Data acquisition The importance of data


The intelligent use of data is central to unlocking the benefits promised by Industry 4.0. However, the volume and complexity of this data places a considerable burden of responsibility on a company. Raw data is useless unless it is analysed and transformed into knowledge and insight, but this requires a significant amount of time, commitment and the right skill set. With manufacturing businesses facing the ongoing challenge of skills shortages, many plants simply do not have the manpower to track and monitor critical plant infrastructure, leading to unplanned downtime and security issues. In this article, Chris Whitehead, managed platform product manager at SolutionsPT, asks: “In the absence of an IT team trained on industrial control systems or a team of technically skilled engineers, how can plants monitor and protect their assets and deliver machine reliability, improved availability and resilience?”


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n the manufacturing industry, data-hungry technology is used in a huge variety of ways – from storing


data, to running automated machinery on the plant floor, to supporting distribution and tracking inventory, the list goes on. This technology is constantly collecting and storing data which is intertwined with manufacturers’ production processes meaning that, if a manufacturer is suddenly unable to use those processes, production stops and so does revenue. With network connectivity now easily


achievable and operational intelligence technologies within the SCADA application space advancing rapidly, monitoring these systems and maintaining the high availability levels critical to productivity is becoming increasingly complex and, historically, plant management is more concerned with production rather than IT. The reality is that to manage the


infrastructure and applications in this environment, businesses often struggle to find the knowledge necessary to ensure consistent monitoring and disaster resilience. Corporate IT depar tments rarely understand the specific requirements of the industrial IT environment, whilst on the plant floor there is a lack of technical exper tise about IT infrastructure and significant resource constraints. As a result, where monitoring is happening, its use is limited because there is nobody with the time or exper tise to interpret the data. Manufacturers can retrain their teams or employ digital specialists, but in the fast-paced


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manufacturing environment, there is rarely the time or budget to suppor t these routes. So, how can plant environments deliver predictive and preventative monitoring and maintenance of their operations and combine this with a robust, proactive response to prevent production being impacted if an unexpected situation occurs? One option is to take advantage of


managed services to suppor t the operations and tasks - this helps plug any skills gaps within organisations by outsourcing all of the monitoring required for effective preventative


maintenance. Outsourced managed services can also help protect system health and eliminate the risk of unplanned downtime. Unlike production engineers, external


providers have the dedicated resource to ensure continuous services and high availability of data. They can also interpret the data and use it to inform improvements and efficiencies meaning, should the worst happen, they can work quickly to minimise any negative impact on operations. The latest managed services for industrial IT environments include performance


March 2019 Instrumentation Monthly


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