Smart manufacturing: How IIoT is enabling companies to retrofit legacy equipment

How IIoT is enabling companies to retrofit legacy equipment

In the aftermath of COVID-19, companies are looking to use IIoT to improve their overall resilience. The epidemic has underlined how IIoT can help firms respond to market changes rapidly and more expeditiously by allowing instantaneous modifications to production capacity while also supporting remote operations when access to a site is restricted.

Manufacturing organizations engage in bespoke and third-party technology solutions to boost production output, monitor overall equipment efficiency (OEE), reduce machinery downtime, and remotely operate plant assets.

In this article, we’ll explore IIoT services and how firms can integrate them into their business models with data-driven approaches without having to make significant investments in new equipment or infrastructure.

Less than 1/3 of manufacturers use IIoT solutions extensively. Why?

In 2021, the global market for industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) was estimated to be worth more than $263 billion and the market is predicted to expand in the subsequent years, reaching $1.11 trillion by 2028. However, less than one-third of firms make considerable use of IIoT technologies, and technical and organizational issues are frequently to blame.

• On the technical side, many businesses are still struggling with long-standing issues like how to manage heterogeneous systems and program landscapes or how to choose which operational services and applications should serve particular functions, like supply-chain management, manufacturing operations management, or asset management. There’s also the issue of where such systems should be deployed: on the edge, on the production site, or in the cloud.
• On the organizational side, Businesses frequently neglect to improve IIoT solutions or change business procedures to enable wider use, so losing out on a lot of value. People and processes must change in order to reap the benefits of data-driven insights generated by IIoT and optimize the technology’s value. This needs leadership commitment to guarantee that IIoT is more than just an IT or OT activity, but rather an organization-wide effort.

How retrofitting legacy equipment bring manufacturing companies closer to the digital transformation

Retrofitting is a method of upgrading or modifying existing systems with sensors, connectivity, hardware, and software to fit new requirements while retaining the original function of the system.

Cloud-based sensor data analysis, among other things, assists businesses in eliminating abusive equipment usage, predicting machinery breakdown, and reducing waste.

Retrofitted IIoT systems rely on several functional components to collect, analyze, and use data on equipment performance. These components include:

• Sensors. Battery-powered sensing devices, whether custom-made or off-the-shelf, measure essential equipment performance metrics and operating conditions. Data from equipment sensors is sent to IoT gateway devices through energy-efficient wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth/BLE, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and others. Voltage, temperature, vibration, pressure, humidity, and sound level sensors are the most prevalent types of industrial sensors.
• IoT gateways. Using cellular or Wi-Fi networking protocols, gateway devices collect the data transmitted by industrial sensors and send it to servers either on-site or in the cloud. When data latency (the time between when the gateway device submits a request to the cloud and when it receives a response) becomes critical, sensor data processing can be transferred from the server to the intelligent gateway device. The approach also assists industrial organizations in reducing network traffic and preventing data manipulation.
• Data storage and analytics solutions. Manufacturing businesses may use an IIoT platform like PTC ThingWorx to build a data analytics infrastructure, or they can construct a bespoke solution powered by AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. End-to-end IIoT solutions include pre-configured data storage, analytics, and visualization modules with minimum coding required. The bespoke method, on the other hand, enables businesses to design cloud apps that are suited to their needs and expand with their organization.
• Data visualization. Mobile apps, dynamic dashboards, and real-time equipment interfaces are examples of IIoT data visualization technologies. These tools may show information collected from external apps in addition to reporting equipment health and performance metrics. Manufacturing execution systems (MESs), quality management software (QMS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions are examples of the latter.

Three approaches for retrofitting machines using IIoT

• Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) upgrade. Using an IIoT kit produced by an original equipment manufacturer is the simplest approach to add data gathering, processing, and visualization capabilities to legacy equipment, as long as the vendor continues to produce and maintain identical equipment. Bosch, SKF, and Festo are among the OEMs that support industrial enterprises to develop on the cheap.
• Tailored IIoT solutions. Some businesses use technology firms that provide industrial automation services to create specific IIoT solutions for their manufacturing lines. Business Analysis is generally the first step in a digital transformation. This method assists producers in identifying crucial equipment that may have a major impact on production output if it breaks or creates unforeseen downtime. It is also vital to establish what sort of data could improve a factory’s operating efficiency and the best approach to obtain it. An IoT company then builds specialized sensing devices and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) as well as low-level software (usually, bare-metal firmware) that allows the sensors to communicate data to an IoT gateway. Developers train and deploy Machine Learning algorithms on the cloud to find trends in sensor data. A manufacturing organization may also use the API level to interface the newly designed system with current enterprise software to achieve transparency on the production floor and optimize maintenance operations.
• Third-party retrofit kits. When the original manufacturer has no motivation to upgrade outdated equipment, a business can collaborate with a technology firm that provides the necessary hardware components as well as a sensor data management software as a service (SaaS) application. Retrofit IIoT options include the Bosch Cross Domain Development Kit (XDK), HARTING’s digital retrofit kits, and Krammer Technology’s data analytics platform for injection molding facilities.

Conclusion

Rip and replace plant overhauls are uncommon in the manufacturing business due to large upfront costs.

Retrofitting provides the ideal mix between expensive equipment replacement and smart usability.

Following the pandemic, IoT-enabled solutions that enable businesses to minimize equipment maintenance costs and manage assets remotely are expected to flourish in the long run. According to studies, the worldwide industrial IoT gateway market would exceed $1.39 billion by 2021, while industrial sensors might grow to $1.34 billion in six years.

Retrofit kits, wireless sensors, and cloud services with minimum customization make it easy to get started with the Industrial Internet of Things. Manufacturers, on the other hand, should begin with the business objectives and identify the equipment important to factory operations when developing an IIoT project.