Remote machine condition monitoring systems shape the future of industrial plants

The global pandemic drastically altered plant operations and many companies were forced to stagger shifts to allow for social distancing, often leaving key staff out of the plant when their services were needed. The pandemic made this shift in staffing more visible, but the reality is that the shift had been going on for many years and was driven by staff shortages due to retirements of experienced workers and the challenge of recruiting new staff.

As rosters dwindle, plants are turning to one of the best solutions available: the remote condition monitoring systems. Many companies began implementing methods for operators, engineers and technicians to monitor production and equipment from any location, with varying levels of success. Building a strong digital manufacturing foundation is key to enabling emerging remote technologies that will empower staff, improve production and throughput, help eliminate pollution and ultimately unlock manufacturing.

Train staff with remote condition monitoring systems.

Digital manufacturing has been central to the remote working that helped organisations navigate the pandemic and support the more mobile and remote workforce needed to deal with the changes that still lie ahead. The organisations that struggled most with the transition to remote monitoring were those still using paper systems. These teams quickly discovered the need to be on-site for many of the tasks more suited to remote working, such as QA approvals and exception management. The paper-based teams also found it more difficult to monitor production and maintain peak performance of the units.

Conversely, teams in the process of transitioning from paper to digital systems found that they already had the beginnings of a platform for remote connectivity. Having essential plant floor data in digital format allows the use of digital automation tools specifically designed to connect to real-time process data from the control system, historians, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and others.

Organisations using the remote condition monitoring systems and build a remote framework leverage their digital data through secure mobile tools to ensure key personnel receive intuitive, real-time alarm notifications on their mobile devices. People-based alerts provide constant awareness of plant and process status, even when users cannot be on site. Leveraging data provided by the control system and asset monitoring software, these alerts provide context and trending to help users inside or outside the plant monitor automation assets and production processes remotely.

Using the information available in digital systems, remote staff can more easily determine when they need to be on-site to resolve a problem or if they can assist on-site staff remotely. In addition, they perform both local and remote assistance armed with knowledge of the problem, which helps improve efficiency and effectiveness when they arrive.

The digital foundation underpinning the remote condition monitoring systems can also be scaled up, allowing manufacturing and quality control teams to monitor exceptions and determine whether they have an impact on the final product. Then, using digital tools such as electronic batch recording systems, the same staff can review and sign off from anywhere, reducing the risk of quality assurance steps delaying product launch.

In the future, many of these same organisations are deploying higher-level applications, such as predictive maintenance, analytics, and planning and scheduling software, in a private cloud, enabling better visibility through remote access anytime, anywhere. Learn more about the industrial control system: How can it be accessed remotely and securely?

Improving production and plant performance with remote condition monitoring systems

Although the pandemic made it difficult to initiate or continue capital projects, the need to modify or expand processes to improve production and throughput remained. In fact, when facilities were at their lowest staffing levels in history, many organisations were in the midst of projects they needed to see completed. The need for new solutions did not go away, and so these organisations took advantage of the remote condition monitoring systems to continue to innovate. It is possible to take advantage of the condition monitoring of machines and equipment to convert the data into improvement actions.

• Simulation and the cloud

  Other remote condition monitoring systems are simulation and digital twin technologies that enhance opportunities for the development and testing of new control strategies, and provide an avenue to successfully implement those strategies even when plant staffing is limited. Digital twin simulations create replicas of the manufacturing environment, allowing new equipment and strategies to be tested without the need for access to real equipment. Hosting these simulations in the cloud makes it even easier for staff to contribute, allowing process developers to test new control strategies from the plant floor, at company headquarters, from home or even from another plant around the world.

  With global access to engineering and testing tools, new capital projects are no longer delayed waiting for key personnel and equipment to move from site to site. Project teams can connect systems to an off-site simulation to make control technologies believe they are talking to real equipment for extensive virtual testing. The remote condition monitoring systems allow much of the project work to be done remotely even before the equipment arrives, limiting the time and number of people required on site for installation and operational qualification.

  Enabling experts around the world to access high-fidelity simulations makes it easier for organisations to quickly on-board new production lines. Teams can perform all new product line preparation work in parallel through simulations in the cloud and remotely support qualifications. When they move to site, teams simply move the configuration from the cloud to the local automation system and quickly move into production. These project strategies are especially important as manufacturers support rapid production without the need for additional on-site staff. Once projects are implemented, the simulations retain their usefulness, helping staff to train on new strategies.

  The same strategies can also be applied to factory acceptance testing by equipment manufacturers and suppliers. With remote and virtual factory acceptance testing tools, project teams can configure and test equipment in simulations, facilitating the participation of key stakeholders from any location. Once stakeholders are confident that the configurations are correct, the team can transfer them to the real equipment for final testing, all at the equipment supplier's premises.

• Edge and control computing

  One of the key toolsets that unlock cloud connectivity for more remote working is edge computing and control. New edge devices designed for secure, one-way communication easily move data between the manufacturing edge and the cloud to allow access by any authorised person from anywhere. Data is collected, contextualised and made accessible from shared data applications for remote access by experts and analytical reporting tools.

  Because edge connectivity facilitates the transmission of rich data from the plant floor to the enterprise, organisations can do more with fewer people. Instead of having experts at each plant, an organisation can focus on highly experienced mobile experts who can support a wide range of sites without the need to travel to each one. And that same ease of data movement will also enable comparisons between sites as organisations build identical sites in different locations to mitigate supply chain and treatment delivery disruptions.

Eliminating contamination and unlocking blind manufacturing

As organisations adopt more and more remote condition monitoring systems to quickly provide highly contextualised data around the world will unlock new potential for remote maintenance and operation. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality tools will empower staff, helping local workers tap into expert knowledge and gain remote access to live experts.

Using advanced AR technologies along with contextualised data from the control system, experts at a remote location will see exactly what a less experienced person sees in the lab or on the plant floor. Leveraging the on-site technician's first-person point of view, the remote expert will use on-screen tools to annotate and assist, helping to guide and train personnel around the world. Discover some examples of augmented reality in manufacturing processes that improve manufacturing.

Moreover, while the remote condition monitoring systems While the current focus for process manufacturing is largely on keeping production running even when key personnel are away from the plant, many organisations are looking for ways to distance physical manufacturing processes from as much human interaction as possible to eliminate opportunities for contamination. The goal is to move towards «lights out» manufacturing, i.e. production and packaging lines that operate completely isolated from human intervention.

As more areas of production incorporate robotics to create totally clean manufacturing environments, the remote condition monitoring systems will become even more essential to avoid interruptions to production. Introducing human contact into these clean environments for inspection, adjustments or maintenance has the potential to create long stoppages, both for the work itself and for cleaning the facilities to ensure that no contaminants remain. These stoppages will make it very difficult to achieve the production benchmarks that continuous autonomous manufacturing will unlock.

In many cases, technologies such as digital twin simulation will help staff see problems even before they occur in the process, allowing supervisory staff to make adjustments to prevent problems without intervening in the clean facility. Supervisors will have real-time access to alarms in context with relevant data to better understand and diagnose abnormal situations.

As these autonomous operations advance, simulation will be the key to success. The most advanced digital twins can constantly update themselves using live process data and run at higher speeds to effectively predict the future of any production line. Supervisors will reference the results of machine learning tools from these simulations to be able to predict the trajectory of production and identify bottlenecks before they occur, giving them time to make the necessary adjustments.

Preparing for the future with remote condition monitoring systems

Process manufacturing organisations have recently discovered a multitude of reasons why key personnel can be limited. As fewer shop floor experts must cover more sites and processes, costs and delays increase rapidly. People are slow and expensive to move but digital data is not. Organisations moving to a digital framework are building the foundations for the remote manufacturing solutions that will drive more successful manufacturing and competitive advantage in the years ahead. While you can't know exactly what the future will look like, if you understand and have access to technologies such as the remote condition monitoring systems, In addition, steps can be taken today to implement these technologies and help ensure continuous and reliable access to critical treatments.