Digitization is an opportunity to transform your operations to solve your top challenges and meet your business goals; it is not just about upgrading production technology to reduce downtime risks.

That could mean deploying new digital technologies to gain more in-depth visibility into production, connect man and machine, and make operations more agile and responsive. The biggest challenge the companies face for digitization or modernization of the factory is identifying the starting point. With so many new technologies available at disposal with so many companies offering unique or similar technologies, it becomes a challenge for the company to covert the digitization project from concept to reality. We have also seen that digitization may not be the company's expertise looking to change the way they produce and consume energy for producing goods. The change is complex - time, money, and competencies can hinder the successful transformation of a digital factory.

Here are a few things to get started with digitization and implement it successfully.

Define the Objectives of Digitization.

Your organization's objectives should be the guiding principle for the digitization project. Improved energy efficiency, production efficiency or employee safety, reduced risk or better power quality, or reduced fines, there are many objectives that can be achieved with digitization, and priorities for all these are different for different companies. Most often, these priorities are set by financial impact and compliance. Have a clear road map on the priority and way to get started with your digitization journey.

Access the Operation Technology installed

Assess the current state of your operations and identify the installed technologies and where they are in their lifecycle. Look for I3.0 technologies (such as VFDs, Multifunction meters, PLCs, Sensors, and many more) and start with them. These devices communicate and can be seamlessly connected to one platform, such as Enture for data visualization and analytics. Build your notification on the go and as per the requirement of your factory.

Also, understand the other aspects of your operations that digitization will impact, like network capabilities, data usage, security, and staff skillsets.

Find the Right Digitization Partner

With the ever-changing technology landscape, the odds are good you will require a technology or digitization partner.

A digitization partner that offers end-to-end support can help you at any point in your digitization project. They help you identify the starting point and plan digitization use cases, assess your factory and help you identify the digitization readiness of the factory, and establish a financial justification for new investments required.

In one case, a wire drawing and cutting factory worked with Nebeskie to digitize the factory; the goal was to identify the production efficiency and improve energy efficiency.

We worked together to complete the project within their limited schedule of available downtime. As the first step, we connected the existing VFDs and Energy Meter to benchmark the factory's energy consumption.

The next step was to monitor the production and calculate the Specific Energy Consumption. SEC trend analysis and machine performance analysis helped the production team identify the areas of inefficiency and data-enabled them to pinpoint the pains and plan for efficiency.

When choosing your Digitization Partner, domain experience, IIoT & IT capabilities, and operation technology knowledge are key considerations.

Nebeskie Labs have experience in IT, OT, and IoT to help you successfully implement digitization. Our IoT Edge Platform - Enture connects with any OTs for data abstraction. We ensure local support to factories and buildings through a network of system integrators pan India and also the domain experts for your specific problems and requirements, such as power quality, motor performance analysis, etc.

Source: LinkedIn