Speeding Up the Manufacturing Connection

Researchers say the Internet of Things may have its strongest influence on the manufacturing sector because of its heavy reliance on well-applied data. Getting up to speed is the challenge.

Manufacturing can be like professional sports in the way it churns out statistics. In both cases, the better those stats are understood and applied, the better the outcome.

In manufacturing, precise data application means assets last longer, less energy is used and product quality rises, along with company profits. But while it has long been a mission of most manufacturing operations to apply data to these ends, a challenge to getting there has been having the ability to gather data accurately enough and regularly enough (often by hand, on paper) to make it useful. The Internet of Things (IoT) makes this much less of a challenge and more of a conscious business decision/strategy to buy, install and use IoT-enabled devices that do the gathering automatically. These devices can now overwhelm manufacturers with good production and maintenance data—on equipment temperature, alignment, vibration, energy usage, and a host of others—that, properly interpreted, can help take operations to new levels of efficiency.

In the next six to eight years, expect about 50 billion devices worldwide to be connected to the Internet, says IT solutions provider Cisco Systems, Inc. Of these, about one-fourth will be used by manufacturers. Similarly elevated numbers exist in many places on the Internet regarding anticipated purchases of IoT devices, the savings they’ll provide and the production they’ll stimulate. It’s clearly the coming thing.

But there are some growing pains. While it may be automatic for your young son or daughter to believe that smartphone ownership (one step toward IoT integration) is as natural as breathing, manufacturers are not so easily swayed. Though there seems little doubt that the manufacturing world is headed in this direction, research suggests business in general is doing so slowly. In a recent (Sept. 2014) finding from LNS Research, for example, 250 executives (from manufacturing and other sectors) were asked how the IoT was impacting their business, and nearly half—43%—said they “didn’t understand or know about” the IoT. About a fourth of the group also said they were pursuing IoT investments for various reasons, and the rest were in the middle, either “investigating” IoT or aware of it, but still unable to detect its impact.

To learn more precisely the extent to which the above attitudes do or do not exist in the world of industrial maintenance and reliability, Efficient Plant prepared its own study on the Internet of Things, and distributed it to our subscriber base by email. Based on 299 qualified responses, it reveals the following highlights:

40% currently have at least one to 10 or more IoT-enabled solutions for maintenance, and have plans to buy more.

37% have no IoT-enabled solutions for maintenance in their operation, and their plans to purchase them are uncertain.

The most common IoT-enabled maintenance solution, used by almost half (49%) of those with such devices, is for remote temperature detection.

Among both users and non-users of IoT-enabled solutions, the majority (84%) say they believe such devices will have either a “moderate” or “strong” impact on industrial maintenance in the next five years.

What is the Internet of Things?

Following are two definitions. The first is a high-level view that addresses both the manufacturing impact of the IoT and its vast social impact that will come through devices that can help us control or monitor various aspects of our lives and homes. The second is more technical, and describes the IoT in terms familiar to those in the manufacturing environment. For the best interpretation of what the IoT is, keep both in mind.

“The Internet of Things is a growing network of everyday objects—from industrial machines to consumer goods—that can share information and complete tasks while you are busy with other activities, like work, sleep or exercise.”

SAS Institute, Inc., a North Carolina-based data-management software firm

“The Internet of Things is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices within the existing Internet infrastructure. IoT is expected to offer advanced connectivity of devices, systems, and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and covers a variety of protocols, domains and applications. The interconnection of these embedded devices (including smart objects) is expected to usher in automation in nearly all fields, while also enabling advanced applications like a Smart Grid.”

Wikipedia

In this snapshot of IoT-enabled manufacturing, responses suggest a nearly even split among respondents who use IoT-enabled devices and those who don’t. By a slim majority, most (40%) of respondents are IoT-enabled, and have plans to invest in more. But more than a third (37%) do not currently have IoT-enabled devices and are uncertain about plans to invest in them. Among the remaining 23% who say they “don’t know” if they have IoT-enabled devices or not, such usage in their operations may be split along the same lines.

Are facility managers leading the charge on integrating IoT-enabled devices in manufacturing operations? The above responses suggest this possibility, but the fact that development of IoT-enabled building controls has a slight jump on that of maintenance devices may explain the strong showing for facility control solutions. For the same reason, the nearly-as-strong integration of remote monitoring solutions for temperature and vibration detection suggests especially rapid (current and, likely, ongoing) acceptance among maintenance pros for these particular devices.

As expected, IoT-enabled devices clearly simplify the job of gathering data for maintenance pros. A clear majority of survey respondents (83%) who have IoT-enabled devices say they’ve made their jobs either “significantly” or “somewhat” easier. The devices also have a perfect record in this survey for not making anyone’s day more difficult.

These responses indicate that IoT are also generally easy to master. Most (80%) who have them rate learning how to use them “somewhat easy” or “easy.” Another 20%, however, rate the learning process “somewhat difficult” or just plain “difficult.”

Training, or the lack thereof, may be the reason for the levels of difficulty reflected in the percentages shown in Chart 4. Less than half (48%) of respondents with IoT-enabled devices say they received specialized training in their use, while the remainder did not. With the wide range of available functionality and complexity in IoT-enabled devices, it’s evident that training should be included in the investment.

Future purchase plans for IoT-enabled equipment basically parallel current-ownership levels, but with more than a third (39%) who say they either have no plans to buy more IoT-enabled equipment in the next six months or don’t know what those plans are. The good news: Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed who currently own at least one IoT-enabled device will purchase another device of some type before mid-2015.

Whether a current user of IoT-enabled devices or not, most survey respondents (84%) believe that these types of devices will have a “moderate” or “strong” impact on manufacturing in the next five years. Regardless of individual company budgets, cultures or other concerns that might impact the spread of IoT-enabled devices within their own firms right now, respondents clearly see the growing use of such devices as inevitable.

Our Survey Respondents

An overview of those who took our survey, based on the top responses to questions about the type of operation where they work, their age and title:

• 38% work in a process-manufacturing operation with fewer than 1000 employees
• 55% are over age 55
• The most common title among respondents is Maintenance Manager (28%), with Maintenance Team Leader (17%) and Plant Engineer (14%) in the next closest positions.