Published on: September 13, 2022
The fourth industrial revolution is here, and industry 4.0 has greatly influenced different industries. Industry 4.0 utilizes different modern and advanced technologies to establish a robust connection between the digital as well as physical systems. Top cement company Ultra Tech uses this technology & in their first year of operations they saved USD 1 Million, after basing 1755 use case on this platform*.
Industry 4.0 solution has brought opportunities to power up the overall productivity while lowering the environmental impact.
Cement producers utilise Industry 4.0 solutions and other digital tools, to bring out the efficiencies which are hidden to human eyes by capturing & leveraging the hidden data regarding critical asset performance.
Once these captured data are analysed for a period of time one can apply machine learning solutions to predict the desired output and predict the period of time will this asset will function.
This enables organisational movement from scheduled maintenance model to Predictive maintenance model. This increases the availability of these assets and at the same time cost of maintenance comes down.
One makes some very visible increases in the OEE one of the key cost factors for any organisation.
Industry 4.0- Enabler to greener production processes
The global cement industry, which is very energy-intensive and produces greenhouse gasses, is subject to strict rules as well as environmental constraints. On the other hand, energy consumption has become a primary issue for every cement manufacturer.
The cement-making process is quite complex, and the electricity and fuel requirements depend on different factors, like the method used to produce cement, quality of the cement, storage of materials, firing lines configurations, raw materials chemical composition, and more.
All these things can complicate energy optimization. However, industry 4.0, which combines IoT, Pi solutions for the cement industry, automation solutions, and more, is opening many new opportunities. Energy optimisation is the area where the data science is used most frequently.
The one biggest compliance issue for a manufacturer is the need for them to become water positive and ensure cleaner operations. The penalties are not only prohibitive but can also result in operation closure which is unthinkable for any investor.
Continuous data monitoring allows real time actionability and complete compliance in this.
Other direct beneficial outcomes of the data integration through creation of data lake having time stamped data capture are:
Aveva (technology partner of ecubix) has white paper which puts digital twin benefits as:
Digital twin solutions are transforming engineering projects:
o 3 minutes or less to find actionable asset information
o 2 months to deploy across the full business unit with a cloud solution
o 10% increased staff productivity
o 30% or more reduction in unplanned downtime
Source-https://engage.aveva.com/rs/986-YIS-805/images/Whitepaper_AVEVA_AIM_EmbracingDigitalTwinTech_22-07.pdf
Trusted engineering data is at the core of every successful digital twin. Engineering data provides the structure from which the twin can be created and allows 3D visualization. Using predictive quality models, cement producers can forecast cement quality with near to 100 percent accuracy in real-time.
Ecubix creates digital twins through linking the machines through innovatively using technologies like the internet of things, embedded data analytics, machine-learning algorithms, & Pi solution for the cement industry.
So, what are you thinking now? If you want to improve the production capacity while keeping your production cost and carbon footprint low, then it’s time to employ Industry 4.0. Besides, there will be greater visibility of every aspect of your business.