Innovative manufacturers are adopting Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies to revolutionize how they manage their assets. By integrating software, sensors, and systems, they are building an ecosystem of connected reliability. This digital transformation is reducing downtime and streamlining operations, leading to more efficient and resilient manufacturing processes.
For companies like Skookum, a facilities management and logistics company, the benefits are clear. By pairing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) with an acoustic imager to detect and repair compressed air leaks, Skookum saw $40,000 in utility savings. This is just one example of how connected reliability can drive significant cost reductions and operational improvements.
As manufacturers aim to meet ambitious sustainability goals and maintain seamless communication across global operation, connected reliability is emerging as a critical solution. By harnessing advanced data collection and analysis tools, companies can optimize workflows, break down silos, and achieve their objectives while transforming operations for the better.
What is Connected Reliability?
Connected reliability is the simple idea that people, machines, and systems should all be able to communicate effectively with each other. It fosters a seamless workflow and provides deep insight into the health of something as small as a single asset or as large as an entire multi-site operation. With it, information that was previously siloed can be interconnected and is easily attainable, driving decision-making and improving processes and visibility.
Manufacturers are using connected reliability to manage a variety of systems and processes, such as:
- Scheduling, documenting, and managing preventive maintenance
- Assigning work orders to technicians with the needed knowledge and skills for the task
- Connecting previously siloed information systems such as financial data, procurement, and reporting and analytics into enterprise asset management (EAM) software
- Using vibration and temperature sensors combined with advanced analytics to predict asset failures and automate corrective maintenance work orders
- Using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to process multiple technical data sources, historical asset data, maintenance logs, and other datasets
- Standardizing workflows and optimizing spare parts storage across multi-site facilities
With these systems, technicians can remotely monitor assets without needing to physically examine each one every time. Decision-makers can easily view asset maintenance history and the associated costs, helping them make the choice to repair or replace assets. And through connected reliability, companies are reaching sustainability goals and reducing downtime.
Increasing Sustainability With Connected Reliability
Sustainability initiatives have become common in all types of businesses, but manufacturers are feeling the pressure of compliance even more than other industries. Using tools like a CMMS can assist manufacturers in reducing costs while simultaneously improving sustainability.
A CMMS is a cloud-based software that integrates with technology like vibration and temperature sensors, acoustic imagers, and other devices that provide real-time information about the status of equipment. The CMMS can use data from assets to automatically create work orders when repairs are needed, and it can store detailed asset history including repairs and associated costs. Manufacturers can leverage this data to improve their sustainability by planning repairs in advance, ordering and maintaining a lean spare parts storeroom, lowering utility costs, and increasing plant uptime.
Improving Efficiency and Eliminating Paper Documentation
A CMMS eliminates the need for paper records by moving everything into a cloud-based management platform. This allows technicians access to work orders no matter where they’re working and cuts down on paper waste.
When Alltech, a leader in the agricultural sector, switched from a paper-based system to a CMMS, the company saw significant progress toward its sustainability and efficiency goals. By using a CMMS, supervisors can automate electronic preventive maintenance work orders that can be accessed from a computer, tablet, or mobile device.
Preventive maintenance promotes efficiency by repairing assets long before they break down, which in turn lessens their impact on emissions. And when failures do happen unexpectedly, employees can immediately schedule corrective maintenance, prioritize the most important repairs, and assign the tasks to technicians based on their skills or their proximity to the asset needing repairs. A CMMS system helps automate this process in a way that is most conducive to the plant, its available resources, and sustainability objectives.
Reducing Waste and Lowering Utility Costs
Part of sustainability involves creating less environmental waste, both during the production process and in equipment purchase and use. By using connected reliability, companies can more proactively manage their equipment, extending asset lifespans and reducing the need to purchase new equipment.
An offshoot of this capability is that well-maintained machines draw less power and operate smoother, reducing utility costs and unnecessary drag on systems. Vibration and temperature sensors can help identify when assets are operating outside of their usual parameters and give maintenance teams the tools to identify emerging problems before they happen, reducing the wear on machines and stress on systems.
Tools like acoustic imagers can identify leaks in compressed air systems and even estimate the size of the leak and how much it costs the company when left unrepaired. Like Skookum, companies can save tens of thousands of dollars annually simply by fixing compressed air leaks.
Increasing Uptime
Unplanned downtime is a major concern for manufacturers, but it can be reduced significantly with connected reliability.
Before Advanced Atomization Technologies moved to a new CMMS system, its technicians averaged 12 to 14 hours of overtime per week, but its facility only averaged 80% uptime. After implementing the CMMS, its average uptime improved to 95% and the number of monthly corrective work orders reduced from 500 to 50. The CMMS also eliminated the need for its technicians to work overtime. Using the system's scheduling features, technicians were able to shift from corrective maintenance to a proactive maintenance strategy.
Not only does the CMMS improve sustainability by removing the need for paperwork orders and filing systems, but it also provides easily accessible documentation of previously completed repairs and a checklist for new repairs. CMMS software programs can use information from sensors to predict when maintenance will be needed, notifying maintenance teams so they can address issues before they cause unexpected failure. It can also prioritize repairs for the most critical assets, improving uptime by ensuring maintenance resources are used effectively.
Connected Reliability Supports Globalization
Facilities with multiple sites face unique challenges. Each facility may have its own method of documenting repairs, managing maintenance, or handling spare parts, leading to miscommunication and information silos that complicate decision-making and lead to wasted resources.
Connecting facilities with a centralized CMMS simplifies procedure documentation and access, so assets are handled the same way no matter where they're located. The CMMS can store standard operating procedures or checklists for technicians to go through for different repairs, ensuring compliance and consistency. Spare parts inventory management allows facilities to share a storeroom and easily see which parts are located at other facilities, reducing reliance on supply chains and cutting costs by reducing unnecessary inventory.
With a CMMS, decision-makers gain visibility across facilities, giving them access to records and information without having to be on-site. Maintenance history and related costs, standardized reports and analytics, and global trends can be accessed through the dashboard, providing an eagle-eye view of individual facilities and assets or the entire organization. A centralized CMMS provides valuable insights into maintenance spends across different plants, details about underperforming assets or processes, and business justifications for focused areas to improve.
Using a CMMS to enhance facility management leads to improved outcomes across multiple areas of manufacturing plants. Connecting people, assets, and information results in increased uptime, improved sustainability, and reduced costs. This enhanced insight drives more efficient and effective operations for maintenance teams, supervisors, and key decision-makers.
