FMCG companies are under constant pressure to produce more for less, but often have limited budgets in terms of adopting new technologies. Retail World spoke with technology experts from the Open IIoT Group at CEBIT 2019 and asked: what area of technology do you believe would give them the biggest bang for their buck? That is, where should they be investing?
Here’s what SMC Corporation Digital Transformation Leader Jozef Ceh had to say.
“It’s been determined through various studies that compressors contribute about 60 to 65 per cent of the energy usage on any manufacturing site. Over the past few years, SMC has been heavily invested in researching and developing components focused on reducing the compressed air usage without sacrificing integrity of the product or output and functionality. Any manufacturing site will most likely have compressed air, and we can look at how we can optimise the compressed air usage without sacrificing the functionality, or the integrity of the machine.
“That area of focus combined with monitoring in place. It’s about installing the right sensors; like, pressure sensors, flow meters, etc. Combine that with a data management system that could capture that kind of data. That gives us a lot of good data in terms of analytics. We can then start logging that data into quite an extensive database and create a profile of the site. Generally, we call that a compressed air profile. That tells quite a large story in terms of how the site’s performing and how much air it’s using. What it does eventually, is tells us how to manage air consumption as well and what areas need further focus and improvement as well. It gives us our capacity as well in terms of throughput, and in terms of delivering the product as well.”
Explore advice from other experts
- Zi-Argus Industry 4.0 Operations Manager Richard Roberts
- Beckhoff Senior Technical Sales Engineer John Wan
- Balluff National Business Development Manager Robert Prince
- NORD Drivesystems Director Max Jarmatz
About Open IIot
Open IIoT can help customers implement an Industry 4.0 solution which will leave their business smarter, leaner and more profitable. Stay in touch with the group by visiting www.openiiot.com.au or following them on www.linkedin.com/company/open-iiot-australia.