hurdle that many in the industry must overcome.
Companies must invest in a communications
resource that truly satisfies business internet
needs – irrespective of location.”
A technological embrace
The pandemic has presented the world with
numerous challenges, but also many opportunities.
One of these is a new-found appreciation of
technology. Whether that’s embracing homeworking,
or automation and remote monitoring,
underpinning it all is communication technology
(see box, left). However, it can often seem daunting
to know where to start.
Keating’s advice is to not try and reinvent the
wheel: “There’s a lot of very good architecture out
there from companies like Siemens or GE that can
easily be built upon. Building things from scratch
makes your life unnecessarily hard. There’s a bad
habit in the engineering sector to make things
complicated. With communication systems, it’s
easiest to just keep it simple.”
However they go about it, Keating concludes,
it’s vital that manufacturers get ready today to
embrace connectivity, as the financial benefits in
the long-run could be massive.
“Currently, if you’re operating a very expensive
piece of equipment and it needs servicing, you’ll
call in a technician on a very high day-rate to
come and have a look at it,” he says. “That person,
however, will more often than not spend most of
their time on the motorway getting to you. With
good connectivity, you can have that expensive
person sat in an office and have a team of lowerskilled
technicians on the road. The person in the
office will then put on some AR goggles and talk
the field technicians through the servicing process.
The highly skilled, very expensive person will be
fully utilised instead of wasting a load of time
travelling. Just the idea of that is incredible.”
Manufacturing must embrace digital advances
and adopt smarter processes and technology to
stay competitive in the new normal. It must set
aside outdated processes to make this a reality.
To enable this, however, the basics of shopfloor
internet connectivity have to be in place. By
working with expert suppliers, the industry will
then be able to benefit from the latest technologies
and opportunities to help it recover and thrive well
into the next decade.
Gorodenkoff /stock.adobe.com
OCTOBER 2020 COVER STORY
AT&T allows engineering giant
to monitor real-time performance
Workers deep underground rely on surface-based machinery
to deliver clean air and remove harmful gases from the site,
sometimes more than a mile below the earth. AT&T is providing
global IoT connectivity to engineering giant, Howden Group,
to deliver near real-time data from the business-critical heavy
machinery that gets the job done.
With employee health & safety a prime concern, alongside
production efficiency, ensuring machinery is maintained
effectively minimises the potential for unplanned downtime.
AT&T’s Global SIM and connectivity is part of the ‘Howden
Uptime’ solution, a proprietary system using sensor technology
to capture data from equipment installed at a customer’s site.
Data is then sent to the cloud, where a data analytics engine
is used to schedule both proactive and reactive maintenance
services, as well as equipment performance management.
Howden’s sensors and the communications module can
be installed without any modifications to the existing plant
infrastructure. The data gathered by Howden Uptime is
continuously relayed to its in-house experts for analysis. As an
equipment manufacturer with more than 160 years’ experience,
Howden can translate the data to provide valuable advice and
recommendations for action.
The digital twin is at the centre of the Howden Uptime
solution. Using physics data on how equipment operates and
responds to the environment, as well as information from
sensors, the digital twin is used to analyse and simulate real
world conditions. This includes how it responds to changes,
and how Howden’s customers can improve their operations.
The data from Howden Uptime is used to provide
automated predictive alerts, delivered, when necessary.
Howden customers have access, via a secure portal, to current
manuals, drawings, and reports, and Howden’s worldwide
service network enables them to have local engineers on-site
quickly to provide additional support.
Howden uses AT&T’s Global SIM and advanced satellite
connectivity to transmit data from customers’ equipment and
deliver performance optimization on demand. AT&T satellite
services provide redundancy and virtually eliminate any
coverage gaps.
“The technology stack that we built behind Howden
Uptime is a cloud solution that uses one of the most
advanced industrial IoT platforms,” says David Simpson,
CIO of Howden Group. “The
connectivity
piece with AT&T
allowed us to
come up with
a highly secure
cloud solution.
It helps our
customers operate
efficiently and avoid
unplanned outages.”
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 17
/stock.adobe.com
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
