So, how’s digital transformation going? All digitally transformed?
All jokes aside, many organizations are finding that the results of their digital transformation efforts have created improvements across their organizations but have not delivered the true paradigm shift in performance, efficiency, and sustainability they were hoping for. Even with new digital technologies in place, many organizations are finding their disparate solutions are not providing game-changing results.
However, as Romeu Kleinubing shares in his recent article in Hydrocarbon Processing, the anticipated digital transformation step change is becoming more and more imperative. The world is changing, and operations and maintenance must change in parallel,
“Globalization has increased competition for nearly every manufacturer across the globe. Simultaneously, increased public, corporate and governmental pressure in almost every world area has driven a need for more sustainable operations that can demonstrate lower energy use, reduced emissions, and less waste. All these changes are coming to a head just as nearly every process manufacturing organization faces a global workforce shortage. The most experienced engineers and technicians are retiring in droves, taking their deep expertise around the plant’s assets and operations with them.”
So how does one level up from point solutions to global enhancement? A predictive maintenance plan founded in a boundless automation vision is the solution. When teams can seamlessly move contextualized data wherever it is needed—from the field to the edge to the cloud—they can make better decisions to truly improve performance and achieve the gains necessary to secure competitive advantage.
The right solutions are key
It all starts with selecting automation solutions designed for industrial environments and purposefully designed to seamlessly integrate. Emerson’s automation solutions support industry-standard protocols like WirelessHART, which are designed specifically for communication in a process plant environment. Critical sensing technologies like AMS Wireless Vibration Monitor and AMS Asset Monitor use WirelessHART for seamless interconnectivity and continuous reliability of operation. Moreover, they help teams ensure they can collect and use data far easier,
“Selecting sensors that use fit-for-purpose industrial protocols not only ensures more effective connectivity, it also helps reliability teams standardize across the many variables they monitor. Instead of having different protocols for vibration, pressure, flow, temperature, and other sensing devices, they have a single standard across all devices, making every variable easy to integrate into the same technology infrastructure.”
Data when and where you need it
Modern, integrated sensing technologies not only improve performance in industrial environments, but also provide improved data mobility. First and foremost, intelligent sensing devices in the field eliminate the need for plants to assign personnel to spend time collecting data via manual rounds. Not only do they ensure teams never miss data, but they also have a more reliable cadence of data, making it easier to track and trend performance and identify bad actors.
Moreover, some of those integrated sensing technologies, like the AMS Asset Monitor, provide additional value right at the device,
“These sensors apply embedded analytics to all readings to alert maintenance and reliability personnel to the most common faults in their assets, freeing analysts to focus their time on more complex issues.”
Small changes deliver big benefits—when they operate seamlessly
There’s no doubt that even the small, disparate automation solutions many plants added as they pursued digital transformation initiatives over the last decade brought value, but many also created additional silos of data. Truly transformative results require insights that are only available when contextualized data can move seamlessly from the intelligent field, through the edge, and into the cloud. Doing so is possible, even for small teams, when they implement predictive maintenance solutions designed to work together seamlessly as part of a boundless automation vision.
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