Do more with less with iot technology
Producing more may require large amounts of capital, especially when the goal is more fabrication on the factory floor. Although the first step towards volume growth does not have to go through a disproportionate capital outlay - quite the opposite! To successfully scale in volume, we can use IoT technology solutions. In fact, any effective manufacturing system will undoubtedly pass through a robust IoT infrastructure, designed to grow the business, but how is this in practice?
Almost any manufacturer will always try to find ways to increase its profit margin. However, physical space is sometimes a big problem in terms of achieving increased production.
For industrial machinery, intelligent sensors are used to measure operating parameters and acquire various information. Data such as temperature, speed, productivity or efficiency can be collected quickly and efficiently and sent to a database prepared for that purpose.
From this point, we can begin to apply Big Data, machine learning and specific control software. This allows plant machinery to automatically adapt and ensure optimum production levels (not always faster means better).
By connecting PLCS sensors, visualizing everything in a human interface, operators can see exactly what is happening in their plant, in relation to resources, energy consumption, performance and outputs. This helps managers and engineers to improve production and make it more efficient by reducing waste of energy or material. Any business that wants to improve its production and outputs with the equipment they already have should try in any way to reduce their expenses and material losses, in order to increase the net profit balance.
The "7 Wastes of Production", as they are commonly known are: overproduction, waiting, transport, inappropriate processes, unnecessary inventory, excessive movements and quality failures. For example, a software could analyze data from a conveyor belt and detect that a large part of the time passes in motion without products due to some previous bottleneck in production. As a result, the operator can decide what to do with this waste and how to remove the bottleneck or dedicate the resource to something else, as it is underutilized.
Growth is driven by increased demand. However, one of the main risks of investing in new equipment is that if demand doesn't continue on an upward trajectory, manufacturers may end up with a lot of equipment they didn't need, or what if demand drops for a while? What if one of the new machines takes a long time to get up and running. This is where the IoT is presented as a useful tool for scaling. To automate the industry, to control it and to be able to see what happens in it, is to work at the right level.
As the number of IoT devices increases, the control and global vision of the production plants increases, resulting in any slight change in a machine or production line can be detected in time and corrective actions can be taken before the corresponding consequences come.
The IoT will increase production in plants around the world, especially because of the "Do more with less" concept that is linked to it. The reduction of waste and the rapid adoption of IoT technologies are one of the best current ways for the industry to take advantage in a competitive world.
Post written by Pablo Guallar.
