FEATURE Sensors & Sensing Technologies
Improving factory fl oor effi ciency
with sensors and wireless monitoring By Martin Hodgson, Country Manager, Paessler AG
I
n recent years, more companies in the industrial space started to build strategy based on data analytics. As a result, this meant they needed their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems to interact with each other to gain comprehensive data insights. Systems that were previously isolated are now becoming interconnected, bringing on a trend for new monitoring requirements in holistic management of the factory fl oor.
Bandwidth management Bandwidth management is an important aspect of wireless monitoring and a key step when controlling a Wi-Fi network within a factory. It’s possible to simply observe the amount of Wi-Fi bandwidth that is consumed by the devices and applications within the building. Next is the actual management of the Wi- Fi bandwidth, which includes the distribution of bandwidth to the devices in the network. A variety of Wi-Fi bandwidth management software is available to help facility managers control bandwidth to measure, check, limit and customise the distribution of the bandwidth and data rates at any time. It’s also possible to adjust the individual bandwidth consumption of devices within the factory, like routers or switches, in the respective device’s settings.
Backed by data-driven insights Monitoring is becoming more important for manufacturing due to the growing prevalence of data in factories. Data features heavily on digitalisation projects, helping manufacturers with their strategy and forecasting. A compelling argument for digitalisation is the availability of information about the business, primed for analysis in real time and not hidden in spreadsheets, allowing data-driven insights to fl ow better.
Armed with better data insights, a business can not only improve its internal processes, such as supply chain management, but can improve its external
20 November 2021 | Automation [Image: Carlos Muza for Unsplash]
relationships with customers, leveraging data on products to boost innovation and reduce costs to make the end product more appealing. OT devices can provide these insights, which is why forward-thinking manufacturers are interested in IT/OT convergence and in a comprehensive monitoring of their OT devices. Ultimately, strong digitalisation and a data-driven approach to manufacturing management strategy can boost productivity, enhance competitiveness, improve forecasting and enable greater fi nancial sustainability.
Converging IT and OT systems As processes become digitised, so that they can be connected to computer systems and mined for data, IT and OT systems are converging. Before digitalisation, OT would be monitored either by means provided by the machines or devices, or from the industrial control system. Now this has changed, and the performance of OT systems and offl ine industrial equipment can be analysed by integration with IT monitoring solutions. OT systems are now being managed in a similar way as IT systems in terms of monitoring, such as routers and sensors. OT devices, that were previously isolated, can now be brought into connected systems either via gateways and protocol converters, or by using communication standards.
Overseeing the entire factory floor Admin and technicians overseeing a factory fl oor need visibility of industrial
control systems, like an IPC, in order to assess health statistics. These systems are prone to the same problems as any hardware, so RAID, storage, CPU usage and fan rotation are metrics that can help avoid production stoppages. The OT infrastructure also relies on industrial network devices, such as switches and access points, so these need to be checked as well. Furthermore, environmental conditions must be taken into consideration, too. You need to be alerted if the humidity level gets too high in certain areas, or if a high temperature might be indicating that cooling processes are not suffi cient.
This end-to-end overview is just one of the challenges of convergence. The potential solution lies in a holistic dashboard that brings all the important metrics into a single overview.
Ticking the right boxes
When it comes to implementing the right monitoring tools for industrial IT, an admin managing factory fl oor computer systems should consider the following points: 1. Audit separate systems – complete a stock check of what individual industrial IT and OT systems are already in usage and whether they need to be included in monitoring going forward. 2. Assess pre-existing monitoring software – review what monitoring systems and dashboards are already in usage, which metrics are the most relied on by teams, and how these can be pulled into a new system.
3. Set up a new dashboard – use your knowledge of these separate systems and pre-existing software to establish a new, unifi ed system for a single source of information. 4. Organise monitoring notifi cations – to leverage a monitoring overview eff ectively; the right notifi cation must be delivered to the right teams in a timely manner.
CONTACT:
Paessler
www.paessler.com
automationmagazine.co.uk
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