PC-MAR22-PG24-25.1_Layout 1 07/03/2022 14:04 Page 24
INDUSTRY 4.0/IIOT
INTERNET OF THINGS WHY, HOW & WHERE TO START
Richard Jeffers, director – Maintenance Solutions at RS
Components, shows how the use of small, accessible solutions can start you on your journey towards IIOT implementation
he manufacturing sector is faced with a variety of challenges in the current climate, with the biggest one probably being maximising production efficiency and reducing downtime. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is becoming a crucial element in achieving this – helping identify issues that may lead to unplanned maintenance downtime. But for many, making the foray into the world of IIoT can be a daunting prospect. The array of available technologies seems endless, while understanding how they can be practically and effectively implemented can seem like a minefield to navigate. Everyone seems to be selling complexity, and while IIoT is cited as an essential capability in the industrial sector, it can be difficult to understand why, how and where to start. Unlike consumer IoT, where a single problem is being solved or task executed in a vertical set-up, the industrial world requires integration of different systems, both inside the factory and within the IT infrastructure. Consumer IoT - wireless doorbells and smart watches - are comparatively simple systems with one job to do. Industrial IoT is significantly different as equipment operates on a wide range of data protocols that are often incompatible, as they were never originally developed with general integration in mind. Additionally, the age of industrial equipment will vary significantly - industrial machines can remain in service for long periods of time, sometimes decades. Monitoring these machines, integrating different data protocols and consolidating it all into coherent information is a specialist task beyond the knowledge of most manufacturers - both SMEs and larger enterprises.
T 24 MARCH 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL
So with no real or viable plug and play options available, it’s easy to see how this can become a barrier to adoption. By focusing on simply deploying IIoT against specific use cases within the organisation, starting small with accessible and affordable solutions and assessing the benefits before considering further deployment, organisations can embark on a journey that will undoubtedly lead to efficiencies and bottom line savings. Before getting bogged down with generating or analysing masses of data, start by identifying the problem you’re trying to solve, which will provide the ‘why’ on what data you need. Identifying a use case will provide the clear objective needed to ensure that IIoT technology can be evolved in a meaningful way. This will then help you to assess what data you already have and see how far that existing data helps in terms of providing actionable insights which may deliver some immediate project benefits.
This could be trying to solve a problem on a
conveyor belt which isn’t working as it should be, and therefore is affecting production efficiency. You may want to start with condition monitoring, or something that leads to process improvement. Perhaps quality or item tracking is your goal. By taking one particular issue as a use case, the first step on the IIoT ladder can be taken.
As IIoT projects evolve, the same data sets can be used to solve a multitude of issues or tackle a variety of objectives. For instance, energy data can be used to both achieve energy saving goals, and also help determine the health of a motor by highlighting anomalies in energy usage by that motor. Maximising existing untapped data is crucial. Factories are full of data: devices, equipment and process control systems are generating it all the time, but only a small fraction of it is being displayed. The key is to access and unlock the potential of this data which may be trapped or stranded within existing systems. Furthermore, the cost of data
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 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66
