Internet of Things
The role of the Industrial IoT in manufacturing efficiency and productivity
By Jason Chester, director of global channel programs, InfinityQS
E
fficiency and productivity are two of the most important challenges that manufacturers face on a continual
basis. Through efficiency improvements, manufacturers strive to achieve a given level of output with fewer inputs. Through productivity improvements, they strive to achieve a greater level of output with the same inputs. While those inputs are broad and varied, such as labour, raw material usage, energy consumption and asset utilisation, most boil down to the single common denominator of operating costs. For most manufacturing organisations, manufacturing operations represent the single biggest source of cost across the business. Therefore, even small improvements in efficiency and productivity can yield positive impacts on business performance. Significant improvements on the other hand can be game changing. These improvements are needed more than ever, especially in today’s supply and demand markets. Increasingly competitive global markets are being driven by evolving consumer trends and attitudes that expect better, faster and cheaper products, while at the same time expecting greater choice and customisation. Online commerce, price comparison, low-cost retailing, peer-to-peer reviews and recommendations are making consumers more promiscuous and less loyal to brands. Conscious and ethical consumption places a greater burden on manufacturers where waste, environmental impact and sustainability responsibilities are scrutinised. Political and economic volatility and uncertainty have significant impacts on the availability and flow of goods throughout the value chain. These highlight just a few
of the challenges facing the manufacturing sector today.
The need for improvements in efficiency,
productivity and agility are more critical than ever to navigate these challenges while driving current and future business performance and growth. However, the problem is that while electromechanical automation and lean manufacturing principles have been the workhorses of efficiency and productivity in manufacturing over the last several decades, we continuously see diminishing returns from these approaches. Many of the ‘big wins’ have already been achieved. They are no longer delivering the substantial improvements that are needed by manufacturers in today’s markets.
Automation to optimisation This is why we are seeing the emergence of a whole paradigm shift from automation to optimisation. An automated process is not an optimised process and can still be highly inefficient. Indeed, automation can even increase inefficiency and hamper productivity especially when those automated processes are not able to adapt to the variability and unpredictability inherent within physical systems.
Optimisation, on the other hand, continuously monitors, evaluates and adapts processes in real time to achieve an optimal level of performance. This may be at a macro-level, where a manufacturer continuously monitors equipment performance and product quality characteristics across their entire organisation, or at a micro-level, where a particular process dynamically adjusts to changes in equipment or raw material characteristics. This is either done automatically in a closed-loop system or by providing operators with real-time insights and actionable intelligence. In order to achieve this level of optimisation, a manufacturer must have a high degree of operational acuity across its manufacturing processes. They must understand all of the points within the manufacturing or supply chain process that has a causal effect on performance. Once that is known, then data from those points needs to be collected at an appropriate rate. That data must then be made available for real-time monitoring and analysis, so that the process can be continuously optimised. This is fundamentally where IIoT (Industrial-Internet-of-Things) plays a crucial
role in improving manufacturing efficiency and productivity. While the true definition of IIoT has become blurred, with many variants depending on who you ask, the most common is the ubiquitous networks of sensors and devices connected to cloud- based services. However, what IIoT does not mean is a whole new class of sensor devices. Even legacy devices such as PLC’s can, and do, form part of IIoT networks. Thus, IIoT is more a new approach for data collection and integration, than a new technology. IIoT enables manufacturers to greatly
increase the real-time visibility into their manufacturing operations to a level that was not economically feasible without the low-cost options available today, or technically feasible without the availability of Cloud Computing, Big Data and Advanced Analytics. IIoT alone will not drive improvements in efficiency and productivity. Only when the data collected by IIoT is transformed in to real-time operational insights, and when those insights are used to optimise processes across the value chain, will manufacturers be able to gain those new ‘big wins’ in performance improvements .
infinityqs.com
www.cieonline.co.uk
Components in Electronics
March 2020 29
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