The UK, in some areas, is lagging behind the rest of Europe
in the race to automate. If manufacturers are to both bridge
the technology gap and move towards achieving what can
be termed OEE+E – or overall equipment effectiveness plus
energy efficiency, an holistic approach is needed. Jez Palmer
at Schneider Electric, explains

Alack of funds, aversion to risk and in
some cases, a lack of knowledge all
have a role to play in the reasons
behind the slow uptake of automation in the
UK. Combine this with pressures to reduce
carbon emissions and energy consumption
and manufacturers are finding themselves in
a very challenging situation.

Despite these issues, there is a strong
appetite for automation. With stricter targets
for CO2 emissions here to stay in the UK,
manufacturing industries need to take steps
to become more energy efficient in order to
meet these. Automation is a key ingredient to
attaining a sustainable plant, ensuring
flexible and resilient future growth and
achieving OEE+E. So why the hesitation?
The reason for the delay in uptake often lies
in how to modernise existing plant, which is
still deemed as overly daunting and one which
needs proper consideration and expert advice.

In recent years, rapid manufacturing
change has driven the need for higher
flexibility and speed with shorter product
lifecycles and shorter production runs. This
has presented a challenge to older
production lines where stand alone or dumb
control equipment lacks the intelligence
needed to alert or prevent abnormal
situations, breakdown or unscheduled
downtime, as well as the flexibility to expand
and adapt to the constantly evolving market.

The key to surmounting these challenges
– and to provide a solution which is in line
with the financial constraints of the UK
manufacturing industry – is to begin to
embrace open, future proof architectures.

UK manufacturers’ automation systems
have evolved over time, leaving them with a
multi-generation installed base which may not
be uniformly synchronised to meet today’s and
tomorrow’s needs, meaning complex decisions
have to be made. Not all parts of the control
legacy will need replacing and the real
challenge is achieving flexibility in solutions
that allow the manufacturer to preserve the
resources worth keeping.

Manufacturers need to conduct detailed
audits, address obsolescence challenges, review
lifecycle plans of their installed base products,
determine future goals for their plant and
develop an action plan for modernisation of
their control systems. When the installed base
is audited, it is easy to discover varying degrees
of maturity as well as multiple generations of
products and operating systems all potentially
controlling a single process. Systems develop
over time with modifications, upgrades and
expansions which may not be well
documented by the users and only become
apparent on closer inspection.

Working towards using technologies
which operate in an open and collaborative
production environment that embraces
standards and can address the full scope of
applications is essential. This will ensure that
the move from legacy to new solutions is
seamless as the technologies will fully
integrate and communicate with each other,
regardless of brand and age.

Enabling parts of a plant’s control assets to
be conserved in this way paves the way for a
step-by-step program of system migration to
integrate new technologies over time –
‘bridging’ the technology gap as opposed to a
complete and daunting system overhaul.

This also ensures costs of migration are kept
to a minimum for the manufacturer, due to a
gradual phased approach and costly downtime
being avoided through ease of integration.

New technologies, such as energy
monitoring systems, can then be integrated
over time within a plant, to generate an
holistic picture of the plant’s processes for
plant managers to streamline its activities in
line with peak energy times. This results in a
plant operating at a high level of OEE+E,
where each process can be harmonised to
provide the most effective production system
which is in-line with the current market
forces.

Dedicated solutions providers, like
Schneider Electric, are able to offer solid
project management and help operators
understand all levels of their system in order
to make these difficult decisions and
minimise costly downtime and risk.

It can seem daunting for a manufacturer
to consider these processes, but by
addressing the issues in detail and with a
little help from the experts, system migration
to an automated, open, energy efficient and
collaborative production environment is
achievable and logical. With the focus on
providing continuous operations, increasing
plant maintainability and efficiency, the
result is reduced energy wastage and lost
revenue, leaving users with manufacturing
flexibility that will stand the test of time.

Failure to bridge the gap and modernise
now will only leave a larger gap in the future
and a growing challenge for the UK
manufacturing industry to keep up with
Europe in the race to automate and maintain
valuable market share.