Whitepaper: Stay Ahead of the Curve with Digital Transformation

Real-life plants need real-life plans.

Plants often run continuously, with regular shift changes of the workforce. It is essential that the current shift is aware of any issues that arise in the course of operation, so there is a critical need for communication at shift changes. It is here that, in an ad hoc or verbal communication process, important handover details can be missed. A lack of quality communication can have a direct impact on safety, plant efficiency and production quality.

PPM: truly manage your processes.

Plant Process Management (PPM) describes a system that allows manufacturing organizations to manage, monitor and optimize plant operations around work activities and production assets. A fully implemented PPM system provides a real-time view of work procedures and tasks. This also includes the recording and status of any incidents or outliers to normal plant operation.

The requirements met by PPM apply to any type of plant, regardless of the amount of IoT instrumentation, machine learning (ML) or predictive maintenance in place. Knowledge can be ingested and analyzed from any human contact point in a process.

IIoT is not everything: account for the human factor.

In the drive toward Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) over the past few years, the greatest focus has been on instrumenting machinery. Now, industrial enterprises need to instrument the people tasked with using and managing machinery in the overall process, too.

As the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, consistent capture of team-to-team communication became a must-have: irregular work patterns emerge for individuals due to isolation and social distancing measures. This puts added pressure on safe operations.

About the Author

Ian Hughes is a Senior Analyst for the Internet of Things practice at 451 Research. He has 30 years

of experience in emerging technology as a developer, architect and consultant through key technology trends. Ian has 20 years of experience at IBM in cross-industry application development. This included automotive, global sporting events, retail and telecommunications.

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