3 IoT Strategies for Improving Your Manufacturing Processes with Maintenance Connection
With a strong demand for operation and productivity improvements, customization and the need to meet higher market expectations, IoT, known commonly as the “Internet of Things,” is quickly gaining prominence. In fact, it is considered a new revolution in the manufacturing world similar to the assembly line and lean management. Many manufacturers are moving from Industry 3.0 to 4.0, utilizing various ways to reach the same modernization goal.
Businesses that have already begun adopting IoT solutions in the workplace are finding significant value in the automated processes in maintenance management in both on-premise and cloud environments.
The Internet of Things is the interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects that enables them to send and receive data. Industry 4.0 in summary is the latest modernization of manufacturing, digitizing data for analysis to make better decisions. The movement is not regulated to just manufacturing but is the linkage of computers making “Smart” factories, hospitals and cities.
Alongside the invention and adoption of IoT, the evolution of sensors has reached a new level and is becoming an industry standard. These sensors placed on your critical assets, with the help of thresholds set in a CMMS, can help to predict failures and avoid downtime. Reactive maintenance can cost a company up to eight times what establishing a preventive maintenance program can save in reducing downtime.
Integration of IoT and sensors with a CMMS can not only shift your maintenance program toward preventive maintenance, but also predictive, further lowering your downtime risk.
The following three examples demonstrate how IoT strategies and the tools that enable them can help maintenance teams be proactive, boosting productivity and providing efficiency through automation.
In any industry, asset downtime can be costly, ineffective and often unpredictable. As stated in the ARC Advisory Group study on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), only 18% of equipment failure is due to its age, while 82% of failures occur randomly. This observation highlights that time-based approaches, such as preventive maintenance, are not foolproof, and that predictive maintenance is a natural next value step after preventive maintenance. Both proactive strategies are more beneficial than reactive maintenance long term.
Accruent’s CMMS and EAM solution Maintenance Connection has a comprehensive database that easily integrates with any software via a Restful API which allows the system to capture data in real time. This data can then be processed with pre-set thresholds to help identify potential failures. In collaboration with Enterprise Resource Planning and Manufacturing Execution Planning Solution tools such as, Hydra MES or Factory Logix, attaching sensors to physical assets allow Maintenance Connection to become a ‘smart’ platform and rich with imported intelligent data from those assets.
Once that asset data has been collected and imported, it is then stored in Maintenance Connection’s Asset Module, where it can be viewed and tracked in real time and can be used to streamline multiple processes, including:
In the manufacturing industry, asset data is critical, and being able to not only see your data, but to interact with it, makes it that much more important. Maintenance Connection's storage database and SMART reporting functionality, in collaboration with IoT strategies, excel at this in multiple ways. In addition to having automation generated based on this smart data, the real time and historical data imported into Maintenance Connection can be viewed and utilized when and where you need it to make informed data driven decisions which is the concept behind Industry 4.0.
Here are just a few examples of how the information made available through IoT practices can help:
Providing insight into asset information also makes it easier to keep track of which assets require more frequent inspections and preventive maintenance, as opposed to those that perform for longer periods of time without fail.
It is a common misconception that only large corporations can benefit from adopting an IoT environment when having these strategies available can benefit companies of all sizes. Some companies implement IoT for efficiency, while other companies use it to cut costs.
Maintenance Connection allows organizations to utilize automations seamlessly across multiple modules, improving functionality and saving time on both labor and repair costs. These automations include:
Across the manufacturing industry, companies want to save money, streamline and simplify our processes to save time, and create an optimal work environment that meets the needs of customers.
Maintenance Connection excels at helping manufacturers optimize their operations because of its ease of use, configurability and adaptability, and when paired with the adoption and collaboration of IoT, the advancements available to organizations are evident and incredible.