Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
Melville went to sea to drive off his “hypos”. For the same reason I spend time speaking with manufacturing end users. Too much of everybody’s time is spent attending briefings or meetings or [sales] presentations that may be smooth running, but they are often so heavily loaded with buzzwords, clichés, and corporate biz-speak it can be difficult to parse out the substance of the message. Industry analysts are as guilty of this as anybody, I confess. But spending time with end users is a great antidote...and much easier than a whaling voyage.
During the past few weeks I’ve been interviewing major plant owner-operators as part of a research project on IIoT here at ARC. They talked about their practices for condition monitoring and maintenance of their critical production equipment (such as turbines, compressors, motors, pumps, etc.). At the same time some of my ARC colleagues spoke with equipment OEMs and suppliers on the same topics. End user practices varied all over the map. But I did take away a few things from our conversations. Here are the things that struck me as the most important:
It’s about reliability - OEMs know their stuff when it comes to their own equipment, which makes them very helpful partners. BUT, from the end user perspective the end objective is production reliability. Any component that can reduce their ability to produce reliably, at capacity, and at quality is a critical component; no matter how big or small, or smart or stupid that component is. End users are always thinking first about reliability, and that means they see their whole production as a process rather than just a set of assets.
Size matters - The smaller or less numerous the asset base, the more difficult it is for end users to invest in infrastructure for reliability. There is more than capital investment required. To drive serious improvements, scarce human resources need to be committed as well. This seems to be the most difficult part and one that keeps SMEs from the level of investment that larger firms can make.
Organization matters - Even in very large enterprises, the form of organization may limit the opportunity for investment in reliability through IIoT. If production responsibility is spread across several siloed organizations, none of them may have the scale required to achieve economies, and because they are highly autonomous, these organizations may have a difficult time collaborating (co-investing, really) on projects. This seems a shame, but it illustrates that there is no perfect organization chart.
Equipment OEMs are key partners - Besides their deep domain expertise, end users are giving more and more responsibility for asset reliability to their OEMs. The more diverse and specialized the equipment, the more likely it is that the OEM is deeply involved in keeping it performing well. I can’t see anything that might change this trend for a long time.
GIGO - The ancient maxim “garbage in, garbage out” has not been entirely repealed in the age of the IIoT, according to the end users I spoke with. This area may not sound as glamorous as, say, Digital Twins (buzzword - sorry!), but end users say they spend too much time figuring out why their analytics are “lying” to them. I’m not sure how to apportion the blame among measurement, data collection, historians, and analytics, but there seems to be enough to go around.
ARC will publish a client report soon with more on this topic. Until then may your hypos all be small.
-- Herman Melville; Moby-Dick, Chapter 1 - Loomings
Melville went to sea to drive off his “hypos”. For the same reason I spend time speaking with manufacturing end users. Too much of everybody’s time is spent attending briefings or meetings or [sales] presentations that may be smooth running, but they are often so heavily loaded with buzzwords, clichés, and corporate biz-speak it can be difficult to parse out the substance of the message. Industry analysts are as guilty of this as anybody, I confess. But spending time with end users is a great antidote...and much easier than a whaling voyage.
During the past few weeks I’ve been interviewing major plant owner-operators as part of a research project on IIoT here at ARC. They talked about their practices for condition monitoring and maintenance of their critical production equipment (such as turbines, compressors, motors, pumps, etc.). At the same time some of my ARC colleagues spoke with equipment OEMs and suppliers on the same topics. End user practices varied all over the map. But I did take away a few things from our conversations. Here are the things that struck me as the most important:
It’s about reliability - OEMs know their stuff when it comes to their own equipment, which makes them very helpful partners. BUT, from the end user perspective the end objective is production reliability. Any component that can reduce their ability to produce reliably, at capacity, and at quality is a critical component; no matter how big or small, or smart or stupid that component is. End users are always thinking first about reliability, and that means they see their whole production as a process rather than just a set of assets.
Size matters - The smaller or less numerous the asset base, the more difficult it is for end users to invest in infrastructure for reliability. There is more than capital investment required. To drive serious improvements, scarce human resources need to be committed as well. This seems to be the most difficult part and one that keeps SMEs from the level of investment that larger firms can make. Organization matters - Even in very large enterprises, the form of organization may limit the opportunity for investment in reliability through IIoT. If production responsibility is spread across several siloed organizations, none of them may have the scale required to achieve economies, and because they are highly autonomous, these organizations may have a difficult time collaborating (co-investing, really) on projects. This seems a shame, but it illustrates that there is no perfect organization chart.
Equipment OEMs are key partners - Besides their deep domain expertise, end users are giving more and more responsibility for asset reliability to their OEMs. The more diverse and specialized the equipment, the more likely it is that the OEM is deeply involved in keeping it performing well. I can’t see anything that might change this trend for a long time.
GIGO - The ancient maxim “garbage in, garbage out” has not been entirely repealed in the age of the IIoT, according to the end users I spoke with. This area may not sound as glamorous as, say, Digital Twins (buzzword - sorry!), but end users say they spend too much time figuring out why their analytics are “lying” to them. I’m not sure how to apportion the blame among measurement, data collection, historians, and analytics, but there seems to be enough to go around.
ARC will publish a client report soon with more on this topic. Until then may your hypos all be small.