Maintenance: A design for life

Industry 4.0 is the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems (physical processes integrated with computation and IT networks), cloud computing and the IoT. It also underpins ‘smart manufacturing’, also known as Factory 4.0, in terms of optimising all production processes. But where does the maintenance of plant and equipment fit into Factory 4.0? 

Clearly, it is important for maintenance engineers to be armed with the most appropriate information – pertinent to the job in hand and which also draws from a data pool that is shared with all stakeholders responsible for the continued and cost-effective functioning of the machine. Those sharing the data pool will typically include design/systems engineers, the purchasing department, the OEM of the machine and/or its specific sub-systems and component distributors.

Helping, but far from a panacea, is that many engineering departments store their design data within their organisation’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system; which will be focused on business processes rather than engineering data management. Accordingly, complementary solutions are often used. These include tools for Product Lifecycle Management, Product Data Management, Material Requirement Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning and Document Management Systems.

However, these are all point solutions within an overall environment which itself tends to be fragmented. By this, I mean the level of integration needed for Factory 4.0 is simply not yet present; as evidenced by how much of a typical engineer’s time is spent on core engineering activities. Earlier this year, Zuken commissioned a study into the management of design data, as used to support the specific requirements of electrical and electronic engineering. Some 163 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were interviewed. On average, respondents stated that only about half (55%) of their time is spent on core engineering tasks. The full study is available, free of charge, from www.zuken.com/PLM-report

Addressing an imbalance

Thankfully, this alarming imbalance stands to be addressed as Factory 4.0 rolls out and processes and mindsets change. For example, in most cases, a design engineer owns the design data (e.g. schematics) and the production data for a new machine, or one being maintained. The production data will include a Bill of Materials (BOM). It makes more sense though for the BOM to exist within a central Materials Management tool. 

Decisions made at the corporate, divisional or project level will govern how components (preferred and alternatives) in the BOM map to the machine schematics. Also, suppliers, such as component distributors, will feed data into the same tool, automatically providing last-time-buy notices in relation to obsolescence forecasts. This will raise flags against all affected designs. 

In addition, maintenance will be planned at the design stage. Most of the data used for machine assembly exists on the engineers’ ECAD and MCAD systems. Better use should be made of that.

Granted, designing for maintenance will require greater up-front effort but that will be more than offset by the long-term benefits of greater efficiency when servicing machines and the mitigation of risks (errors) during plant upgrades. As for ‘maintenance of the design’, it can be automated through engineering data management between ECAD/MCAD tools, the ERP system, and any of the point solutions mentioned above.

In conclusion, provided all stakeholders have access to the most relevant view of live data for their activities, then machine maintenance and plant upgrades will be greatly simplified.