Machinery Manufacturers: a Great Opportunity.

The OEM sector is arguably the industrial sector that has evolved the most in recent years. Not only because it has improved as technologies have done so, but also because, due to the great opportunity that machinery export has represented, it has also incorporated new business models. Currently, it is not uncommon to find machinery manufacturers that complement their offer with services on their own machines.

The interesting thing about the current moment is that, hand in hand with the digitalization paradigms, two very interesting growth opportunities have appeared.

• The first is to monetize complementary services, optimizing costs in a way that was not possible until now.
• On the other hand, thanks to connectivity both at the access and device level, it is now possible to acquire and analyze data on the machines as a whole: With this information, calculation and data mining tools can be applied to extract conclusions that in turn improve the machine and generate more business.

For example, if we know which components are most likely to fail depending on the situation, we can anticipate the failure and prepare the new models with more robust elements. Another example, if we know that the client has the machine running 95% of the time, perhaps then they will be more willing to acquire another to solve this bottleneck in their production process.

The internal ecosystem of an OEM is a set of different departments focused on improving the machine, meeting deadlines and optimizing costs. All of them with their specific needs and responsibilities:

• Electrical engineering: team with the responsibility of reducing costs without affecting the quality of the product, always being up to date with the new trends and technological developments of the manufacturers.
• Control engineering: without a doubt, those most responsible for the great objective of an OEM, maximizing repeatability without losing flexibility. In addition, they must meet the growing requirements of customers regarding the integration of the machine with their installation.
• After-Sales: department that has grown in terms of weight and responsibility in recent years. This team must find ways to reduce or optimize associated costs without affecting the quality of service. In the same way, they must worry about being able to acquire the maximum information from the machine in operation for later analysis.
• R&D&I: also a growing team. Not only must they analyze the information and processes of the other departments to find improvements, but they must also process the data acquired to expand or add functionalities.

However, there is a point in common with all these departments. Any improvement must be easy to implement and have a rapid impact. Any change that does not have a rapid return must be rejected.

In this scenario of change, not only must the old needs continue to be resolved, but new needs are also being generated at all levels of machine improvement:

• Basic components, instrumentation, sensors, controllers and motion control: these are undoubtedly the layers where the differentiation of value is lower, since the products are becoming more and more similar. Curiously, in a moment of technological deployment like the current one, the value of these components is increasingly in the supplier and in the service it provides, not only at a technical level but also at the level of shipments, changes to mid-order, delivery times, spare parts, etc.
• Communications: after many years, the standardization of communications has prevailed worldwide. If the OEM customer wants to have total interoperability between the machine and its systems, communication standards must be used. Today, the industrial standard is the OPC protocol, but IoT protocols such as REST and MQTT are also increasingly being requested.
• Local interaction: currently, not only is an HMI required, but today a software is needed that, in addition to being the visual interface between the operators and the machine, is also independent of the PLC hardware – repeatability -, has the possibility of advanced logic and calculation, that integrates seamlessly with other systems and databases, that can run on different operating systems and, above all, is from a standard manufacturer. This last point will allow optimizing maintenance since, in case of need, it will not be necessary to move anyone from the team itself but it will be possible to count on local integrators and engineering to solve the problem.
• Connectivity: if you want to apply the data analytics mentioned above, you will need access to the deployed machines. For this, tools are required that provide that connectivity taking into account the client’s restrictions and ensuring that they are not a risk from the point of view of cybersecurity.
• Data analysis: without a doubt, the great challenge. To be really useful, a platform will be needed with the capacity to store, calculate and display values that allow supervising the set of installed machines regardless of the territory. And even more important, that the solution is also easy to use and implement and with the ability to generate high-value conclusions.

This opportunity should not catch the sector off guard, the challenge is great, but the growth opportunity is even greater. Without a doubt, this process will require great efforts of learning and improvement of the work teams to know new technologies and tools. Experience tells us that, to go far in times of change, not only are advanced tools needed, but also to go with trusted partners.

If you want to obtain more information about us or about our solutions focused on the OEM sector, do not hesitate to ask us for more information.

Access from here to other posts about OEMs:

• Remote Access for OEMs with Stridelinx.
• 5 steps to be seen as a smart OEM.