FEATURE Smart factories & AI
PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
Unplanned machine downtime is bad news for any manufacturer, but as Florent Alvez, Technical Director of KeyProd, explains, the latest innovations in production monitoring solutions are increasingly providing the eyes and ears to help companies spot issues in advance, and take preventative action to avoid the costly impact of stoppages
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f you’re a manufacturer, you don’t need me to tell you that production downtime is bad for business. That’s logical, regardless of the industry sector in which you operate. Every second a machine or production line is down slows overall throughput, delays orders, annoys customers (possibly even losing some) and potentially damages brand reputation in the most extreme examples if the issue is a reoccurring one.
If that doesn’t sound bad enough, the the manufacturing industry generally, the cost of downtime is reportedly around approximately $260,000 per hour (according to a study by Aberdeen Research). However, for particular sub- sectors, it’s even worse. A recent report by Senseye showed that an hour of unplanned downtime in an automotive plant cost over $2 million. What’s more, due to increased costs of energy, repairs and materials, unexpected downtime cost manufacturers at least 50% more in 2022 than it did between 2019-2020. Silence is Golden, so went the song, but context is everything.
Stay ahead of the curve The good news is that manufacturers do not need to wait for a machine issue to arise before remedying the problem. And let’s face it, even if that was the plan, if you’re simply not going to be fast enough thousands in lost revenue. that manufacturers can use to stay ahead of the curve and address issues before they arise to prevent – or minimise – downtime. The application of equipment maintenance routines, holding essential spare parts in inventory, and ensuring equipment receives the necessary upgrades as scheduled, are among the options available. However, it’s worth spending some time
researching some of the more innovative solutions that are now available to support that quest to reduce machine downtime.
18 November 2024 | Automation
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Some of these platforms bring new levels of digitisation to production environments process – including existing software, machinery and associated applications. Some systems even use AI and various IOT devices to provide a consolidated real-time vision of production operations to indicators, such as overall equipment
This type of innovation can, in some allow operators to swiftly intervene to prevent minor machine issues from escalating, ensuring production continuity and avoiding the dreaded sound of silence action and preventative maintenance, can optimise OEE, increase productivity and reduce costs. For manufacturers, this is about as close as you can get to having a crystal ball and is indicative of our own KeyProd solution. machine, it analyses performance data to help operators identify the various sources of losses, such as machine failures, micro- stoppages, or defects.
Such advanced production monitoring solutions are increasingly using AI to even more critical insight to manufacturers. In the case of KeyProd, analysing and interpreting machine vibrations is fundamental to the solution and AI is critical to enabling that.
Vibratory signature Our engineers are currently exploring how machine learning and AI can help interpret machine vibrations even more precisely the vibratory signature of manufacturing visibility on vibrational ‘drift’ – essentially This will further revolutionise
preventative maintenance by leveraging predictive analytics to anticipate machine needs. In turn, manufacturers will be better equipped to achieve the wider objective of by preventing unplanned downtime and avoiding the subsequent cost implications. After all, as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.
KeyProd
www.keyprod.com/en/
automationmagazine.co.uk
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