Recently I read an article that talked about how older factories with legacy systems could further reduce downtime even without an IIoT system in place. The author rightly pointed out that much of the process equipment that is out there today isn’t suited for connectivity, and that most of the time it makes little sense to replace it with newer technology because of the expense and retooling involved. So IIoT isn’t an option for these facilities.
If you are one of the majority of plants running with decades’ old systems, how can you use other technology or methodologies to improve operational efficiencies?
The cost of downtime in manufacturing can be huge. Aberdeen Research did a study that showed that 82% of manufacturing companies in the past 3 years have experienced downtime, and that unplanned downtime could cost as much as $260,000 per hour! If you can’t connect your systems, then you should be looking at other strategies to try and avoid unplanned downtime.
Some of the more common ideas being talked about in the process world include:
-Adding sensors to older equipment to get some performance data out of them;
-Getting better data to identify cause and effect of the more common production problems;
-Training employees to be able to solve more problems themselves.
These strategies would take too long to implement and would not provide value in the short term. Adding sensors involves some re-engineering and expense, and then where do you send this newfound data? Getting better data would likely also be a challenge, even if your historical data is organized and defined (which is probably unlikely). At a minimum it will take a long time and require the addition of some analytical expertise to find patterns and bring value. As for training employees, we did a blog post earlier that showed that typical training takes months and has many potential opportunity costs.
If your plants and equipment can’t support IIoT, there is another option. RevTwo Navigator is available today and can provide value in days. Ask yourself these questions:
-What if your plant maintenance engineers had a tool in their hands that enabled them to resolve issues they’d never seen before?
-What if this tool enabled machine operators to resolve problems without having to contact maintenance?
-What if this tool could also enable your maintenance engineers to repair 3rd party equipment, thereby reducing your reliance on the OEM?
-What if this tool got smarter the more it was used, making the whole maintenance organization smarter?
Is IIoT not an option? Come talk with us. info@revtwo.com