It’s a startling fact: a typical packaging line’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is about 45-55 percent, meaning that only about half of its planned production time is truly productive. And packaging lines with lower OEE experience increased stops, excess scrappage and greater amounts of quality issues–all of which can impede productivity and, ultimately, threaten profitability.
Fortunately, the continued advancement of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)/Industry 4.0 offers manufacturers unprecedented opportunity to dramatically improve machine reliability.
And it’s happening at just the right time. As it stands, nearly 80 percent of food processing and packaging companies already measure OEE and are looking to maximize their uptime–but today, knowing how to effectively leverage IIoT analytics to achieve those gains can be challenging.
In most facilities (by default), massive amounts of data are already generated by the microsecond, but weeding through this data to get to the information that truly matters can seem like a Sisyphean task–and therefore it’s not effectively done. What’s more, many IIoT solutions require extensive implementations of Information Technology (IT) infrastructures, which makes the process even more challenging.
But harnessing the power of IIoT/Industry 4.0 doesn’t have to be a complicated, costly and an all-encompassing undertaking.
In fact, by using smart-monitoring technologies embedded into “smart” fieldbus electronics manifolds to harvest and analyze data at the device level, consumer packaged goods (CPGs) can start small and still realize significant performance gains. These technologies transform complex local data into actionable information and provide operators and maintenance personnel with enhanced insight into pneumatics and its applications–all outside of the machine controller’s domain. With this information, they can take immediate, corrective action and/or implement predictive maintenance strategies without the need for massive infrastructure to be in place or changing existing PLC programs.
Simply put, it’s IIoT made easy.
At PACK EXPO 2018, you’ll have the chance to learn how it’s made possible by incorporating analytical “smart” fieldbus electronics into pneumatics systems. This provides CPGs with real-time, performance-monitoring capabilities for their machines and components, and it future proofs their investments, as this technology is scalable to impending infrastructures.
Empowered with relevant data, CPGs can improve packaging machine reliability and increase OEE. That means potential stops and failures can be prevented, predictive maintenance can be realized, and off-spec products can be significantly reduced.
Get all the details by attending the Innovation Stage presentation: “Improving OEE and Machinery Reliability with Real-Time Performance Monitoring, Diagnostics and Control of Pneumatic Systems.” Obtain a complimentary exhibit pass. And to continue the discussion and connect with Emerson experts, visit the new Fluid Control and Pneumatics Forum in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
