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A good obsolescence plan can keep your plant up and running

Unplanned downtime is a manufacturer’s worst nightmare. The nightmare worsens if goods on the idle production line are perishable food and beverages, as too much of a delay can lead to product losses. Manufacturing lines are complex systems made of thousands of parts, each doing their own important job. If one part fails, this has a cascading effect up and down the production line, to the extent that production may come to a complete halt. When this occurs, there are two options: perform a repair on the broken part, or replace or upgrade the entire system. While system upgrades have their own merits, they are expensive and entail large windows of undesirable, costly downtime while old systems are removed and new ones are installed and commissioned. The alternative approach is to replace the broken part, which sounds simple and should be much quicker than replacing the entire system. However, if the offending part turns out to be obsolete — that is, no longer manufactured by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) — then a quick task suddenly becomes more difficult. This is because quality obsolete parts are notoriously difficult to source so, if manufacturers are not prepared in advance, they may find themselves having to shut down production for much longer than initially anticipated. Furthermore, if corners are cut to find cheaper replacements, or if parts are bought simply because they were the easiest to find, manufacturers are liable to incur repeated downtime as lower-quality parts are likely to fail again, and quickly. As industrial systems typically have long lifespans, they are especially susceptible to broken parts, and are more likely to contain obsolete parts. That is why it’s important to have a comprehensive obsolescence plan in place. Obsolescence audit An effective obsolescence plan should involve a full systems audit, to […]

Unlock the value of data to drive business intelligence

By Kevin Dherman, CIO at SYSPRO Data forms the backbone of any manufacturing enterprise. With continuous supply chain disruptions, the allure of data and Business Intelligence (BI) is the ability to look deeper into production, performance, and efficiency. For today’s industries the issue isn’t whether they’re generating enough data, it’s whether they’re getting value from that data. SYSPRO research reveals that only 20 percent of manufacturing and distribution businesses have looked at investing in big data analytics tools to process and analyse data in response to ongoing disruptions, and only five percent of businesses have investigated the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to draw any long-term benefits from data collection. As industries look to digitally transform to the factory of the future in a data-first world, investment in technologies is irrelevant without data analytics to understand the internal and external factors impacting a business. Without the right data insights businesses are unable to compete with global supply chains as they don’t have the visibility to anticipate shifts and respond to market changes. Here’s how manufacturers can obtain visibility across the entire operation and collect accurate real-time data to not only automate processes but make data-driven decisions that drive the factory of the future: Actionable insights with ERP Ultimately, ERP fuels data-driven decision making and drives business intelligence. It allows information to be centralised and organised into readable reports and dashboards. With a variety of valuable KPIs, metrics and more information at their fingertips, they can act on new opportunities, respond to issues, and make informed decisions quickly. A SYSPRO customer, Ruprecht, was able to tackle supply chain disruptions and remain competitive through leveraging data insights. The business which supplies ready-to-eat food products in the US integrated their ERP system with AI and a predictive model to maintain […]

Why 3D printing in healthcare is imperative for sustainable healing

Lim Jing (Ph.D.) Chief Technology Officer, Osteopore Three dimensional or “3D printing” is an additive manufacturing process that has been around for a while now – but is still guaranteed to attract attention. It produces a physical object from a digital design, and it’s been creating a buzz in the healthcare industry since the 1990s when dental implants and custom prosthetics took off. While there are many different types of 3D printing available, harnessing the technological advantage that 3D printing has over traditional manufacturing techniques is the key to its success. This involves creating a microstructure that is representative of native bone while meeting gross geometrical needs of the reconstruction area. Specifically, making use of the body’s regenerative capacity to rebuild lost tissues and the use of bioresorbable materials in implants leverage the combined technologies of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and 3D printing techniques. 3D printing technology has allowed us to make ground-breaking regenerative implants – our bioresorbable implant is the first of its kind to be successfully developed and commercialised for surgical use, and we see this technology as the way of the future for healthcare. When used appropriately, we find the solutions created with 3D printing regularly outperform traditional implant methods in terms of design and associated long-term healthcare costs. 3D printing allows the creation of complex geometries that copy the shape and function of natural bone and allows efficient productisation particularly in customised implants. Given the complex nature of bone microarchitecture, it is not a matter of course that production can happen at cost effective scale – and 3D manufacturing gives us that option. With improvements to technology, we can go down the path of automation, producing our implants around-the-clock and even remotely; there is a compelling commercial industrial argument for the technology alongside medical […]

‘Cybersecurity Solutions for Buildings’

Schneider Electric has available Cybersecurity Solutions for Buildings, a solution that helps all buildings customers secure their building management systems (BMS) to protect their people, assets and operations. The joint solution with Claroty, the security company for cyber-physical systems across industrial, healthcare, and commercial environments, will combine award-winning technology with Schneider Electric industry expertise and services to identify all facility-wide assets, deliver unmatched risk and vulnerability management capabilities, and provide continuous threat monitoring to protect enterprise investments. 50% of today’s buildings are likely to be still in use by 2050. This is driving commercial buildings to digitise their assets, including modernising their building management system. In fact, IoT technology for buildings is expected to grow from an existing 1.7 billion connected devices at the end of 2020 to over 3 billion by 2025. As these commercial buildings evolve into smart buildings of the future, they share at least one common trait: heightened exposure to risks. The sector must address the security challenges presented by smart buildings. Studies have shown that 57% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high-severity attacks.* Cyberattacks have already harmed several businesses, including critical infrastructure such as hospitals, data centers, and hotels. The commercial building sector must find ways to safeguard both its access to the company’s IT systems as well as its mission-critical infrastructure. “The integration of IoT in buildings is sparking an exciting shift across the sector, but like with any innovation, it also presents new risks,” said Annick Villeneuve, Vice President Digital Enterprise Solutions, Schneider Electric. “For threat actors looking to disrupt operations, benefit financially and/or achieve other objectives, and in so doing to put individuals at risk, buildings can appear to be the perfect target. “It is with this in mind that we are partnering with Claroty to bring our customers a […]

Digital Twins a catalyst to fulfilling sustainability agenda

Organisations implement digital twins to understand and predict their energy consumption and emissions. According to the ‘Digital Twins: Adding Intelligence to the Real World’ report from the Capgemini Research Institute, 60 per cent of organisations across major sectors are leaning on digital twins1 as a catalyst to not only improve operational performance, but also to fulfil their sustainability agenda. By being able to simulate the physical world, digital twins can help organisations to better utilise resources, reduce carbon emissions, optimise supply and transportation networks, as well as increase employee safety. The report reveals that digital twin implementations are set to increase by 36 per cent on average over the next five years. This indicates a growing appetite for digital twin technology across all major industries, such as automotive, aerospace, life sciences, and energy and utilities among others, driven by organisations looking to advance their digital transformation journeys and adding intelligence to operations along the value chain. Organisations surveyed reported that cost-saving benefits (79 per cent) and technological advancement (77 per cent) are key drivers of their digital twin investments. The research also found that 57 per cent of organisations agree that digital twin technology is pivotal to improving sustainability efforts, which reflects the growing trend of businesses keen to deliver on their Environmental Social Governance (ESG) promises. Digital twins offer flexible ways of working to mitigate risks and extend collaboration, thereby providing a unique opportunity to increase profitability while optimising the use of resources along the value chain. Over one third (34 per cent) of organisations surveyed reported having already implemented digital twins at scale to understand and predict their energy consumption and emissions. Consumer products and energy and utilities industries are leading the way in this use case, with 52 per cent and 50 per cent respectively utilising the […]

Machine learning speeds up search for new sustainable materials

A model that rapidly searches through large numbers of materials could find sustainable alternatives to existing composites. Researchers from Konica Minolta and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan have developed a machine learning method to identify sustainable alternatives for composite materials. Their findings were published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: Methods. Researchers are looking for sustainable options, such as recyclable materials or biomass, to substitute the constituent materials in composites which are used in various applications including electrical and information technologies. Composite materials are compounds made of two or more constituent materials. Due to the complex nature of the interactions between the different components, their performance can greatly exceed that of single materials. Composite materials, such as fibre-reinforced plastics, are very important for a wide range of industries and applications, including electrical and information technologies. In recent years, there has been increasing demand for more environmentally sustainable materials that help reduce industrial waste and plastic use. One way to achieve this is to substitute the constituent materials in composites with recyclable materials or biomass. However, this can reduce performance compared to the original material, not only due to the features of the individual constituent materials, such as their physicochemical properties, but also due to the interactions between the constituents. Finding a new composite material that achieves the same performance as the original using human experience and intuition alone takes a very long time because you have to evaluate countless materials while also taking into account the interactions between them. Machine learning offers a potential solution to this problem. Scientists have proposed several machine learning methods to conduct rapid searches among a large number of materials, based on the relationship between the materials’ features and performance. However, in many cases the properties of […]

Recycling can drive new manufacturing pathways and prosperity

Of interest may be research by the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre which has found a way that could start a new ‘green aluminium’ manufacturing revolution and bolster government and industry efforts to advance manufacturing, and be more sustainable and create new jobs. The new technique to recover aluminium from complex, multilayered packaging is based on the microrecycling science pioneered by the SMaRT Centre under the leadership of its Director, Professor Veena Sahajwalla, and builds on their waste materials innovations including Green Steel and Microfactorie® technologies. Green aluminium The research, published across two international scientific journals, demonstrates there is now a way to sustainably recycle polymer-laminated aluminium packaging (PLAP) materials, such as post-consumer food and coffee packaging, into high-quality aluminium and be a potential source of high-energy hydrocarbon products.’ “We developed Green Steel technology where we extract hydrogen and carbon from old rubber tyres and plastic as an innovative and green pathway in steel making , and we now can develop new ‘Green Aluminium’ with our novel technique called Thermal Disengagement Technology (TDT),” said Veena whose SMaRT Centre is part of the UNSW Science Faculty. “Recycling using new technologies can be a foundation for the manufacturing of high-quality materials from our waste resources, as we seek to develop greater sovereign capability along with economic prosperity.” Thermal Disengagement Technology The new Thermal Disengagement Technology, described in scientific publications Springer Nature and the Journal of Cleaner Production, offers an innovative, efficient, and sustainable microrecycling technique to separate the materials in complex polymer-laminated metal packaging waste. TDT can transform the aluminium into a clean and green metal, allowing it to be extracted in a way that means it can be used as a high-quality material for manufacturing, while minimising residual waste. Veena said: “Green Steel and green manufacturing are capabilities […]

Why 24/7 clean energy beats carbon offsetting

Post COP26, more companies will feel the pressure to decarbonise operations and one increasingly popular claim is 100% renewable energy – but so is the word ‘greenwashing’. In this context, the term is used to describe branding that makes power generated by fossil fuel seem clean, normally via renewable energy certificates (RECs). Although RECs are a first step towards supporting clean energy generation, they allow companies to claim 100% renewable energy when some of the energy they use is actually being generated by fossil fuels. To overcome the risk of greenwashing, some companies have committed to around-the-clock carbon-free energy, also known as 24/7 clean energy. What is 24/7 clean energy? 24/7 clean energy fixes the mismatches of power supply-demand, the associated grid congestion, and inherent CO2 emissions (notably by peak demand being covered by fossil sources, such as coal, oil and gas). It matches electricity consumption with carbon-free energy generation on an hourly basis, from resources on the same local and regional grids. As a result, 24/7 clean energy shifts from offsetting energy emissions (mostly through RECs) to ‘time-location‘ tracked energy procurement, thus maximising real-time, local impact. 24/7 energy is fundamentally about recognising that with renewable energy, it DOES matter where and when you consume that energy – and it puts in place the mechanisms to address that challenge. A typical mismatch between clean energy supply and demand Image: Google Supporting companies Several initiatives aim to accelerate the transition to 24/7 clean energy. More than 100 global companies have joined the EnergyTag initiative, including tech giants, and energy companies like Statkraft and Vattenfall. Through partnerships, Google and Microsoft have enabled their data centres to become more sustainable through hourly energy monitoring and matching with carbon-free sources from their clean-energy portfolios. Google’s Time-based Energy Attribute Certificates (T-EACs), for example, has enabled data centres to be 90% carbon-free on an hourly basis, […]

Open systems the route to the Smart Factory

Francisco Perez, Lantek’s OEM Channel Director Lantek has been a leader in software solutions for the sheet metal industry for 35 years. It has accomplished this by helping OEM machine tool manufacturers optimise the functionality and performance of their machines while enabling sheet metal manufacturing companies take advantage of new, productivity boosting, CAD/CAM, MES, ERP software and cloud-based technologies. Dedicated OEM team, worldwide support Integral to this approach is Lantek’s neutral stance for its OEM partners, giving them the confidence to trust Lantek with information about the individual technology advances each is working to develop. To facilitate this secure coordination, Lantek has established a focused and dedicated department to manage the 150 OEMs it now supports. This special team is giving each OEM individual attention on their Lantek projects and is supporting them in their implementation and market rollouts to ensure the technology works as intended and, that their customers are happy with the results. Lantek has 20 offices in 14 countries and a global dealer network across 100 countries which Lantek puts at the disposal of its OEM partners for professional support. Long term experience and a culture of hard work Software development is a long and complex process. Lantek has been developing its sheet metal CAM, ERP and MES software solutions for 35 years. Mostly, its innovations come from long hours working in partnership with sheet metal manufacturers and machine tool builders, incorporating their requirements while anticipating the direction the industry is heading, providing features and innovations that add real value for customers. This knowledge and experience can only be acquired after years working in partnership with machine tool builders. Since 2019, Lantek’s OEM partnerships have grown 16% with an increase in OEM channel sales of 41%. Special collaborative projects Over the years, Lantek has developed software to […]

Carbon-neutral manufacturing is possible

Amid a slow political process on climate change, businesses globally must step up their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Engineering and manufacturing can make an essential contribution to achieving net zero, as manufacturing plants, machinery, and sophisticated production processes are at the heart of global value creation everywhere. The good news is that we can help to significantly limit global warming and reach net-zero emissions, using the technology and know-how we already have. Three key priorities that will propel us more quickly on this journey – if we embrace them consistently: Focus all our efforts on minimising greenhouse gas emissions. Use all available levers for improvement, from the thousands of incremental refinements that add up to significant efficiency gains over time, to fundamentally designing and adapting large industrial plants and processes with the goal of climate neutrality. We will need to question established routines and scrutinise every aspect: can we minimise the amount of stainless steel or other raw material and still get the same performance? How can we reuse more of the waste we produce in production processes, or – even better – avoid it? And this line of questioning doesn’t stop within our own operations; we must encourage, or even require, our suppliers to do the same. This is critical given that a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions are generated in the supply chain. We must put energy efficiency front and centre. There is no doubt that energy efficiency improvements will have to play a crucial role in putting the world on a net-zero pathway. In particular, heating and cooling require our immediate focus, as they account for a large proportion of energy consumption in processing plants – often between 50 and 90%. By deploying state-of-the-art heat pump technology, manufacturers can capture their waste heat from refrigeration and then boost the temperature to […]

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