Meeting the automation challenges
of smart manufacturing
I
t is worth stating that implementing
smart manufacturing is a very
worthwhile exercise, successfully
applying a level of smart manufacturing
will bring greater efficiencies and
flexibility to any given production
process. It is also a significant step
toward ‘futureproofing’ a production
enterprise.
That “forward thinking” mind-set is
essential when implementing smart
manufacturing projects where intelligent
machines, systems and networks are
capable of independently exchanging
and responding to information to
manage industrial production processes.
A smart manufacturing project should
incorporate a holistic view of the
enterprise from customer demand and
order processing, control of raw materials
and ingredients to flexible and efficient
plant production, whilst minimising waste,
energy usage and downtime. Achieving
this ultimate goal may need a staged
approach and will often be achieved by
taking small initial steps. Understanding
the manufacturing plant’s goals and
their current “pinch points” is essential to
finding quick wins and building confidence
in the smart manufacturing process.
Technology exists today to implement
smart manufacturing and it would
be perfectly feasible to design new
manufacturing plants or production
facilities from the start in line with a
smart manufacturing concept. However, in
many cases the reality is not a new plant
but an existing plant that will need to be
upgraded to meet the requirements and
reap the benefits of implementing smart
manufacturing.
“Smart” in its simplest form is about
gathering data from the manufacturing
process, turning that data into information
and then acting on that information.
What is needed is “intelligent data” from
the plant in order to make decisions
that improve productivity and efficiency
while minimising waste, energy usage
and downtime. Intelligent data has to
come from the “sharp end” of the process.
Current sensor and actuator technology
allows these devices to deliver self-
determination and advanced error
checking, as well as the usual process
information for both control, production
analysis and preventative maintenance.
Traditionally a production plant may have
consisted of “islands of automation” but
in order to maximise the data gathering
potential, existing or new infrastructures
must be utilised to create an architecture
for data collection and management. It is
possible to overlay a “data gathering layer”
on top of the existing automation control
layer to communicate with and extract
data from these disparate systems. It is
helpful therefore to ensure automation
hardware is compatible with a flexible
open network strategy that can interface
with many different network protocols.
When plant assets are controlled
by automation controllers such as a
programmable logic controllers (PLCs)
much of the data vital to deliver the smart
manufacturing concept often already
exists; even if this data is not currently
being transferred to the higher level
systems. The new data gathering layer
can then be used to marshal this vital
production and maintenance data and
pass it on to higher level systems for
analysis and decision making. Productivity
and efficiency improvements come
from knowing exactly how the plant is
performing and delivering intelligent
plant data via a reliable infrastructure
(coupled with the convergence of
business level systems with the
production facility).
This data gathering layer is now referred
to as the “edge computing” layer and
advancements in technology in this area
will provide the facility to perform data
analysis and deploy Artificial Intelligence
(AI) to rationalise the data being collected
from the plant. This will minimise the
data that needs to be transferred to the
higher level systems which can be a
costly exercise to process at that level.
The investment required to deliver a
smart manufacturing plant will depend
on the current infrastructure and age of
the automation equipment but a survey
of what is already on plant may lead to
some “low hanging fruit” on the road to a
smart manufacturing end goal.
Once achieved, smart manufacturing
affords many benefits including the
flexibility to react to customer demand,
maximising plant productivity by
efficient scheduling, achieving minimum
downtime when changing from one
product to another and from preventative
maintenance - all of which should lead to
greater profitability.
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