Access to the World for Machinery Manufacturers.
The connectivity of controllers has generated new business models in the OEM sector, new opportunities and services, but also new risks.
Some time ago, before the new technological paradigms flooded everything, a client explained to me the first applied success story of what we know today as Business Intelligence for business development. The client in question is a manufacturer of machinery for the production of brass parts and at that time produced between 8 and 10 machines per year for the whole world.
What allowed them to make a leap in the sale of their machinery was having the vision to give connectivity to the controllers of the best-selling ones to collect the production/operation data of their clients’ machines. After the first year, they analyzed the data collected and identified which clients had the machines producing at more than 90% of their capacity.
The analysis of this information allowed them, with numbers in hand, to show their clients that if they wanted to continue growing, they should acquire another of their machines. That same year, annual sales increased by 14 machines, and the following year they continued to grow, and the following…
This small real story reflects the evolution that the OEM market has had at the Spanish level. The economic crisis pushed this sector to open up to the world and look beyond our borders where, fortunately, we have shown that we are very competitive. Currently, the OEM sector is the third that exports the most part of its production (close to 80%), only behind the pharmaceutical sector and naval construction.
However, this growth also implies a change of mentality in the business model, but in addition, new risks have appeared due to distance – maintenance – and interoperability – connection with tools not common in Spain/Europe -. To all this must be added the new requirements requested by factories aligned with the new paradigms of Industry 4.0.
Therefore, the use of communication platforms is more than ever a necessity and an opportunity.
It is a necessity because today it is unthinkable that a factory element, or a complete machine, is not available and visible by its SCADAs, whether for the visualization and control of the industrial process, the historization of the data or the study of KPIs.
Another point to take into consideration in this data flow is its fit in the planning of factory networks and the system architecture, will the data be only vertical? or also horizontal? how many systems are going to need them? And that derives in a logical concern for cybersecurity, who has access to that information? can it be obtained illicitly? Therefore, e n a time when interoperability and security are no longer optional – nor will they be again – OPC UA emerges as an industrial standard protocol. Also the OEM world.
But an adequate communication platform is not only a mandatory tool, it can also open the way to new opportunities or to provide a better service, as we explained in the story at the beginning.
Evidently, being able to verify that the data is secured reassures the end client so that they allow access to it, which allows exploring new business opportunities or contributing even more value as a company.
The case of preventive maintenance is the clearest. In the OEM ecosystem the motto is clear, repeatability. Try as much as possible to always make the same machine, with the same components, with the same programming. This allows that, with time, to be able to study the operating patterns of each machine model, detecting which are the typical points of failure.
This entails other advantages: improving the machine to make a new version, remote actions, assessing the quality of the material from suppliers… without forgetting the new tools that are gradually being introduced in the market such as Augmented Reality and Artificial Vision, paradigms that will have a great impact on the use of machinery.
Therefore, in this sector where selecting a component of the machine is always studied carefully, the use of an appropriate communication platform is considered indispensable. Its use is no longer an expense, but the investment that opens the door to minimizing risks, maximizing quality, a better service offer and a greater knowledge of the client, that is, to more business.
