FEATURE INDUSTRY 4.0
Manufacturers are likely to profit more from a 'digitalisation' strategy if they take a selective approach during the implementation phase. Victoria Van Camp, CTO and President of Innovation and Business Development at SKF, introduces the concept of the digital 'toolbox' for manufacturers
I
ndustry 4.0 has prompted certain sectors of the manufacturing industry to
adopt an approach to ‘digitalisation’ that entails the implementation of an all- encompassing, enterprise-wide digital manufacturing model. While this might work for some with the budgets to match, and a flexible workforce that accepts change, going for an ‘all out’ digital transformation is not for everyone.
GOING DIGITAL Adapting fully to the Industry 4.0 paradigm, or simply playing around the edges of it, the process of digitalisation is now a fact of life for manufacturers. This is whether ‘going digital’ covers the minutiae of an enterprise’s commercial operations, its production scheduling, or even its engineering and maintenance related functions; all of which produce those inordinately large data streams often referred to as ‘big data’. While many may still be at the earliest stages of adoption, manufacturers across all sectors will be introducing some form of digitalisation to their operations in order to boost their productivity and efficiency, improve product quality, or rationalise
DIPPING INTO A DIGITAL TOOLBOX
The ‘digital toolbox’ is a suite of products and services, such as sensors, measurement equipment and reporting software, that can be individually selected, as and when needed, in order to improve overall performance and efficiency
their supply chain activities. While it might be tempting to adopt a
digitalisation strategy that covers all of these needs at a stroke, the better approach is to aim for a particular level of digitalisation by dipping into a digital ‘toolbox’. This enables the manufacturer to select from the many available technologies to achieve specific goals – in much the same way that a maintenance technician might select from their toolbox to undertake a complicated repair job. The ‘digital toolbox’ is thus a suite of products and services, such as sensors, measurement equipment and reporting software, that can be individually selected, as and when needed, in order to improve overall performance and efficiency. A prime area for digitalisation and, in
Big data may be the currency of modern industrial performance, but it must be properly interpreted if it is to be of any practical use to the industrial customer
particular, the digital toolbox approach to digitalisation, is condition monitoring. Digital technologies have been developed that are able to take this maintenance tool beyond that of an instantaneous machine health monitoring aid, to one that opens up new horizons for plant operations and maintenance. These include algorithms that predict machine health trends on which future maintenance scheduling can confidently be based. SKF is currently helping its customers to
introduce such digitalisation strategies – importantly, without them having to carry the burden of large capital investments. Instead, all necessary infrastructures needed to gather, process and act upon the data are included within an all- inclusive service package. SKF's ‘Rotation for Life’ model, for example, is a performance-based contract that enables a company to move at its own chosen pace towards digitalisation by paying a monthly fixed fee for digital technologies that are purpose-designed to improve both performance and availability of rotating equipment. Big data may be the currency of modern
20 NOVEMBER 2018 | PROCESS & CONTROL
industrial performance, but it must be properly interpreted if it is to be of any practical use to the industrial customer. While digital technology implementations are vital for data gathering and number crunching, it is the remote diagnostic capability (using the expertise of companies such as SKF) that can make all the difference between simply assessing equipment performance locally in real time and having the data expertly interpreted at a remote location and translated into effective maintenance recommendations. It is a fact that industrial customers
struggle with the volumes of data generated as a result of digital technology implementation and they are reluctant to be burdened further. This is often symptomatic of their having approached the process of digitalisation without due regard for how their data is ultimately to be used. In such cases SKF recommends that the customer conducts a process audit, taking advantage of their process knowledge and data that are vital to the understanding of how a machine is currently performing – and how that performance might be improved.
MAKING LIFE EASIER There’s a lot of mystique about digitalisation, but it’s really no more than a tool to boost machine performance and, by giving maintenance staff ready access to reliable data, to make life just that little bit easier for them. Manufacturers have more to worry about than their machinery’s bearings and lubrication: they just want their rotating equipment to work and to work reliably. Digitalisation is the tool that ensures that this happens – and it is now available to all, straight out of the toolbox.
SKF
www.skf.com
/ PROCESS&CONTROL
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