Adding new, advanced manufacturing solutions to existing systems can seem to some like the old canard, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The ability to easily add, monitor and analyze sensor data on pneumatic systems and other fluid power applications is really more along the lines of, “I can maintain it before it breaks.”
The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things is to seamlessly capture machine data to monitor performance and measure machine health. The use of intelligent systems and dynamic analytics leads the way toward improved operational efficiency and a reduction in maintenance costs and downtime.
Building intelligence into systems at the front end is expected as new machines are developed. But it is the vast retrofit market where the greatest value can be found. No one wants to “rip-and-replace” an existing system when adding sensors and software can achieve the same outcome.
The barriers to implementation of these smart systems can include many factors—time, talent, capital investments. But as Kevin Kakascik of AutomationDirect writes in a recent article, these barriers can—and should—be easily scaled by better understanding the benefits.
“Many end-users and OEMs are finding it easy to add IIoT capabilities to their pneumatic equipment and other automated systems,” Kakascik writes. “Regardless of the make, model or age of the equipment and associated controllers, there are intelligent devices and cloud-enabled PLCs making this not only possible, but practical.”
One of the first practical outcomes will be reduced maintenance costs. I’ve always considered maintenance a profit center as opposed to a cost center, and better managing machine health allows plant leaders to conduct preventive maintenance at a lower cost and at a time convenient to the operations team, as opposed to fire-fighting crises when equipment underperforms or needs repair.
But the greater benefit of a smart system is a better understanding of overall system performance. As it pertains to pneumatics, you can start by better understand and manage your compressed air costs. (As an aside, energy should be considered another profit center).
You can review cycle times and the performance of solenoids. You can take control of the overall operation. Data drives understanding, and that’s a great and often untapped asset.
It’s concept Kakascik emphasizes in this article. “Not only is this approach flexible, but it is also modular and scalable,” he writes. “Users, systems integrators and OEMs can add IIoT functionality on a trial basis, and then roll it out on a much larger scale when proven.”
That’s the essence of “smart manufacturing.”
