Today’s reliability teams face something of a catch-22. As experienced personnel have retired from process manufacturing in droves, plants have fewer and fewer expert staff with each passing year. That means fewer people are available to collect the critical reliability data they need to ensure plants are operating at peak performance.
However, as Emerson’s Erik Lindhjem shared on a recent expert panel in Plant Engineering magazine, the best way of dealing with this problem also generates its own issues. Plants are navigating workforce shortages with online condition monitoring, adding sensors to automatically collect reliability data and transmit it on a regular basis. While this solves the issue of intermittent data collection, it also means reliability teams frequently have lots of data, but not enough people with the time to spend in analysis. So they get more data, but they find it difficult to use.
Remote solutions to the rescue
For plants that are low on personnel, relying on an expert partner, Erik explains, can be an excellent strategy. Many organizations, he shares,
“are turning to connected services solutions that deliver remote monitoring of machinery. The most advanced automation solutions providers offer remote asset monitoring solutions where experts leverage analytics (artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML)/first principle) to identify emerging issues with plant machinery, evaluate them and make recommendations to help their customers’ reliability teams better maintain their assets, without spending time tied to their desks performing deep data analysis.”
Typically, experienced solutions providers have extensive partner networks that can provide comprehensive, tailored remote monitoring services to free expert personnel up to focus on issues on the plant floor. In many cases, these partner organizations are already familiar with the plant and can do an even better job identifying issues and recommending remediation strategies.
Successful solutions on premises
Though remote monitoring solutions can do wonders to help an organization close its personnel gaps, there are also tools they can employ in the plant to help support and upskill the staff they do have—and they don’t have to have a deep bench of IT support to make it happen.
“The software available in smart devices in the field and software-as-a-service applications in the cloud are increasingly important as well. Ultimately, closing the loop on maintenance is becoming less about hardware and software and more about mobility of data — putting critical information in front of the right people at the right time.”
Tools like asset monitoring software, edge analytics, predictive maintenance software, and enterprise-level asset performance software embrace a boundless automation vision of seamless data mobility to drive contextualized data into the software that can turn it into actionable information. Armed with predictive maintenance and AI-supported guidance, teams can act quickly and with confidence, no matter their size.
Navigating complexities
Though maintaining a robust reliability program is a challenge for any organization, there are tools available to support the maintenance team at any stage of their journey. The key is to work closely with an expert automation solutions provider to find the right answer—customized to the plant’s (or enterprise’s) unique needs.
The full panel discussion is available in Plant Engineering magazine. Head over there to hear more insights from Erik and other automation experts from a wide range of disciplines.
