How Beneficial is IoT in Monitoring your Machine’s Performance?
It is estimated that the number of active IoT devices will surpass 30.73 billion devices and even beyond, by the year 2020. IoT is an emerging technology that provides connectivity among the things and manages the connected assets with ease. In today’s era, many industries are adopting the use of IoT and its innovative solutions for better productivity. With the increasing size of the IoT market, the profit figures are believed to grow to a value of $1.6 trillion by the year 2025.
Large industries comprise big machines to carry out their plant operations and it is quite challenging for the authorities to monitor the machine’s health. However, with the advent of IoT, monitoring a machine is made easier and advanced.
Even the smallest of the machines are said to work slow if not maintained properly. Its performance would gradually degrade and would hamper productivity. Therefore, to avoid certain machinery issues you need to take proper care of your factory equipment. Using an IoT solution for each of your machine is a great idea, which not only manages the machine but also suggests ways to keep it working for a long-term.
Implementing an IoT-based machine monitoring solution is an innovative method that you can adopt to track the real-time performance of your machines. Apart from tracking the machines’ behaviour, this solution offers,
- Machine automation
- Real-time alert system
- Predictive maintenance of the machines
- Improved resource utilization
- Enhanced machine efficiency
- Increased ROI
- Supply chain optimization
- Boosted OEE
Role of OEE in Measuring the Machines’ Performance
OEE is Overall Equipment Effectiveness — a hierarchy that measures the performance of a machine for enhanced productivity. The evolution of industry 4.0 is providing immense possibilities to monitor factory equipment like never before. OEE is a powerful tool that helps perform diagnostics as well as manages the production units in different industries.
For example, if you use a milling machine in your industry, the most important task is to keep the machine up-to-date. Here, you would require the need to frequently measure the amount of energy consumed by this machine or how much waste is formed in its running time. All of this comes under the role of OEE that provides a framework to analyze the performance of your machinery and take necessary steps to avoid its faults.
The Internet of Things offers new capabilities to help the manufacturers in identifying the odds or any area that negatively impacts OEE. The IoT solutions not only add potential to industrial functioning but also improve the OEE values in many ways like analyzing the performance data for better planning, machine schedules, and energy consumption. You can avail multiple benefits by implementing IoT to OEE in your industry:
- Reduce any faults or defects in the machinery
- Efficient labour utilization
- Significant increase in line throughput
- Improved machine functioning
- Value-based outcomes
How IoT makes Machine Monitoring Easier?
The Internet of Things is benefiting every domain of an industry with its smart concepts and sensor-based methods. Using this technology, the industrial authorities are gaining outstanding benefits to improve the levels of production and analyzing the plant conditions.
The commencement of Industrial IoT is levelling up the manufacturing processes in an industry with its sensor-based machine monitoring solutions. A machine monitoring system is the first step that you must consider while implementing an IoT-based system within your industry. It will help keep a track on your machinery conditions and provide valuable data for future analysis. A sensor-enabled machine monitoring solution offers advanced-level techniques to measure temperature, pressure, vibration, noise, and overall health to help the owners take quick and timely decisions.
Unlike traditional methods, an IoT-based solution works on the concept of keeping things or assets connected and provide accurate data. This data is then analyzed to make better decisions regarding the machine’s health and its performance. Using a machine monitoring solution, it not only becomes easy for the owners to identify the faults but also get innovative ideas that could help in maintaining the overall condition and fix those faults accurately.
Example: A CNC Machine
CNC — Computer Numerical Control machine is used for various machining operations in different industries. It is commonly used for all the manufacturing and industrial applications like shearing, laser cutting, welding, etc.
A CNC machine plays an important role in running industrial operations and it is very challenging for the owners to make the complete use of this machine. An IoT-enabled machine monitoring solution is an innovative way to procure cent per cent benefits out of a CNC. Also, the industrial IoT offers the use of familiar devices such as smart gadgets, to interact with the CNC machine easily in different ways.
As per the researches, about 76% of the manufacturing firms possess an ongoing development of a smart factory or own a smart factory. The CNC machines work through computerization and implementing an IoT solution would be an add-on to their efficiency. Industrial IoT into action with the CNCs aims to avoid excess human efforts and any potential risk that comes along with manually operating the machine.
The Internet of Things is a vast subject and implementing its smart applications are helping a lot of industrialists to boost their productivity and also manage their plant activities. If you own a factory, the basic requirement is to frequently check your machine’s performance. IoT, as a technology, comes with various options and applications that help in increasing your plant’s efficiency. It especially comes with a sensor-based machine monitoring system through which you can extract and store the data for future analysis.
