Making the Production Asset Lifecycle Smarter – Part 3

Authored by John Clemons, MESA Marketing Committee Chair, based on an interview with Ananth Seshan, MESA Model Sub-Committee Member 

One of the chapters of the new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model covers the production asset lifecycle and how we can make the production asset lifecycle smarter. Here’s a look at a few final smart ideas included on this topic in the new MESA Smart Manufacturing model.

Energy Intensity

Energy consumption is always a major cost of a production asset; however, more than energy consumption, energy intensity must be measured and optimized. Energy intensity is the metric that measures per unit energy consumption in the presence of varying production demand.

Traditionally, energy consumption is rarely tracked at the asset level and energy intensity is rarely calculated at the asset level. Usually because of the difficulty of getting the actual energy usage information for the asset.

With the advent of Smart Manufacturing, the IIoT, and Smart Sensors, it’s now possible to get energy consumption data and production data directly from the asset. This means that energy usage and energy intensity can be captured and calculated in real-time which provides the data to optimize the energy usage and energy intensity of an asset.

Maintenance Personnel

MTTR, mean time to repair, must be reduced. To achieve this, the repair must be performed effectively and efficiently. Most times, maintenance personnel identify the failure only after arriving at the asset, have to evaluate if spare parts are required, and then have to get them from the warehouse. Once the spare parts are replaced, the asset has to be tested and once it’s satisfactory, the maintenance personnel return to the main office to enter the records and close the work order.

With the advent of Smart Manufacturing practices, the above activities can be automated and a significant reduction in the time to repair can be achieved. Mobile apps can make the maintenance personnel aware of the maintenance problem along with the fault, or item that must be repaired, and the remedial actions to be taken, long before they arrive at the asset.

Additionally, Smart Manufacturing approaches such as online work instructions in the form of documents, drawings, videos, pictures, manuals, live stream connections to domain experts, and augmented reality technology can also significantly reduce time and effort during repair and all help reduce and optimize the MTTR metric.

Spare Parts

Spare parts are one of the keys to the smooth operation of the asset and to ensuring minimal latency during repair. While stock outs are not desirable, excessive or unnecessary storage of spare parts are also very costly.

With new Smart Manufacturing practices, the frequency of movement of spare parts can be monitored in real time. The optimal ordering of the spare parts can be triggered by the Smart Manufacturing application by reconciling the velocity of the movement of the spare parts against the available stock at any time, in real time.

These are the final smart ideas I wanted to mention that are included on the topic of the Production Asset Lifecycle in the new MESA Smart Manufacturing model.

Stay tuned for more looks at other chapters from the new MESA Start Manufacturing Model.

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