In today’s competitive business landscape, maximizing asset performance has become crucial for achieving operational excellence. In order to optimally manage assets and achieve peak performance, businesses must take a full-fledged approach to their asset management strategies and technologies. One of the key ways businesses maximize asset performance is through an effective Asset Performance Management (APM) strategy.

This article will discuss the best practices for building an effective APM strategy.

• Identify Your Critical Assets

The first step in developing an effective APM strategy is to identify the critical assets that require attention. Conducting a risk analysis will help your organization determine assets that are most vulnerable to failure or that have a significant impact on production. Once identified, these assets should be a high priority in the development of an APM program.

• Set Goals and Metrics

After identifying critical assets, it is vital to set specific goals and performance metrics for each asset. This includes identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) such as asset uptime, mean time between failure, and asset utilization. Clear goals and KPIs will ensure that the maintenance program focuses on improving the performance of each asset, ultimately leading to an increase in overall plant performance.

• Develop a Maintenance Plan

A maintenance plan is essential for ensuring that assets are operating at their full potential. This plan should include regular inspections, preventive maintenance tasks, and corrective maintenance tasks. The maintenance plan should be based on the manufacturer’s recommendations, as well as your company’s specific needs and objectives.

• Invest in Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics is a crucial component of a successful Asset Performance Management (APM) program. Advanced analytics tools can provide real-time data and insights into asset performance, including identifying potential issues before they occur. This helps maintenance teams to schedule maintenance activities, anticipate issues, and reduce the risk of equipment downtime.

• Train Your Employees

To fully realize the benefits of an APM program, employees must be trained on the strategies and technologies used. This includes training on equipment monitoring systems, predictive analytics software, and maintenance procedures. An effective training program will ensure that the team is equipped with the knowledge and resources necessary to maintain assets optimally.

• Implement Continuous Improvement

An APM program is a long-term investment, and there is always room for improvement. Regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the maintenance plan, tracking KPIs, and implementing continuous improvement strategies can help optimize asset performance.

• Importance of Collaboration and Communication 

In addition to these best practices, collaboration and communication are significant components of a successful Asset Performance Management (APM) program. Effective communication between the maintenance team and other departments is essential to ensure that everyone is working towards a common goal. 

Here are some benefits of collaboration and communication for APM:

1. Improved decision-making: Sharing knowledge and information with key stakeholders ensures that the data is well-understood, leading to better decisions.
2. Increased employee engagement: Create opportunities for employees to contribute their ideas, encouraging engagement and buy-in for APM initiatives.
3. Ensuring alignment: Alignment between departments and stakeholders delivers operational efficiency by eliminating silos.
4. Facilitating implementation: Collaboration facilitates the adoption of APM best practices, and communication ensures everyone understands the goals and objectives, leading to successful implementation.

End Note: 

In conclusion, building an effective Asset Performance Management (APM) strategy is crucial for any business that seeks to achieve operational excellence. The best practices we discussed here, from defining KPIs to using advanced analytics, can go a long way in helping you achieve this goal. For any other assistance with regard to Asset Performance Management, please don’t hesitate to connect with Utthunga.

We understand the importance of effective APM and the challenges that come with it. That’s why we offer cutting-edge APM solutions and services tailored to your unique business needs. Our team of experts is always ready to help you develop an APM strategy that will yield results and keep you ahead of the competition.

So, if you’re looking to optimize your asset performance and achieve operational efficiency, contact us today. Let us help you make the most out of your assets and take your business to the next level!

FAQs

Smart manufacturing: Smart manufacturing provides the pharmaceutical industry with a host of benefits that help streamline production processes and increase efficiency. By incorporating advanced technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, companies can optimize their supply chain, reduce waste, and minimize downtime. This results in higher quality products, improved safety, and reduced costs. Moreover, smart manufacturing enables pharmaceutical companies to keep pace with changing regulatory requirements and respond to market demands quickly, which is essential in a highly competitive industry.

How Can Manufacturers Employ It?

• By maintaining a cloud-based database for data collection, analysis, interpretation, and application.
• Combining 5G with industrial IoT to ensure that production-related insights can be remotely accessed anytime, anywhere, by operators, managers & business owners.

The Benefits Of The Smart Manufacturing Process In The Pharmaceutical Industry

• Smart Engineering:

One of the biggest advantages of Industry 4.0 is that it improves the quality of product design, quality control, and the supply chain. Blockchain-based smart contracts, intelligent automation, and data science come together to build upstream & downstream connected ecosystems for developing smart products, keeping the future in mind.

• Operational Excellence:

Digital technologies (like ML, AI, IIoT, etc.) are employed to automate and streamline each step in production, from load balancing to inline quality inspection and scheduling processes to performance management, testing, etc. It eliminates the possibility of errors and the time constraints associated with manual labor. Smart sensors constantly monitor the manufacturing process, run background checks, and troubleshoot errors to ensure that the machine is properly maintained and the conditions for yielding high-quality products are always followed. It makes the entire process very efficient and cost-effective.

Moreover, limited human intervention mitigates any threat to life. Operators are involved in the monitoring and application of technologies, not in complex operations. Thus, the use of advanced analytics and fully automated technology reduces the risk of onsite accidents.

• Greater Sustainability:

Contrary to the traditional method of mass production, smart manufacturing relies on renewable energy. It was introduced with the objective of optimizing energy consumption, controlling waste production, and reducing poisonous emissions. As it is eco-friendly, it significantly boosts the environmental footprint and helps businesses comply with local and global environmental regulations.

• Optimization Leading To Differentiation:

Being different doesn’t always mean staying ahead of the competition. It also involves exploring new avenues of research and the development of better business models, new services, and products based on futuristic technologies (e.g., nanotechnology, bioinformatics, etc.). The concept of smart manufacturing allows businesses to acquire product variance through research, experimentation, and trials based on real-time insights without compromising quality or exceeding the project budget. It helps manufacturers stand out from the crowd.

• Quick Implementation Resulting In Better Business:

In the case of smart manufacturing, operators can quickly implement any changes in the current process, apply different technologies, or upgrade existing protocols. It avoids low-quality products & allows companies to predict market conditions, reduce delivery times, overcome unforeseen challenges, and meet customer demands. It guarantees better customer satisfaction, builds a solid brand reputation, and lets manufacturers expand their business beyond the local markets.

All the aforementioned benefits of smart manufacturing lead to two major outcomes: better decision-making based on practical applications and an efficient problem-solving process resulting from brainstorming & the use of reliable technologies.

Are you looking for IoT-enabled smart manufacturing technology to increase the efficiency of manufacturing & operations and facilitate swift data exchange? Your search stops at Utthunga, a one-stop platform for all Industry 4.0 solutions. Utthunga’s diverse range of smart product engineering and industrial solutions, including IIoT applications, hardware & software development, device integration, industrial communication, security, and testing, etc., enable you to automate industrial processes and help you gain an upper hand on the competition. Connect with us to learn more about how we can help you embrace smart manufacturing.

FAQs

What Is Edge Device Management?

• Seamless Connectivity
The collection of IoT devices should remain connected at all times with industrial communication protocols to reap maximum benefits. Working in diverse network conditions is not possible without having a way to bridge the functions of all the devices somehow.
• Robust Security
Instances of security lapses and breaches via the edge are prevalent. Therefore, having end-to-end security through special web-controlled applications is essential for good edge device management.
• Easy Upgrades
Only an advanced firmware management process enables the scheduling and handling of updates periodically. This becomes essential to empower the Edge network to make local decisions more efficiently.
• Future-proofing
Keeping the network future-ready so that any emerging technology and protocol is incorporated when the need arises is a hallmark of edge device management.
• Ready To Install and Use
The software that empowers an organization to manage its devices should be convenient. Therefore, Edge Device managers should come as certified products delivered ready to install rather than individual tools for different functions. All data migration services require device managers of similar kinds.

Why Are Edge Devices Essential for IIoT?

Various Roles and Applications of Edge Device Manager in the World of IIoT

• Manage a Huge Influx Of Data
With data being received and transmitted in abundance, the impeccable management capabilities of edge device managers come off as a blessing. These applications make rapid decisions regarding which data to keep and which to discard, thereby cutting the clutter completely and promoting proper utilization of information.
• Event Processing
Once the computationally heavy work of developing and recognizing patterns is completed, edge device managers, with their ability to guide the execution of plans locally, complete the necessary actions without requiring any intervention.
• All-round Monitoring
The edge device manager commands it all, from detecting latency changes to monitoring bandwidth usage. Also, the power monitoring function of edge device managers is crucial in industrial environments where devices are placed at inaccessible locations.

The Bottom Line

Digital twins have revolutionized the way organizations think about their product design and development. This futuristic concept has become one of the major trends of industry 4.0 since IoT and simulator tools have become more and more prevalent. So, what are digital twins, why is it important for organizations, and what is the role of protocol simulators in digital twins? To find out the answers to all these questions, read on. 

What are Digital Twins and How do they Work?

Digital Twins are the digital representation of physical objects or procedures. They allow the transfer of data which is collected from IoT devices, sensors, edge hardware, and other embedded devices, thus, replicating the real data transfer process in product development companies. It is a mega model that provides comprehensive information about the physical device along with its mechanical elements, magnitude, and different functional aspects that it encompasses. Digital twins are created with the help of sensors, communication networks, and a digital platform. These virtual models can aid in implementing new technology trends by employing advanced analysis, monitoring, testing procedures, and services. 

You cannot understand the system behavior precisely through traditional methods as communication networks have become very complex these days. So, by using network protocol simulation tools, you can develop the networks in real-time. The network is molded with the help of devices, links, and applications to get accurate network performance reports. 

Importance of Network Protocol Simulator

A network protocol simulator depicts the model of the real communication network with its application traffic and operating environment. This can help in studying the behavior of real networks under different operating conditions in an economical manner without any kind of risk. However, this network protocol simulator must have adequate fidelity so that the network dynamics are reflected precisely. A reputed digital transformation services provider can run a reliable Modbus master simulator faster than in real-time and offer a wide range of Modbus protocol simulator tools for network visualization, and analysis. 

Some common protocol simulators are listed below:

• HART

uSimulate HART helps in simulating the communication protocols, control systems, field devices, procedure flow, and network traffic. HART can simulate HART slave devices efficiently. This hardware simulator can play a crucial role in the verification of host systems such as AMS, DCS, configurators, calibrators, and also allows operator training.

• GE-GSM

GE-GSM Simulation tools are capable of simulating GSM Gateway as well as the GSM protocol version 1-message types. It can frame a Virtual Plant Topology with the help of the Network Topology which is popularly known as the GSM Gateway Configuration tool and simulates different Process Signals along with the  Network Traffic.

• IEC-104

IEC-104 simulator is an efficient protocol simulation tool that can support 255 independent client nodes. This slave simulator can test the compliance as well as the performance of your IEC-104 masters by running on multiple platforms. It is a vital aspect in the power grid networks in which the reliability of the process is assured by the efficiency and speed of how the IoT devices share information between them. IEC 104 is a comprehensive communication protocol for seamless communication between the control station and the electrical substation.

Benefits of protocol simulations using digital twin

There is a range of advantages to be gained through the use of simulation, such as:

• Lower Financial Risk

Financial risk is less in simulations as compared to real-life experimentation.The simulator proves to be an economical investment for verification of various host systems like AMS, DCS, Configurators, Calibrators, Diagnostics, etc. In real-world systems, the potential costs include hiring staff, buying new expensive equipment, and much more. Protocol simulation enables you to test theories and prevent costly real-life errors.

• Repeated Testing in exactly the same conditions

Different theories can be tested conveniently by simulations, thus, allowing innovations in exactly similar circumstances. You can even test and compare your innovative ideas without any deviation.

• Gain Better Insights of Process for Improvement

Required improvements can be integrated easily at any time throughout the product development process by testing different theories through protocol simulation.

• Know the Short and Long-Term Impacts

With the help of a Modbus RTU protocol simulation, you can peep into the future by thoroughly analyzing the impacts in the coming years in just a few seconds. It enables you to see both short as well as long-term impacts to make more informed decisions that can prove to be beneficial in the future.

• Assess Random Events

You can assess random events with a protocol simulation like an unexpected staff or supply chain issue.

• Analyze Non-Standard Distributions

You can track non-standard distributions with ease along with analyzing your set parameters. When you take note of all changing parameters with the help of a simulation, you can mimic the real world more accurately.

• Boost Stakeholder Buy-In

A Modbus tcp master simulator can also improve buy-in from your partners, and stakeholders. The results of any procedure changes can be visually demonstrated, thus, improving engagement with the stakeholders or even enabling a sales pitch based on simulation.

In the present competitive age, you must implement this potentially disruptive technology. However, the preciseness of digital twin models relies mainly on the accuracy of the data that is used in designing them. Utthunga is one of the top product development companies having a highly experienced team of professionals who can support projects of any scale and overcome all kinds of challenges with their cutting-edge digital twin technology and best-in-class DevOps Services. Utthunga’s protocol simulators have been created by experts on a world-class simulation framework, uSimulate which is easily configurable and boasts high performance.

Big Data is the new buzzword in the town as industries realize its importance and benefits. Many sectors are investing in analytics to unlock hidden potential in the data generated by their machines. Most of this data comprises sensor data, process data, performance logs, etc.
The product design and development teams benefit the most from Big Data. The amount of data generated by industries is enormous and is constantly increasing. Some industries generate up to 8 gigabytes of data per day. This data needs to be appropriately managed. Thus, the role of a data historian becomes critical for smooth integration, storage, and access of industrial data.

Historian and its use in Industry 4.0 / IIoT

Data historian is a part of industrial automation solutions and helps with end-to-end data management. This data is processed by digital transformation services to help industries make data-driven decisions for maximizing operational excellence and profit. Some advantages of deploying data historians are:

1. Data accessibility: Data historians can collect data from multiple sources and store it in a structured and secure format. Object linking, OPC UA, etc., are some protocols used to get the data ready for consumption.
2. Cost reduction: Data compression algorithms used by data historians help store large data volumes efficiently for more extended periods. The maintenance costs are reduced significantly by data compression. Moreover, databases can be accessed by systems like MRP, ERP, SCM, etc., which reduces data loss and data integration costs.
3. Easy access: Compared to relational databases, data historians are faster in storing or retrieving data in real-time. Thus, data is available 24X7 for visualizations or analysis.

Evolution of HISTORIAN with IIoT and Big Data

Data historians had supported product design and development teams in industries since the 1970s when the first general-purpose computers were introduced in markets.

The older data systems were time-series databases that were deployed on the industry’s premise. As a result, very little data was clocked, and the main focus was on data visualizations only.

With the advancement in technologies and the onset of the digital world, the focus has shifted to cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and IIoT platform. Due to these changes, the industrial engineering services teams expect data historians to have enhanced data wrangling capabilities.

This includes data identification, metadata addition, data relationship mapping, and dataset mobilization to various servers.

The old and standard data aggregation process has become obsolete. Product engineering services teams are looking for end-to-end data management and digital transformation services.

How HISTORIAN Improve the OEE

OEE, overall equipment effectiveness, is a benchmark to quantify manufacturing productivity. A 100% OEE score points to the fact that your industry produces high-quality products without any downtime.

Once the industrial processes are automated, the OEE benchmark will become more critical. Data historian is beneficial in improving OEE scores:

1. Bidirectional communication is possible with advanced data historians.
2. Data storage, processing, and analysis can be done in real-time. Thus, building and integrating machine learning models with batch analytics becomes easy.
3. 24X7 data access helps in monitoring the industrial equipment and creating real-time alerts.
   Data encryption technology makes the system safe.

How HISTORIAN is Dominating the next Gen Industrial Data

The data historian is evolving with technology innovations and industry requirements. Simple data storing in the 1970s has changed to data architecture and infrastructure.

As per the Industry 4.0 requirements, features like data integration, asset modeling, visualization, analysis, etc., should be part of industrial automation solutions.

The future of data historians has much more data crunching and analysis in store for it. In addition, operations data historians are challenging to work with and expensive to implement.

Moreover, they have limited visualization and analysis capabilities. These data historians are not scalable across multiple platforms also. Thus, it becomes difficult for the system to process large volumes of data.

The key technologies that future data historians need to incorporate are:
1.Data wrangling: Data is the new gold for industries. If data quality is terrible, extracting insights from it will be a painful task. Thus, data historians should have capabilities like data aggregation, data cleansing, data enrichment, etc.

2.Digital Twin: The digital twin concept is to replicate the industry’s processes and products virtually. The virtual world provides the capability to model a product’s attributes based on the data associated with it.

3.Blockchain: It is a record-keeping technology that facilitates transactions through decentralized networks. No central authority can control the data in the blockchain ecosystem. Thus, the data remains safe and secure.

4.OPC UA: It is the primary communications protocol for Industry 4.0. OPC UA enables hassle-free communication between heterogeneous machines. This technology saves a lot of time and reduces costs for industries in collecting and sharing data for analysis.

The takeaway

The automation journey for industries isn’t a straightforward path. There are a lot of features that need to be incorporated into the Industry 4.0 framework. Utthunga takes pride in introducing its highly skilled team to handle automation for industrial engineering services.

This team can support digital transformation consulting and Testing as a service automation product. So, if you are interested in hiring a consultancy for industrial automation services, you can reach out to our team for a discussion.