts

Media:
Justin Capella, +1-203-258-6535, justin.capella@xerox.com