This blog series is posted once a month and focuses on the following: Manufacturing Technology and Innovation, IoT, Industry 4.0, Cluster development and other relevant trends and topics of importance to Small to Medium-sized manufacturers.
This month we’ve hand picked articles for manufacturers that cover cybersecurity, the deliberate and careful path manufacturers are taking when it comes to digital transformation and using IIoT to extend the life of your assets.
How Predictable Maintenance Approaches Extend Lifecycles
In “How Predictable Maintenance Approaches Extend Lifecycles“, Greg Kryshtalowych from Ingersoll Rand outlines the three maintenance levels manufacturers should achieve when implementing IIoT solutions. The ultimate goal is to acheive what’s called predictive maintenance. This is where sensor data being gathered on the performance of an asset (for example an air compressor) is compared to historical data from that asset and/or similar assets in real time. If a certain thresholds is passed the IIoT system will issue an alert. Not mentioned in the article, but important, is IIoT can allow manufacturers to optimize the performance of their assets.
RELATED: IIoT: Shifting Mindsets and Models
Manufacturers are Behind in Industry 4.0—and for Good Reason
In “Manufacturers are Behind in Industry 4.0 for Good Reason“, Stephen Gold reports on a recent round table session where 18 manufacturers met with researches from the University of Indiana to talk about AI and digitization. Two unsurprising insights that came out of the session was that manufacturers are very cautious on making changes and are comfortable with taking this position. It’s their view that tech consultants and IT solution providers don’t have a clear understanding of the manufacturing sector especially when it comes to adopting techonology in the OT side of the business. Operating technologies in place today are stable, dependable and trusted. Introducing digitization, digital twins and articifial intelligence into the operating environment of a manufacturer has to be done slowly and in stages.
StatsCan Says Businesses Spent $14B on Cybersecurity in 2017
An interesting CBC article that claims 1 in 5 companies in Canada were hit with a cyberattack in 2017. The most common attack was the attempt to steal money or demand a ransom payment. An attack resulted, on average 23 hours of downtime per company with those with over 250 employees twice as likely as small ones being attacked.
