I recently took part in a plant tour with a manufacturer in the early days of modernizing its plant floor. Two decades old, this factory had always relied on manual data collection. The team hand-carried operational data back to the office to be correlated and analyzed. Then they would make improvements or address issues they found during the evaluation.
It remained a long, tedious process and a task the operations and IT teams performed begrudgingly on top of their day-to-day responsibilities.
In the last year, however, the operations technology (OT) and IT teams have collaborated to improve these processes, by:
- Upgrading the network to support better plant-wide communications
- Installing Wi-Fi access points to collect data using handheld scanners
- Upgrading their new manufacturing cells so they can integrate their manufacturing execution system (MES) to access data directly from the plant floor.
The overall goal of these solution investments is to improve production and yield. By centering on focused and achievable outcomes, this manufacturer is well on its way to building a platform to better support applications and infrastructure. In turn, that platform will make the company more efficient and improve its bottom line.
Real world deployments for industrial applications
This case study is just one example of an effective real-world deployment, but there are countless stories everywhere about why why industrial IoT projects fail.
To explore this topic further, my colleague Scot Wlodarczak and I recently conducted a webinar on Real World Deployments for Industrial Applications. The webinar is now available on demand as part of our Factory of the Future webinar series. During the session, we explored actual case studies around infrastructure, analytics, and visibility that are driving true economic value across manufacturing organizations.
The SlideShare below is a preview of the content you’ll see in the webcast.
View the on-demand recording for “Real World Deployments for Industrial Applications” here. Thanks to everyone who registered for these sessions. If you’re interested in attending more webinars in the series, please register here. And if you have any suggestions on further topics, please let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for the article… I have personally lead exactly what you describe above… modernizing a manufacturing facility that has been ‘doing it this way’ for 30+ years. I lead the efforts for deploying the wireless, handhelds, automating data input into the DCS system. It was quite a project and there were a lot of challenges. Once management saw the increased production most of the challenges disappeared. That and the fact that even the 20+ year facility veterans joined in when they saw the benefits.
Thanks again for the article… Will be watching OT closely…