Key points
Smart factories of the future are not an amorphous idea. It is a fully formed reality, answering the real challenges of today while securing a sustainable future. Manufacturers stuck in the cultures and technologies of yesterday will quickly find themselves left behind. In short, the future is now.
There are plenty of reasons why factories need to accelerate evolution. Green manufacturing is no longer a nice-to-have; achieving net zero is a global priority. Over 64% of large industrial companies say reducing their carbon footprint is a top-three priority for the next year.
However, it's not just sustainability goals that demand innovation. Cost and efficiency savings are a must at a time of continued supply chain disruption. Anything that causes unnecessary expenditure or delay can impact long-term resilience, growth, and competitiveness irrevocably. And, with the constant threat of cyberattacks, factories must be able to match innovation with digital protection.
With such a range of challenges to master, it might feel like the only answer is to start from scratch. Not so.
Smart Factories: A three-faceted approach
Building brand-new smart factories isn't the answer to our current challenges. Access to greenfield sites is limited, and it is both practical and sustainable to take existing brownfield infrastructure and retrofit to future-proof. The question is, how can existing factories be updated to meet these expectations? Where to start?
The Flint smart factory in Wales brings to life a three-stage approach manufacturers can use to realise this challenge. Schneider Electric's Flint factory is more than 30 years old and manufactures PVC trunkings for domestic and international markets. Much of the machinery was outdated and analogue. The site was the highest energy consumer of all Schneider Electrics factories in the UK, and it was also a significant user of water.
Therefore, the site was seen as an opportunity to create a smart factory. This involved retrofitting the factory rather than removing and replacing machinery, allowing us to maximise efficiency and minimise downtime.
As the UK's first Schneider Electric smart factory, Flint provides a model for revolutionising ageing infrastructure to deliver operational effectiveness and sustainability. It started with painting a complete picture, using an auditing tool that enabled prioritisation of modernisation strategies. This included:
1. Low voltage auditing
Factory infrastructure is increasingly complex, and responsibility for sustainability is often unclear or siloed. The first step in any such project is ensuring that you have a complete view of your installed base. This isn't just a matter of listing what you have, VSDs, PLCs, HMIs, UPS's, etc, it is about critically auditing how important they are to your operation, or are they obsolete?
The first step is low voltage inventory mapping, contextualising plant assets in a unified view of all automation inventory. From here, it is essential to assess the lifecycle status of those assets; do you have a maintenance plan? Have you got spare parts? What risk do they present to the business?
Flint suffered from aged, obsolete equipment from multiple vendors. At Flint, full audit information was digitised enabling visibility over the installed base. This enabled several next steps; modernisation of the existing LV installed base as required, digitalisation of the start of shift system, the addition of smart metering, smart lighting, remote monitoring, and an AR augmented manual to make repair easier while allowing staff to know they have spare parts in stock.
2. Single line to electrical distribution
The second facet of preparing for the future factory is understanding the Electrical Distribution System. At Flint, a confusing paper system had resulted in an outdated, unreliable, and uncontrollable network.
Work was undertaken to digitise the Single Line Diagram (SLD) with an intelligent digital model with full visibility. This enabled the creation of a digital twin, to assist with fault finding during maintenance activities, Root Cause Analysis and enable change modelling.
3. Security in the digital factory
Manufacturers are at risk from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks such as ransomware and malware.
While Flint was cyber secure in general operations, it had not yet embraced IoT technologies, therefore, it lacked policy and procedure to ensure safety across connected assets.
However, cybersecurity must come first in realising the benefits of increased connectivity and date-led automation. A comprehensive audit, based on the International Electrotechnical Commission's standard 62443 and developed to secure industrial automation and control systems, must form the basis of this strategy. This should be paired with expert analysis to identify risks, prioritise gaps and recommend steps for remediation.
Now, Flint is a fully digitised factory, where every machine is connected. This could only be achieved with a robust foundation of cybersecurity that includes anomaly detection, using AI and machine learning.Â
Knowledge sets the path to the greater good
Starting the journey to retrofitting factories of the future begins with a deep understanding of the details of now. Smart auditing leads to sustainable strategies that deliver across objectives. Despite a 20% decrease in demand in 2020 due to COVID-19, Flint's operational efficiency improved by 5% compared to 2019 levels and productivity increased by 4% – the latter representing £240,000 in savings alone.
However, the transformation also delivered a range of sustainability benefits. Water consumption was halved while improvements to efficiency associated with the installation of variable speed drives, smart panels, and other technological solutions led to a 15% decrease in electricity (KW/h) usage compared to 2019.
Without understanding the present, industry cannot meet their carbon reduction targets. Worryingly, just 29% have started measuring energy use and identifying energy waste. Similarly, only a third claim to have mapped their entire carbon footprint, while one in six have not yet done any mapping of their carbon emissions at all.
While businesses have the appetite and enthusiasm for future-proof sustainability, many are sitting with a blank sheet of paper. Right now, when futureproofing is a must-act strategy, knowledge is power – information and insight is your greatest asset.
