Condition Monitoring Offers Cost-Effective Entry into World of Industry 4.0
According to a recent IoT For All article by Brian Harrison, “[t]he factory of the future, in which all conceivable devices are connected with their intelligence and autonomy and each plant process is constantly optimized through sophisticated real-time analytics, has long been the utopia of industrial automation.”
After all, what manufacturer doesn’t want to be as efficient and productive as possible? Harrison notes that these new advanced automation technologies “promise to unlock unseen levels of productivity and efficiency while removing the need for humans to carry out many of the more repetitive or labor-intensive tasks required, potentially saving organizations vast amounts of money and time.”
However, all you have to do is look at the current state of modern manufacturing to know that “the idea of the smart factory is not yet a reality for all.” While many manufacturers have embraced new automation technologies, others have yet to do so, citing both the cost of technology and inability to hire skilled workers that know how to use these technologies as reasons.
Harrison acknowledges that “[i]t takes time, planning, and often significant investment to radically modernize an entire plant from the ground up.” But maybe “a radical rebuild is not necessary to start embracing the benefits of Industry 4.0.”
What if, instead, manufacturers started small and built up their capabilities over time? According to Harrison, “[i]ncremental improvements, such as adding condition monitoring capabilities to existing equipment can unlock a vast potential for savings across the areas of efficiency, productivity, and reliability throughout the plant.”
The author argues that manufacturers “can implement condition monitoring without substantially rethinking existing processes, and you can roll it out on a much smaller scale to embrace the efficiency, reliability, and productivity savings promised by Industry 4.0, at a fraction of the cost.”
Doing so “offers greater visibility over running processes. Digital connectivity provides real-time or near-real-time insight into asset health, allowing maintenance teams to focus their efforts where needed and avoid expending resources unnecessarily. It can also prevent large amounts of downtime by flagging and fixing potential issues before they turn into failures.”
Harrison urges manufacturers to “[a]ttach sensors to legacy equipment to measure health, tracking metrics like vibration, temperature, and power signatures for a comprehensive view, avoiding manual component inspection. Measuring and analyzing assets remotely improves plant safety in hazardous areas without endangering personnel.”
Incorporating condition monitoring into manufacturing processes allows manufacturers to transition from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance. Over time, manufacturers can add more technologies, such as manufacturing execution systems and enterprise asset management systems to more thoroughly take advantage of data being collected.
Harrison concludes that “condition monitoring enables companies to start small, and grow digital capabilities gradually in a more manageable and cost-effective way. This also allows you to prioritize assets in a way that provides the best return on investment. From there, you can expand condition monitoring programs to other operations, and before you know it, much of the plant will be connected.”
Of course, part of the transition to Industry 4.0 has to be upskilling current workers and/or hiring new workers with the skills necessary to operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair a wide variety of advanced automation systems. How can manufacturers accomplish this?
Today, more and more employers are looking for workers with industry-standard certifications that prove they have the skills needed. For example, if workers possess a certification from the Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA), employers can feel confident they’ve already proven they have the knowledge and hands-on skills needed for working with advanced smart automation technologies. SACA has been hard at work collaborating with industry leaders to develop a wide variety of industry-standard certifications that will help employers find workers who possess the advanced connected-systems skills they need to take their businesses to the next level. Be sure to check out SACA and all it has to offer!
- Published in News
Cybersecurity a Top Concern for Auto Manufacturers
If you were an automotive executive today, what do you think your primary concern might be? Improving safety is always an important concern. Given rising inflation, making vehicles more affordable might also be high on the list. Of course, many of you might also identify navigating the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) as a likely contender.
While those are all good guesses, there’s one issue that Rockwell Automation’s latest State of Smart Manufacturing: Automotive Edition report identified as the primary barrier for growth according to auto manufacturers: cybersecurity. If you think about it, it just makes sense.
Manufacturers everywhere—including auto manufacturers—have embraced new automation technologies because they improve productivity, efficiency, and ultimately profitability. However, as manufacturers add more and more smart devices to their networks, the risk of cyberattacks on those devices increases accordingly.
The bad actors behind the cyberattacks that have made the news in the last few years know that manufacturers often implement new technologies before adding the highly skilled workers they need to keep those advanced systems safe. Auto executives must ask themselves: how safe are our plants from cyberattacks?
Moreover, automobiles themselves have become marvels of the latest modern technologies. From Wi-Fi-enabled vehicles to dashboards that sport screens the size of small televisions, the cars and trucks we drive are “smarter” than ever. And let’s not forget about the next frontier: self-driving vehicles. The earliest models are already on our roads. What happens when they become the norm?
We have a high-tech system of air traffic control that keeps track of all the airplanes in the sky to make sure none of them cross paths. Will we see the same type of system for self-driving automobiles? Can you imagine the technology that will take to keep track of millions of vehicles to ensure they all stay in their lanes? More importantly, can you imagine what would happen if a hacker gained control of such a system, let alone individual vehicles?
These are just a few of the factors that led auto manufacturers to put the spotlight on cybersecurity as the main barrier to continued growth. In a recent Industry Week article, author Dennis Scimeca points out that “[t]he manufacturing sector…presents one of cybercriminals’ most attractive and lucrative targets.”
This is certainly true for auto manufacturers who tend to have a “lack of tolerance for pauses in production and therefore increased willingness compared to other economic sectors to pay ransom demands.” Cyberattacks on Nissan, Ferrari, and Hyundai in the last year have boosted cybersecurity to the top of the pile when it comes to future worries.
Scimeca believes “[t]he increasing connectivity between vehicles provides the largest concern for auto manufacturers.” For example, Brian Denken, Rockwell Automation’s commercial manager for networks and cybersecurity services, North America, notes that “[w]e’re looking at multiple types of connectivity—vehicle-to-cloud for services like navigation, vehicle-to-infrastructure for traffic management and vehicle-to-vehicle for safety communications. Each connection point expands the attack surface and presents unique security challenges that we must address to ensure safe and reliable vehicle operations.”
Cybercriminals also like the automotive industry as a target for the huge amount of data available. Denken points out “[t]his includes personal data from drivers, operational data from vehicle systems, communication data exchanged with external entities and charging data for electric vehicles.”
Denken argues that “[e]nsuring the security of this information is vital to prevent fraud, maintain vehicle performance and safeguard user privacy. This requires advanced encryption, secure communication protocols, and continuous monitoring.”
Scimeca reminds readers that “[f]ocusing too much on the specifics of vehicle connectivity risks losing track of the degree to which automotive plants, some of the most networked plants in heavy industry, also face increasing cybersecurity risks.”
So what’s a vulnerable auto manufacturer to do? Experts agree that it’s critical for manufacturers to hire highly skilled workers that can manage cybersecurity risks, in addition to operating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing the advanced automation systems that are being implemented. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing “skills gap” issue in the manufacturing sector, finding highly skilled workers remains a significant challenge.
How can manufacturers find the workers they need? And how can they be sure that workers have the hands-on skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace? Today, more and more manufacturers are looking for workers with industry-standard certifications that prove they have the skills employers need.
For example, if workers possess a certification from the Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA), employers can feel confident they’ve already proven they have the knowledge and hands-on skills needed for working with advanced smart automation technologies. SACA has been hard at work collaborating with industry leaders to develop a wide variety of industry-standard certifications that will help employers find workers who possess the advanced connected-systems skills they need to take their businesses to the next level. Be sure to check out SACA and all it has to offer!
