Smart Factories and the Challenges of the Proximity Network
We toured a factory that produces 17,000 fire extinguishers per day. The plant manager highlighted several systems, such as a large air compressor, that would halt plant operation if they failed. The plant manager mentioned that one day, a critical piece of equipment suddenly failed and they did noy have the spare parts available to fix it. Production was shut down for five weeks while they waited for parts and repair. Predicting that equipment failure could have prevented this company from having that huge profit loss.
One motor production company we interviewed seeks to expand its business model by offering service contracts on motors installed into plants( Figure 4). They want to monitor the utilization as well as temperature and vibration of their motors and collect the data remotely. This information will help them design better motors based on understanding their customers ' needs while also helping them predict when failures might occur.
Figure 4: Monitoring a Motor for Service Needs
2.3 The Six Integration Challenges for Implementing IIoT for Smart Factories
Now let us consider how process improvement and predictive maintenance use cases are handled by considering the six integration challenges that have to be addressed when designing a solution( Figure 5).
Figure 5: The 6 Integration Challenges in Relation to the Gateway-Mediated Edge Connectivity and Management Architecture
- 66- January 2017