Page 40 - MetalForming-Apr-2018-issue

FABRICATION
Internet of Things
for Metalformers and Fabricators
MetalForming picks the collective brains of experts to learn how IoT technology promises to change the metalforming landscape, leading to mistake- proof production and sky-high efficiency.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
As technology evolves, manufac- turers gain momentum in oper- ational efficiency by leveraging innovations. A perfect example is Industry 4.0 and its smart-factory tech- nology platforms, including the indus- trial Internet of Things (IoT). IoT cre- ates connected organizations that can improve employee productivity, enable predictive disruption, address and avoid looming quality issues, and quicken prototype development.
MetalForming spoke with several experts on various aspects of IoT to learn how the technology improves met- alforming operations, and the steps that companies can take to start down the IoT road. Contributing to this article:
• Craig Zampa, principal-manage- ment consulting, Plante Moran
• Scott Phillips, CEO and founder, Connected Factory Global
• Jerry Foster, CTO, Plex Systems
• Louis Columbus, principal, IQMS • Will Healy III, strategic marketing
manager, Balluff Inc.
• Jim Finnerty, product manager,
Wintriss Controls Group LLC
“We find that nearly all manufac-
turing executives express dissatisfac- tion with their current digital strategy,” says Plante Moran’s Zampa, “leaving IT management reeling to figure out how to leverage available tools. While many manufacturers are significantly behind in leveraging IoT and other smart-factory technologies, the overall manufacturing industry is the largest investor in such technologies, spending more than $178 billion annually.”
The early adopters of smart-man- ufacturing practices cite key perform- ance enhancements:
• 66 percent use IoT to measure risk, protect company assets and improve safety;
• 61 percent say that IoT improves product and service reliability and per- formance; and
• 76 percent say IoT improves insight into their customer preferences and behaviors.
“Manufacturers realize that con- necting the shop floor to data-man- agement tools provides a wealth of data to help with better decision-making,” Zampa says. He cites a recent Forbes article predicting that by 2020, manu-
facturers will generate 50 times the digital content being generated today. Within the same article, we learn that using industrial IoT can increase overall equipment efficiency (OEE) perform- ance by as much as 85 percent Such a move allows more competitive manu- facturers to lower their labor per fin- ished goods, “which for most repre- sents the highest cost in their production equations,” Zampa says.
“I believe we’ve not even scratched the surface of what artificial intelligence will do for the well-deployed manufac- turing industry,” he continues. “Imagine where this can take manufacturers who need to plan and sequence production jobs to minimize setup inefficiency, optimize maintenance requirements and reduce scrap related to lack of machine visibility. Imagine the end of paper travelers with hand-written pro- duction reporting, and production and maintenance scheduling based on Excel spreadsheets.”
Technology Levels the Playing Field
When thinking about IoT, consumer
38 MetalForming/April 2018
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