PC-FEB24-PG10.1_Layout 1 31/01/2024 09:48 Page 10


PROCESS AUTOMATION


DIGITALISATION FACES CHALLENGES HEAD ON


Rockwell Automation outlines how the process industries can overcome four main challenges


ccording to McKinsey's presentation at Automation Fair in Boston, in November, four significant difficulties are facing the process and other industries. The first refers to the feedstock cost, with a 25 percent increase in raw material costs over the past three years. Next is the lack of a skilled workforce, with labour shortage highlighted by a doubling of unfilled manufacturing jobs during 2010-23. The third difficulty is the increasing environmental sustainability goals that only 29 percent of manufacturing organisations believe they are on track to meet. Finally, after a decade of pushing the boundaries of operational efficiency, manufacturers are reporting a plateauing of performance improvements characterised by labour productivity growth that has decreased by 38 percent over the past 15 years. "Based on what McKinsey has learned, process industry leaders are concentrating on five priorities to overcome these challenges: continued focus on quality compliance and excellence; at-scale technology adoption (Industry 4.0); reimagining supply chains to build agility and resilience; focusing on environment, sustainability, and governance (ESG) in the medium term; and succeeding in obtaining talent and capabilities," said Vivek Arora, partner and industry leader 4.0 for North American life sciences at McKinsey. "Because Industry 4.0 means digitalisation, generative AI will open up even more opportunities and potential gains."


A Arora explained that cumulative


productivity gains attributable to digitalisation include a 15 percent increase by adopting tools such as SCADA, laboratory information management systems (LIMS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) in the 2000s. A further 20% was gained by adding digitally-enabled performance management and advanced analytics in the 2010s. Adding touchless solutions, such as integrating operational


10 FEBRUARY 2024 | PROCESS & CONTROL


technology (OT) and information technology (IT), and selectively converting batch operations to continuous manufacturing, boosted productivity by 30 percent. The most significant benefit came from implementing interactive AI to automate machine learning (ML), produce prescribed insights with generative AI, and allow on-the-go decision- making that gained manufacturers a 50 percent improvement.


"Generative AI is the next frontier because it can extract insights in seconds—if it's attached to the right data sources," said Andy Luse, partner and industry leader 4.0 for North American industrials at McKinsey. "It can also generate content tailored to specific contexts and interact with users through human-like conversations."


Digitalisation and AI can help with many essential process industry functions outlined, including supplier connectivity, workforce management, plant-floor production, quality control, and facility support. However, Luse reported that McKinsey also discovered that companies who maximise the value they get from digitalisation and AI apply it end-to-end in their operations to integrate workflows and other overall tasks. These breakthrough gains include 20-40 percent increases in the capacity of formerly bottlenecked equipment, 20-35 percent reductions in conversion cost, 30-50 percent reductions in deviations, and even 10- 20 percent decreases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.


Despite the potential gains of digitalisation and AI, Arora reported that only 11 percent of companies have deployed Industry 4.0 digitalisation in their production networks. One of the most challenging obstacles is that manufacturing operations are often large, complex, and of varying digital maturity – often with hundreds of sites and suppliers on a network. It takes thousands of people to participate in digital transformation, so more


training and capability-building are needed. Another significant hurdle is the need for more standardisation in use cases so their asset performance can be assessed later. To add to the complexity and noise surrounding digital transformation, technology is evolving faster than ever, and users cannot keep up. "We believe there are six strategies that successful scalers use to digitalise their processes and organisations, and all six must be employed together," said Arora. "They include having a strategic roadmap and project pipeline to drive value; attracting and retaining expert talent to carry out projects; using an iterative model to support teams and provide agile delivery; possessing enough plant-floor technology, such as sensors, to support production; maintaining complete and accessible datasets; and adopting and running model transitions across sites to capture value."


One example Arora highlighted was a life sciences manufacturer that recently reimagined its plant-floor operations and applied a holistic set of Industry 4.0 technologies, including digital automation, digital production management (DPM), AI, and generative AI. The transformation was centered on asset and labour productivity, capital expenditure (CapEx) avoidance, and reducing the cost of poor quality. The manufacturer deployed digital and advanced analytics (AA) at more than ten sites, increased its overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 15 percent, reduced its cost of poor quality (COPQ) by more than 30 percent, and benefitted more than 200 plant-floor staffers. DPM was added to 3.6 million data points, which enabled daily data extractions and allowed real-time production transparency. To meet the challenges faced in the process industries, Rockwell Automation is constantly improving its portfolio of digital solutions, an example of which is PlantPAx. The PlantPAx system helps producers make better, faster process control decisions, with PlantPAx 5.3 scheduled for release in mid-2024. "More data is generated now than ever, but more is also getting stuck in silos. Plus, 70 percent of the effort in building analytics and other software applications is data engineering," explained Arvind Rao, vice president of industrial solutions, Rockwell Automation. "We're aiming to have PlantPAx and FactoryTalk DataMosaix [which was launched in July] take away that burden, so users can get away from single-point solutions and build their applications quickly and at scale."


Rockwell Automation www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/ products/software/factorytalk/operationsuite


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58