IIoT-enabled monitoring systems can collect and leverage data generated by legacy equipment, and implementing these systems has never been easier. Banner Engineering explains how in five simple steps using products available at RS.
Luke Karnas, Director of Global Business Development – IIoT, Banner Engineering
For decades, factory managers have used some of the data available from their equipment to monitor performance, detect problems, determine optimal maintenance intervals, and minimize unplanned production interruptions. The process for leveraging that data has traditionally involved manually gathering data from sensors, tabulating or graphing it to reveal trends, and comparing these trends to the original equipment specifications, and although this process can provide actionable information, it is labor-intensive, tedious, and error prone. Thankfully, alternative solutions to manual data collection and analysis are now abundant and include numerous plug-and-play IIoT products designed to quickly, easily, and effectively upgrade legacy equipment and provide valuable new insights into factory operations. To modernize and enhance your factory’s operations using the abundance of accurate data that today’s IIoT tools can provide, simply follow these five steps:
- Identify actionable data provided by existing equipment
- Leverage the actionable data available to you
- Add sensors to capture additional actionable data
- Convert your data to a single unified communication protocol
- Deliver actionable data to applicable factory personnel
1. Identify Actionable Data Provided by Existing Equipment
One of the first things that factory managers need to do to modernize and streamline factory operations with IIoT tools is to identify the actionable data that’s already available through their existing equipment. There are two types of data available:
- Equipment Data indicates the state of a piece of equipment and can reveal characteristics including pressure, temperature, speed, and vibration.
- Process Data indicates the operational status of the process that the equipment is driving.
Equipment Data
Process data allows factory managers to monitor process disruptions, which can result from equipment failures or scheduled downtime as well as from process variables including material supply shortages and equipment malfunctions, such as conveyor jams. This type of data is often indicated by tower lights used to provide local personnel with process status updates. When employed in factories that rely on manual data collection and analysis, process data can indicate that a machine is operating correctly, out of materials, or stopped for some other reason. When employed in factories equipped with IIoT tools, process data can be used to trend the downtime of all machines based on tower light status updates, compare machine downtime data, and prioritize the maintenance and repair of underperforming machines to increase efficiency.
IIoT Implementation
Early approaches to implementing IIoT-enabled monitoring systems often called for the replacement of all existing sensors, indicator lights, and other control devices. Such approaches were exceedingly expensive and wasteful of perfectly good sensors and devices, and the extensive equipment amendments they promoted introduced significant risk of extended downtime. Newer approaches to implementing IIoT-enabled monitoring systems often involve accessing the data stored inside the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used to control the system or the human-machine interfaces (HMIs) embedded within equipment, which is solidly preferable to earlier approaches. However, these approaches typically require modifying devices that are built into the equipment and, as such, can also introduce additional risk in terms of equipment performance and uptime.
Today, IIoT suppliers including Banner Engineering offer a different, easier-to-install, and less invasive approach to implementing IIoT tools and accessing the actionable data in the factory. This approach taps into the data generated by existing devices by creating an overlay network that operates in parallel with existing device infrastructure, and it minimizes disruptions when upgrading equipment because the existing control system doesn’t change. For example, Banner’s Snap Signal portfolio is a complete, easily deployable, plug-and-play line of modular IIoT hardware and software designed to deliver actionable machine data from throughout your factory. The line offers IIoT tools including an industrial controller and in-line converters, adapters, and filters, and these solutions serve as the basis for its Snap Signal overlay network, which captures data from virtually any source, seamlessly converts all collected data to a single industry-standard protocol, and distributes the data to provide timely, accurate, and actionable insights into factory equipment and processes.
2. Leverage the Actionable Data Available to You
Look at the devices currently gathering data from your machines and consider whether the data is useful or needed. For example, while every sensing point may not be valuable, some certainly are. It’s also important to look beyond sensors. For instance, if your control panels have indicator lights that tell local operators if something is wrong, that is actionable data you can leverage by implementing an IIoT-enabled monitoring system capable of capturing and analyzing the machine data, trending how often a specific condition presents itself, and making that data accessible to personnel with the power to improve performance.
Unlocking the data generated by your existing equipment and devices is often as simple as adding splitter connections designed to monitor transmitted signals without any interference or interruption. Many sensors are already equipped with M12 connectors compatible with splitter connections and, if not, it’s quick, easy, and economical to add a field wireable one.
If you’re using Snap Signal solutions, one branch of the splitter will stay connected to the PLC and the other branch will connect to the Snap Signal overlay network. The Snap Signal hardware and software will then convert existing sensor signals to a single unified protocol and transmit the data to an edge device used to monitor equipment conditions in the cloud or distribute the data to a SCADA control system or a dedicated PLC.
3. Add Sensors to Capture Additional Actionable Data
The execution of steps one and two may reveal that there are points you’d like to monitor that don’t currently have sensors installed. For instance, you might decide that monitoring the vibration and temperature characteristics of an electric motor could give you better, more accurate insights into predictive maintenance scheduling. And if you’re using an overlay network approach to IIoT implementation rather than an approach designed to access the data stored inside of the PLCs and HMIs already embedded within your equipment, you could do so by simply adding a temperature sensor to the electric motor and connecting it to the overlay network rather than by integrating new I/O points into your PLC.
4. Convert Your Data to a Single Unified Communication Protocol
Much of the equipment in a factory has its own unique set of communication protocols, which makes it difficult to comprehensively monitor and analyze existing equipment. This scenario is another instance in which the overlay network approach to IIoT implementation really shines, as enabling hardware solutions like those in Banner’s Snap Signal portfolio can unify these various signals in a single communication protocol like IO-Link or Modbus to provide users with access to actionable data generated by a combination of legacy equipment and new monitoring equipment. For example, Snap Signal in-line signal converters require little to no configuration, are quick and easy to install using M12 connectors on either end, and seamlessly convert signals like 0–10 VDC analog to a serial protocol.
Once you identify the various signal types present in your factory and install corresponding converters to capture, unify, and transmit the signals as a common serial protocol, you can create your overlay network by connecting the various signal sources together via cable networks equipped with tees and M12 connectors. At that point, all of your factory data can be fed to an industrial controller capable of transmitting the data to locations optimized for data consumption and analysis, such as cloud dashboards, SCADA systems, or HMIs.
5. Deliver Actionable Data to Applicable Factory Personnel
Once your new IIoT-enabled monitoring system is up and running, providing you with comprehensive access to the full suite of actionable data generated by your newly modernized factory, you can use that information to implement continual process and efficiency improvements. Examples include:
- Using sensor data to monitor raw material levels and proactively schedule refills.
- Using sensor data from input, reject, and output lines combined with data about machine uptime to monitor overall equipment effectiveness.
- Monitoring vibration, temperature, and motor current data to predict when hydraulic power units will require maintenance.
- Remotely monitoring tank levels.
- Using vibration, temperature, level, and pressure sensor data to monitor the condition of dust collection systems.
Getting Started
Transforming a traditional factory into a smart factory was once a complex and risky process, but the introduction of overlay network approaches to IIoT implementation has made the process significantly easier and less expensive. Flexible, brand agnostic overlay network solutions like Banner’s Snap Signal portfolio are quick and easy to implement at any point in the data chain and are ideal for modernizing legacy equipment, integrating new equipment, and leveraging that comprehensive collection of data to unlock your factory’s true potential. Banner products and solutions are designed and built to meet and exceed industry standards, are backed by more than 50 years of proven performance, and are available through RS, which also offers a well experienced technical support team happy to help you identify and deploy the products you need to modernize your factory.
