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Create a strategic plan when integrating automation in manufacturing facilities

Plant owners must develop a strategic and comprehensive plan about their integration process to optimize production long-term.

By Rao Kolla March 29, 2023
Courtesy: Stellar

 

Learning Objectives

  • Automation provides substantial ROI in manufacturing settings, but there’s a shortage of skilled technical workers to support sophisticated facilities. Investing in more automation can be the answer.
  • System integrators can help plants identify opportunities for improving their processes with the latest technology and recommend strategies to mitigate risk.
  • Facility owners should consider the maintenance needs of their technology upfront and invest in preventative solutions to minimize maintenance time.

System integration insights

  • Investing in automation and using system integrators (SIs) can help plants identify ways to improve processes and safety at the same time.
  • Facility owners should consider the maintenance needs of their technology upfront and invest in preventative solutions to minimize maintenance time.

Modern automation technology is transforming the food manufacturing landscape. New advancements can mitigate safety risks, increase productivity, reduce downtime, and improve quality and accuracy with fine-tuned precision.

Of course, these solutions require capital investment upfront, but the long-term return on investment is hard to ignore. The good news is technology is getting cheaper and easier to implement with every year that passes. While the barrier is shrinking, manufacturers still face another challenge: What happens when these sophisticated systems need maintenance or repairs?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average turnover in the manufacturing industry at 40%. As the data suggests, hiring, training and retaining skilled technical workers who can service a plant’s automated processing lines isn’t as straightforward as it may appear.

A system integrator (SI) can help companies achieve their goals with comprehensive solutions. An SI partner can offer tried-and-true ideas to mitigate risk and build efficiencies into new and existing processes.

How to select a qualified system integrator

Vetting qualified SI professionals is a demanding, critical process. The greatest value lies in establishing a partnership with an SI who will evaluate the facility’s unique system, layout and objectives to develop a tailored, long-term strategy for integrating systems and technology to achieve performance goals.

Consider the following questions to help make the decision easier:

  1. Can the integrator demonstrate a list of executed projects and/or clients with examples of challenges they helped overcome?

  2. Do they understand the short- and long-term corporate and plant goals?

  3. What is their implementation methodology?

  4. Do they have a consistent team? Who does it include?

  5. Do they offer startup support and to what extent?

  6. How do they handle system knowledge transfer to plant personnel?

  7. How do they approach migrating a complex system with minimal downtime?

Owners also must be wary of SIs who want to implement sweeping changes without regard for the existing process, plant and personnel. Each recommendation, especially when it involves modifying existing standards, must have a reason behind it and the SI should be prepared to explain it to stakeholders.

Figure 1: Automated processing lines can increase line efficiencies, improve accuracy and minimize ingredient loss in food manufacturing settings. Courtesy: Stellar

Figure 1: Automated processing lines can increase line efficiencies, improve accuracy and minimize ingredient loss in food manufacturing settings. Courtesy: Stellar

How can automated plants mitigate downtime for maintenance?

Automation is an integral component of a modern facility’s competitive advantage. In addition to enabling rapid throughput, robotics and automation solutions can help minimize production issues stemming from fluctuating factors like labor availability, supply chains and material prices. Even small adjustments can result in significant savings and greater ROI.

If a piece of technology fails, there are proactive strategies facilities can integrate to mitigate risk and reduce downtime. Being proactive is general best practice, but it is especially useful when running a plant with sophisticated systems and automation.

Hire key operators and technicians early

When owners embark on a new project – whether it’s building something new, expanding or upgrading – they’re often so focused on the design and construction aspects they don’t consider the resources needed to support and maintain the facility’s ongoing operations.

Companies don’t often hire and train mechanical and technical control personnel until they’re ready to start production. This timeline creates unintended knowledge gaps that can slow down the ramp-up process because critical knowledge is exchanged during the design, startup and installation phases.

Embedding key operators and maintenance staff in early phases and allowing them to provide input about improving processes and operations can be extremely beneficial. Automation design is increasingly sophisticated to maintain and operate. Why wouldn’t you want staff to know exactly how a new piece of equipment is built and wired before issues occur? With this approach, you’ll already have a trained and knowledgeable crew who can support the plant without delay as soon as the startup phase is complete.

Transitioning to digital documentation

Bringing a facility up to speed with the digital era requires legwork. There are many facilities where operators still use paper and pencil for record-keeping. If there’s a problem, it might take the person troubleshooting many hours to locate the right documents and sort through stacks of paperwork to figure out what went wrong. Worse yet: The handwriting may be illegible. Going offline to address administrative issues like these can cost a facility millions of dollars.

Transitioning from analog to digital automation yields numerous benefits such as enabling personnel to better troubleshoot and address problems in critical moments. It also lets manufacturing execution systems (MES) collect and analyze data to produce detailed diagnostic reports that can pinpoint precisely when, how and why an error or malfunction occurred.

Developing standard procedures for documentation and diagnostic screenings takes time, but the payback is instantaneous.

Figure 2: High-speed production lines enabled Rosina Food Products to greatly expand their production capacity of frozen meatballs at their meat processing facility in Buffalo, New York, built by Stellar. Courtesy: Stellar

Figure 2: High-speed production lines enabled Rosina Food Products to greatly expand their production capacity of frozen meatballs at their meat processing facility in Buffalo, New York, built by Stellar. Courtesy: Stellar

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

The IIoT connects subsystems in industrial equipment – such as sensors, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) – to the internet to enable real-time data collection and remote monitoring. This technology can be leveraged to proactively monitor a system’s health and streamline maintenance.

For example, designing a machine with vibration or temperature sensors can alert key operators to discrepancies in critical equipment before failure and help them pinpoint where an issue originated. These features may have once been considered “nice-to-haves,” but they are quickly becoming “must-haves” as plants become more automated.

There are some limitations to integrating IIoT in existing facilities. It’s challenging to install sensors for data collection in plants that do not have existing PLCs or a robust network infrastructure. In these situations, it’s necessary to schedule downtime in order to perform equipment upgrades and installation. Integrating IIoT technology during the design phase of equipment development is the most cost-effective approach overall.

Remote monitoring

An SI can also help mitigate risk by coordinating and integrating remote monitoring capabilities between individual equipment and their respective original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Providing OEMs with virtual private network (VPN) access allows them to remotely support the facility.

Consider a situation where a piece of equipment      goes down in a Florida plant. If the OEM is in California, the integrator would need to travel across the country to troubleshoot and repair. Between making the decision and traveling, a facility could lose two or three days of production time before resolving the issue. However, downtime is significantly minimized if the same OEM can access the equipment remotely via VPN.

Be mindful that setting up a network infrastructure is a specialized process that involves properly designing the system to minimize cybersecurity risks. The savings are significant and can make the difference between losing thousands of dollars versus millions.

Industrial cloud servers

Typically, plant owners and managers hire full-time IT professionals to maintain their servers. When it’s time to upgrade, however, facilities must buy additional servers and train their employees again.

Using a cloud service provider is an easier solution because it helps ensure new and existing servers remain up to date as time passes. These companies maintain and troubleshoot servers through a monthly subscription. Technology evolves quickly and this is a great way to access the latest technology without added work.

Building a roadmap for success

While robotics and automation technology are becoming more affordable, it’s still a considerable investment. Racing to become the most technologically-advanced facility in the industry without a plan is never advised.

A good system integrator will identify opportunities to optimize processes throughout a facility first and then develop a long-term strategy. Fiscally, it’s not always realistic to upgrade every component upfront.

Establishing a 3- to 5-year strategy can help stakeholders prioritize how to replace and update critical systems and subsystems and set up a game plan for efficient execution. Having a blueprint for a plant’s long-term automation strategy provides sufficient training and ramp-up time while still delivering ROI.


Author Bio: Rao Kolla, PE, PMP, CSCP, MBA, is director of process electrical/controls engineering at Stellar, a fully integrated design, engineering, construction, refrigeration and mechanical services firm serving commercial, industrial and public sector markets across the United States and around the world. Contact him at rkolla@stellar.net.