GEARING UP FOR SMART MANUFACTURING
Ninad Deshpande elaborates upon how digitisation is changing prevalent concepts, production techniques and enabling factories to achieve operational excellence.
Industry 4.0 and the concept of smart factory is a sizzling topic among companies in the Automotive Industry. Even though this industry is cost sensitive, manufacturers are making fundamental changes to their manufacturing units in order to satisfy increasing demand for high tech features. Automotive manufacturers’ globally adopting Industry 4.0 approaches have witnessed improvement in production, productivity, efficiency, inventory management and waste reduction. In India, too many automotive manufacturers are willingly following the road to Industry 4.0, and the route is leading them to greater profitability.
CHALLENGES IN MANUFACTURING
The traditional production environments and machines are facing major challenges in the evolution towards Industry 4.0. The existing manufacturing units already have legacy systems and MES/ERP in place. One of the challenges for these brownfield factories is collation of data and moving it to the MES. It is mostly handled manually by writing data from every machine and then feeding it in the system. Thus, factory operators do not have access to real time data, which restricts and delays decision-making.
Today, digitisation is changing prevalent concepts, production techniques and enabling factories to achieve operational excellence. The challenges faced in the ease of adoption of Industry 4.0 are not only application of new technologies through improvement in mechanics and robotics but also optimising logistics, service and many more aspects. Connected processes form the core of this industrial revolution, providing seamless data exchange between machines and from machines to MES/ERP systems. Thus, unifying business and manufacturing operations. Automotive industry too is changing and is gearing up for this industrial revolution involving connectivity, mobility, integration and much more. To overcome these challenges, the automotive industry needs continued push towards enhanced automation. Although this may sound abstract, its impact is tangible and fundamentally changes business models in many organisations.
ADDRESSING NEEDS OF SMART FACTORY
‘Smart factory’ itself describes an environment where machinery and equipment are able to improve processes through automation and self-optimisation. Vital to the smart factory is the technology which makes data collection possible. Smart factory includes intelligent sensors and actuators, motion technology, robots and a robust machine-to- machine network for exchanging data. The benefits of smart factory also extend beyond production of vehicles and into functions like planning, supply chain logistics, and even product development. In light of increasing demand to implement "smart factory" solutions in automotive sector, B&R Industrial Automation addresses how automotive companies can best meet the challenges of the future by reducing the amount of resources required to gather and communicate critical information across an organisation and dynamically translate this data into actionable intelligence.
To cater to these needs, B&R equips machine builders and factory operator with advanced maintenance technology, scalable and rugged PC, panel systems and mapp technology. All of which integrate tightly with applications of automobile manufacturers to solve problems today and long into the future. B&R not only provides products, but also supports with sustainable solutions including training, support and operations.
Together with its solutions for energy monitoring, condition monitoring and process data acquisition, B&R enables machine and factory builders with cutting edge technology and enables them to stay ahead in competition. With mapp View, B&R offers direct access to the wide world of web technology right from the engineering environment. mapp View relies 100% on web standards to ensure content can be viewed optimally on any output device or even customized for specific users or user groups. With B&R's mapp View HMI solution, users can give machine tool a state-of- the-art web-based user interface even without special web design training. Open architectures utilised by B&R in all its products make convergence of automation with IT look easy and satisfy user needs of a smart factory implementation in a cost effective method.
INDUSTRIAL IOT FOR BROWNFIELD
Within many industrial sectors including Automotive, manual recording of data from machines on the shop floor and entering it in a system for analytics is a common practice. This method is time-consuming, prone to human errors, not real-time and in a way expensive. In addition, this might always entail loss of information. It is possible to eliminate these errors with installation of automated systems for data acquisition on the shop floor. With automated systems for acquiring data from the shop floor, it is possible to eliminate these errors and acquire the data in real time. However, in many cases, it is not easy to obtain information from an existing machine for analytics and to use it for optimisations. Orange Box from B&R was developed with this is mind and to provide Greenfield installation benefits to brownfield installation in a cost effective method.
OBTAINING INFORMATION FROM DATA
Data is believed to be the main component for achieving Industrial IoT ready factories. Industrial IoT involves not just devices but connected devices, which from a crux of this industrial revolution, generating humongous data. However, it is a challenge to derive meaningful information from this data. Before it can be analysed, it must first be prepared, filtered and structured. A systematic analysis is crucial to obtaining clear, actionable information from the sea of raw recorded data. In addition, well-informed decisions are the only way to achieve a sustainable increase in productivity.
A middleware is necessary for translating this data from the field into meaningful information and moving it to the MES/ERP. The APROL PDA from B&R simplifies this process data capture, acting as a middleware. It enables process data acquisition coupled with energy monitoring and condition monitoring. It collects and analyses logs, reports, and monitors data to enable the collection and analysis of big data. Users thus do not need different systems for satisfying different needs of energy, condition monitoring and data acquisition and can be handled in a single system.
Condition monitoring systems help in predicting the behaviour of the machines and reducing unplanned downtimes. APROL PDA can be used to monitor one or more lines of machines. A clear overview of the entire plant, including aggregated status signals, makes it possible to assess the state of individual production lines or an entire plant at a glance. APROL is equipped with comprehensive analysis and reporting tools that generate individual reports at the push of a button. These analysis and reporting tools round off the functionality of the automation platform and make the system an ideal tool to meet the challenges of the future. Factory operators get a complete view of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), energy data and condition data at their fingertips.
HUMAN-ROBOT COLLABORATION
Increased user demands of achieving high quality, accuracy and productivity are fuelling demands for robots in India. Automotive industry is one of the largest consumers of robots with robots being deployed extensively in paint shops, weld shops, assembly lines and various other units. Conventional installation of robots bounds them by cages, safety doors, mats with a view to increase human safety. On the other hand, this approach reduces productivity, as opening these cages or interrupting the safety mechanisms usually cuts off the supply to the robots and brings them to a standstill. Restarting robots post stoppages requires homing of the robot, which increases stoppages, waste and decreases productivity. With technology developments, robots no longer need to be bounded by cages, and it is possible for humans and robots to work together safely.
Today, manufacturing units for assembly lines actively deploy these approaches, helping them to increase productivity, ensure safe operations and reduce machine footprint. This eventually gives rise to a lean manufacturing line with increased efficiency and safety. openROBOTICS has opened up new dimensions of robotics integration for machinery and production lines. With completely uniform programming for every component in the line – including robotics – our customers around the world gain full benefit of holistic approaches to operation, diagnostics and maintenance. openROBOTICS, provides an option for total integration with a possibility of a single controller from B&R for robot as well as machine control and programming. These systems run on open source, vendor independent, high-speed, real-time network Ethernet POWERLINK coupled with a fieldbus independent, open source, TÜV certified safety openSAFETY. B&R has already a successful implementation for a human robot collaboration application where the robot is not bounded by cage and works together with humans satisfying entire safety requirement.
FUTURE AND BEYOND
Today, Indian automotive manufacturers have initiated projects or at least thinking of moving towards Industry 4.0 readiness. Digitisation is enriching every aspect of nmanufacturing and it is enhancing efficiency, accuracy, productivity and quality. It is increasingly observed that data driven decision-making is finding its way into manufacturing process. These new technologies are actual game changers and lead to higher profitability. It is clear that Industry 4.0 presents tremendous opportunities and this fact is highlighted by the industry demands for smart manufacturing. B&R provides users with automation solutions for every step towards Industrial IoT and is an ideal partner for a successful IIoT implementation.
Ninad Deshpande, professional graduate from SIBM, Pune, is Head of Marketing at B&R Industrial Automation, and an Experienced Technology Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in varied fields in industrial automation.