In 2020, stock management issues were estimated to cost UK manufacturers 66 billion GBP because of disruption caused by the pandemic. Consequently, the quest to improve efficiency, cut waste, and enhance supply chain operations is one that suppliers know all too well. Here, Chris Johnson, Managing Director at SMB Bearings, explains how the Internet of Things (IoT) can enable a stronger, more resilient bearing supply chain.
Managing the monitoring, resilience and complexity of a large IT environment can be a real challenge. Centralised monitoring can help to achieve this.
GEO Specialty Chemicals (GEO) develops and manufactures high purity chemicals, producing over 300 products for more than 1,000 customers in the coatings, adhesives, medical, water treatment and construction markets. In 2018 GEO opened a new production facility in Hythe aimed at enhancing and extending its existing capabilities, specifically for high purity specialty monomers.
Predictive maintenance is fast becoming recognised as one of the more easily exploited applications of that popular but not always easily defined concept in industry – digitalisation. Also known as Industry 4.0, digitalisation remains a broad concept which can be difficult to justify in terms of investment. One aspect of digitalisation, however, stands out as worthy of swift and serious consideration: predictive maintenance.
Gartner expects that by 2022 more than 50 percent of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed outside the traditional data centre or cloud. With the explosion of the IoT, the amount of data devices collect is becoming so vast that it cannot all be stored and monitored in the cloud. This is why industry needs to invest in edge solutions.
A single failure or plant trip can result in substantial production losses, especially for industries operating in hazardous areas. Remote condition monitoring minimises any risk of unplanned shutdowns but has been limited for hostile environments by the lack of a cost efficient and easy to deploy solutions.