(375e) What Makes Sensors the Basis of Any Digital Transformation?

Whether a brownfield or greenfield facility, a company manufacturing chemicals or food supplements or a 10-person startup versus a Fortune 500 company, businesses of all sizes and sectors can achieve a simple entry into the world of digital transformation. There’s the option to implement the full scope of the Digital Enterprise, simply pick individual digital applications that can get the digital journey started or to pick something in between. There’s not a single path that can be applied to everyone.

One of the focal points of Industry 4.0 is the ability to increase the availability of plant assets and to give on-site personnel quick and meaningful decision-making tools for their work where and when they need it. The objective is to make processing plants more reliable through proven products and innovative services and to be able to more dependably predict the condition of assets. Sensor data plays a critical part in this effort as they are the eyes and ears of the process. Combined with the wide availability of simple data collection solutions and multi-variable sensors powered by cloud computing, process information can now be analyzed to provide insights that was difficult to get just a few years ago.

The overall goal of the presentation will be to provide a solid understanding of the power of Industry 4.0, how process sensors support asset management and provide example of real, tangible solutions available today. Some of the concepts to be discussed in more detail include:

• Discuss various ways of gathering data at the field level to be used for gaining insights into the process
• How to bring plant and tag data into the field and to make optimal use of remote service capabilities to enable faster and more efficient maintenance
• Provide specific examples of how to use existing sensor data to provide insights that provide value in terms of improved predictive maintenance, less downtime and faster maintenance
• Briefly touch on the digital twin, 3D and simulation and how it impacts automation and process control