Why Walk When You Can Race Along the Reliability Highway?

Why Walk When You Can Race Along the Reliability Highway? Anant Krishna | Project Lead, Enterprise Manufacturing ManagementWhy Walk When You Can Race Along the Reliability Highway?Contents

Thank you for reading Why Walk When You Can Race Along the Reliability Highway?

The road less traveled – smartly manufactured products

Challenges to asset reliability

The lean way – the right tools for the right problems

Speed and productivity – integrating data silos for actionable insights

Different vendors for different solutions – risk of missing out on 5 a handshake in the future

The way forward

Conclusions

Manufacturing plant managers have a common nightmare. They enter the production floor one morning, and instead of being greeted by the regular rhythm of machine operations, they encounter nothing but silence. Looking around, they see their workers congregating around a non-operative piece of critical machinery – scratching their heads and speaking in whispers with operations at a grinding halt. And then it hits – this nightmare can become a reality

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED – SMARTLY MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS

The disadvantages of unplanned downtime are well documented – missed deliveries, higher cost of repairs, and sub-optimal equipment productivity, just to name a few. Indeed, a recent report by Fortune Global 500 claims that manufacturers lose approximately $864 billion a year to unplanned downtime. That’s a direct eventual, and avoidable impact on the bottom line.

Global trends indicate that manufacturers worldwide are currently investing more on making smart products, across smart cars, smart plants, smart pumps, etc. As a result, there is a growing (if lopsided) focus on technologies that solve challenges in the customer facing processes and value chain.

What we are increasingly realizing is that there is an urgent need to expand and move beyond the current trend, concentrating more on smart manufacturing than merely manufacturing smart products. As manufacturing itself becomes smart and future-ready, not only would we have a more robust bottom-line, but would also be in a better position to leverage technology for smart products.

Through our PoV, we intend to focus on the manufacturing process rather than just the product being manufactured.

That is, Making smart products vs Smartly manufacturing those products. So, this section should bring up that making manufacturing process smarter should be a priority as this still a road less travelled and is still missing in the content.

Technological advancements such as IoT, IIoT, AI, digital twins, AR / VR have started to usher in the era of smart manufacturing, along with enhanced possibilities of streamlined business operations, optimized productivity, and improved ROI. Industry 4.0 enabled businesses now have the ability to ensure end-to-end control of their manufacturing supply with improvements in remote development cycle monitoring and warehouse and inventory management.

And, all these advancements are rooted in smart technology, allowing manufacturers to measure more than just heat, vibration, and lubricant conditions, leveraging IIoT-based systems to monitor asset health on a real-time basis. It is this wealth of smart data that enables strategic goals such as predictive and preventative maintenance.

Consequently, it is only natural that businesses and leaders drive their teams towards innovation and the creation of smarter solutions. But, if the gains of this progress are diminished by legacy and lackluster assets and facilities, then the situation is very much like taking one step forward but two steps back. Clearly, less-than-reliable manufacturing equipment can lead to the degradation of manufacturing processes and a failure in meeting business objectives.

Our experience of working with several Fortune 500 clients tells us that addressing this challenge requires a multi-faceted approach.

CHALLENGES TO ASSET RELIABILITY

With that said, simply throwing technology at a reliability problem will not make it go away. It is, however, the key to scaling reliability across the entirety of the organization. Viewing reliability as the problem and taking a holistic approach to understand the nuanced challenges that manufacturers face will pave the way to bespoke solutions for tackling asset reliability.

Since the onset of the pandemic, global economic challenges have mandated a “great reset”. This shift is made up of a number of variables that require careful consideration:

The lean way – the right tools for the right problems

Industry 4.0 has brought in more automation, made data and metrics more easily accessible, and enabled better communications. Manufacturers need to leverage these tools so they can fine-tune their workflow and pivot to a more customer-centric operations posture. This will help them ensure they filter their resources for optimal usage– nothing more, nothing less.

It is imperative that business focus should be on enhanced productivity and eliminating waste in any form. As the lessons from the pandemic showed us, lean and agile manufacturers were more resilient, while the rest failed the test. It was the active combination of those technologies with lean principles that provided the solution to unlock their potential and fully capture value in any scenario. A key factor that differentiated successful companies was their use of Industry 4.0 which has now proven itself under fire and become a priority for all lagging businesses.

So, as we enter into the next normal, it isn’t surprising that many manufacturers are recalibrating to an Industry 4.0 production model. The disruption of global supply chains has wreaked havoc over the past year and continues to remain volatile. Implementing a lean supply chain directly addresses this issue and allows industrial facilities the means to work with their partners and stakeholders to ensure a steady influx of materials that can balance both demand-side and supply-side shifts.

Speed and productivity – integrating data silos for actionable insights

Data silos may appear unavoidable. However, modern manufacturers have realized the major negative impact they can have on efficiency. As a result, they are adopting new solutions to help them minimize or eradicate this handicap by connecting systems and data silos across the enterprise. And those who are leading this charge are witnessing a clear improvement across key areas such as data visibility, collaboration, efficiencies, accuracy, and decision making.

This can be achieved by connecting machines and core systems like ERP, MES, PLM, and automation systems via a smart factory framework. And when data silos are integrated and powered by smart analytics, businesses can adapt with greater agility and success. Making data easier to access and analyze directly results in real-time benefits from new enhancements such as smart automation, decision-making intelligence, efficient processes, and faster production systems.

Different vendors for different solutions – risk of missing out on a handshake in the future

Organizations conduct vendor risk management assessment to meet regulatory requirementsand protect their organization. But as the pandemic has taught us, a vulnerable time for business is a prosperous time for bad actors. With a rise in security threats, organizations have no choice but to secure their third-party risk. In fact, given the risks, it’s an investment that can garner a positive return on investment (ROI) if done correctly.

Additionally, evaluating and connecting the disparate offerings of different vendors can result in operational challenges, impacting future scalability and enterprise roll out initiatives.

The greatest vendor management challenge is, however, often the simplest – a lack of sufficient internal resources to manage the workload. And as leaders recognize the strategic importance of such technological skills, they have to find service partners that can provide the necessary experience and expertise. Only with a reliable partner ecosystem, can businesses access a broader array of talent, reduce internal costs, and provide flexibility to their workforce.

A technology/engineering partner that also delivers system integration as well as the capability to seamlessly work on various system protocols can certainly ease the doubts of manufacturers in this particular instance.

THE WAY FORWARD

As companies head into the uncertain but hopeful future of the next normal, they will be faced with more uncertainties than ever before. Manufacturers will be tasked with adapting to this harsh and rapidly changing landscape as they attempt to deal with unpredictable consumer demands, fluctuations in supply chains, and the overall instability of the economy.

As digitalization becomes the only path forward, it will be a matter of how quickly, and reliably, can businesses evolve – especially in comparison to their competitors. In this regard, enterprises have no choice but to collaborate with management consulting services that have the domain and technology expertise, tools, diagnostics, benchmarks, third-party specialists, and best practices needed to achieve their vision.

This means recognizing and making the right digital choices. With the cloud becoming synonymous with digitalization, their investments in cloud infrastructure and its applications are critical to moving beyond legacy systems. With a trusted cloud implementation partner, companies can not only automate and streamline time-consuming processes such as sales order quoting but also be assured of cloud security.

In this regard, an on-premise cloud deployment can help streamline the transition to the cloud. In association with their engineering partner, the manufacturers can identify and leverage the suitable technology and infrastructure for addressing their pain points here.

However, the advantages of the cloud notwithstanding, large-scale businesses will have to overcome several limitations such as size, scale of business, and significant size of new investment. The shift to an “X-as-a-service model” may be imposing but it will also enhance IT and finance departments by reducing capex for more a flexible OPEX approach.

CONCLUSIONS

Global manufactures are at a crossroads. And while change can be hard, the pandemic has put an end to the digitization countdown. It is the time to evolve or fall silently behind on the curve. For manufacturers, making this change begins across two key dimensions – solution innovation that is focused on reliable manufacturing processes and visibility into real-time asset health and performance.

The key to guaranteed asset reliability lies in developing ways of working that enable correct equipment operations, high-quality machinery and parts, effective spare parts management and governance, overall equipment effectiveness, asset condition monitoring, and optimized maintenance. And in light of perpetual technological advancements, the need to upskill and re-skill existing workers can’t be left off this list.

And while in the past it was mostly reactive, the future demands a more proactive approach. Organizations need to create a clear digitalization roadmap that includes improvements at every level of the organization.
It’s only with a strong foundation of change can sustainable and lasting innovation be made possible. And while the shift from the old to the new can be overwhelming, the discomfort is far more preferable than obsolescence.

The choice is yours!