Manufacturers face increased pressures from many areas—generational transition, a global pandemic, and increasing competition and regulations—to name a few. In a Fluid Power Journal article, Bring It On: Digital Transformation in the ‘New Normal’, Emerson’s Shaun Taylor, President of Emerson’s Global Machine Automation, Fluid Motion and Control for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, describes how these manufacturers are undertaking digital transformation initiatives to address these challenges.
Shawn opens noting in this:
…intersection of challenges and pressures, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – and the digital transformation it enables – is poised to unleash an era of manufacturing that is more reliable, efficient, and sustainable than ever before.
The advancement of IIoT technologies is an enabler. For example, in a:
…typical manufacturing facility, there may be dozens of machines that are involved in producing a finished product, and an inefficiency in one can create a cascading effect across the entire plant. By connecting individual machine “islands” and the data they individually provide, an operator can determine if one machine is running more efficiently than another and can spot potential issues before they become bigger problems.
It’s about more than data:
…it’s about extracting the most valuable insights and then piecing them together in ways that help operators make informed decisions. It’s also about starting with a scope that is both reasonable and understandable.
Take for example, monitoring air usage.
Using sensors like the AVENTICS Series AF2 [hyperlink added] to measure airflow, the system can identify the machine exhibiting the problem and send alerts directly to maintenance staff. By starting at this more individualized, machine level, operators can obtain actionable insights without the need for heavy data analysis and quickly realize a reduction in costs, improved production quality, increased throughput, and, in the case of pneumatic systems, improved sustainability.
Read the article for more these IIoT technologies can lead to quantifiable returns on investment and how IIoT technologies combined with edge computing devices, such as Emerson RXi2-LP industrial PCs with PACEdge software, enable deliver insights to right people to quickly address challenges as they begin to emerge.
Visit the AVENTICS Machine Automation Applications and Industrial Edge Computing & Control Solutions sections on Emerson.com for more on ways to use IIoT and edge computing technologies to help drive your digital transformation initiatives forward.
