In his July 2020 article in Automation World, Dr. Ananth Seshan described some of the perceptions and concerns that hold back small manufacturing companies from implementing “smart manufacturing systems”, and that prevent them from realizing the benefits these systems can unlock. Here are some excerpts from that article or you can access the full article here [Automation World].
Small and medium manufacturers (SMMs) have been largely hesitant to make the transition to smart manufacturing due to the following widely held beliefs:
- Smart manufacturing principles are not useful for SMMs.
- Smart manufacturing is costly, and the return-on-investment is uncertain.
- Smart manufacturing cannot be implemented with the in-house legacy infrastructure and manpower resources available to SMMs.
Many SMM’s have unsophisticated network infrastructure, lack PLC controlled machines, and have minimal in-house information technology skills. Despite this, smart manufacturing systems can be implemented using low-cost and easy to implement Wi-Fi enabled sensors and processing hardware. Dr. Seshan specifically refers to small IoT sensors that can be wrapped around the electrical power cables of machines, and which could then transmit data (e.g. run time/down time, etc.). This data would be interpreted by software to provide actionable information to the operators.
In his example of SMM’s within the auto industry, low cost smart-manufacturing systems were implemented that achieved the following:
- Production performance improvement to enhance throughput, availability, quality, and reduce waste.
- Quality performance improvement to eliminate errors and omissions, and reduce the cost-of-quality.
- Asset performance improvement to reduce unplanned downtimes and maintain optimal health of assets via proactive interventions.
- Energy performance improvement to reduce energy intensity.
The implementation of smart manufacturing systems at SMM facilities in Dr. Shenan’s example dispelled the following concerns:
- Too costly to implement: Total cost for connecting five critical machines and for applying the four smart systems was very affordable even for an SMM whose annual revenues were only $10-15 million.
- Too time-consuming to implement: Each implementation could be completed in less than half a day.
- Need sophisticated infrastructure: In many facilities, a Wi-Fi LAN was available. But in some cases, even internet connections were not available. In those circumstances, the system was provided with the capability to establish a local Wi-Fi network. In the event remote access was required, 4G connectivity was used.
- Legacy machine connectability: Using current signature analysis, legacy machines could be converted into smart machines.
- Extensive training: The systems were deployed in a familiar tablet and smart phone app environment.
Dr. Shenan summarized the key lessons learned from the experience with the example companies:
- Buy-in of both the owners and workers is necessary.
- A minimalistic, bottom-up, incremental and evolutionary approach to transformation has the best chance of success.
- Apart from low-cost concerns, frictionless implementation is a must.
- Real time actionable intelligence collected must be useful—not just more data.
- Identify the various ways to connect new technologies to legacy machines to enable their transformation into smart assets.
- Include and empower factory workers as part of the transformation process.
- Integration of plant with corporate information technology systems to provide one version of the truth to executive management.
Access the full article and lots more here [Automation World].
