Principles for Successful Deployment of NDE 4.0

Abstract

Digital Transformation is at the heart of the current industrial revolution, and it won’t spare the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) sector. It is changing the value proposition of inspection processes from ‘an undesirable quality check’ to a ‘much-needed source of data, information, and knowledge’ from manufacturing to service life maintenance.  Non-destructive assessment has changed significantly from the early days of ‘enhancing human senses’ to ‘equipment that can assess the condition’ and remotely support sustainment decisions. The current trends in cyber-physical technologies offer new possibilities wherein the inspectors will be able to see the anomaly on a digital twin before it can be detected on conventional NDE equipment, by fusing data from multiple sources and leveraging the history captured in digital threads.  To convert such a possibility into reality, organizations need to embark on a journey where the endpoint is not very clear. This puts a set of guiding principles, a compass, at the heart of execution to make correct choices, help prioritize processes, and minimize the possibility of conflict.

This paper provides a structured model of twelve principles in three synergistic perspectives with a responsible foundation. They are designed to serve as a guide to meaningful development, deployment, and leveraging of the next generation of inspection systems, as well as creating, capturing, and distributing value from the data they generate.