Common challenges in Industry 4.0
29/03/2023 Farnell Electronic Services
There are many benefits to be gained from adopting Industry 4.0, but there are also many challenges as companies try to surmount the technical, organisational and managerial hurdles that the transition can entail.
People and organisation
One of the major initial challenges in adopting Industry 4.0 is not so much the technology itself but the people and processes required to adopt it. The challenges begin at the planning and strategizing stages. The first requirement is to adopt a good change management solution that establishes clear expectations for the project and clear communications at all levels throughout the business.
It is also important that different sites or departments also have a cohesive idea of what the plans, expectations and end result are in order to avoid confusion and delay.
Massimiliano Cifalitti (pictured), ABB Smart Power’s Hub Division manager, Europe, agrees that the mindset of company staff at all levels is the biggest challenge.
“Leaders in general should create the vision and lead cultural change in their organization. There are three main values that a manager should always take care to nurture. Curiosity: because the team needs to embrace innovation to change the status quo. Courage: because the team and their manager need to take risks, while also remaining in control. And competence: because existing skills will be tested, and new skills will be required that have to be learned.”
It is not uncommon for staff at industrial sites to lack some of the skills necessary for network design and are not always able to accomplish the adoption of the latest technologies such as cloud computing. Data security is another concern and may discourage some companies from adopting Industry 4.0 solutions.
There is also the issue of industry being slow to adopt new technology, perhaps due to fears that it will disrupt production. The ‘life blood’ of any manufacturing plant is keeping the plant running and keep production going at almost any cost. If a plant’s not running, it’s not earning.
In addition, there is the fear of adopting a new technology too early. Being an early adopter carries too much risk for many companies, who prefer a wait and see attitude while other users shake out the early bugs and make it more mature.
Matt Dentino, of Farnell partner Advantech, addressed this concern: “These days, an initial run of a new technology is far more robust, far more safety aware, and far more security conscious. We're taking the technology and we're breaking it into digestible components. The Gartner Group did a study that said by 2025, there are going to be over 50 billion connected devices out there in the industrial space. That suggests that people are getting over their early adoption fears.”
Identifying the problem
Another vital challenge is to identify the problem that Industry 4.0 is meant to solve. Many industrial companies do not have a clear idea of what their problem is or how Industry 4.0 can be used to help resolve it.
Are they trying to solve a problem with delivery, costs, quality, the tools they are using, or the performance they are achieving? Many companies do not have a roadmap and don't have the in-house experience to deploy the appropriate solution. Critically, most don't have a champion within the organization willing to own and drive the strategy.
Alexandra Rangel is a National PowerXpert Application Engineer from the power components division of Eaton, a Farnell partner: “Most of the time, it's not that a customer, client, or an industry can't find a solution, it's deciding how to set themselves up in a way that enables them to think quite strategically, with maybe small, incremental projects in mind at the start, but where scalability makes it easy to gain maximum effect?
“They are asking, ‘How do I capture my data? How do I visualize that data? Am I finding any patterns that will optimize my plan today? If they're really advanced in Industry 4.0, they’ll be asking, ‘How do I make clever and autonomous decision-making part of that process?
“They are also asking, ‘What can I do in my factory design and operation that helps me become more effective, not just in the capital planning phase, but the operational phase?’ For example, like reducing waste? Overall, getting ready for an Industry 4.0 transition requires answers to almost all – or more - of those questions.”
Technical aspects
From a technical perspective, there are also barriers that need to be overcome. Particularly in brownfield applications, where it is often not easy to create data connectivity networks and deep sensor installations, which are fundamental for Industry 4.0 systems.
Integration has often been a problem in the past. How do you get data from a machine to where you need it? Previously, data analysis was always done on a server, or in a maintenance shed, or a maintenance office, but getting data to the analysis site was difficult when data collection was based on handheld data collectors taking readings off equipment in the field.
Matt Dentino of Advantech says: “There are lots of different types of technologies, from vibration analysis and acoustic analysis, oil analysis, thermographic analysis, all needing different pieces of equipment or different handheld devices. You may have many remote sites or manufacturing plants that span large areas under one roof.
“In either case, collecting all that data was an issue because of the lengths of the cable needed, permanently mounting transducers at remote sites, and then running a wire back to a central repository was always costly. Miniaturized equipment enabled people to capture data on site, but those devices themselves were a cost, and still required people to operate them and transfer the collected data.”
This situation has improved with the rise of wireless connectivity technologies such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT and using 5G to provide virtual private networks that can cover a manufacturing site.
IT/OT misalignment
One of the areas that modern companies struggle with is the integration of traditional operational technology (OT) with more modern information technology (IT). An IT/OT convergence seeks to bring physical OT equipment and devices into the digital IT realm. This is made possible through machine-to-machine communication, as well as by using sophisticated IoT sensors and actuators that can be fitted to physical equipment.
When implemented properly, this convergence of the two domains can help business processes, insights and controls merge into a single, consistent technology environment, but it has to be carefully thought through to ensure seamless interoperability, potential scalability and, often, future proofing.
Barry Turner (pictured), Technical Business Development Manager of Red Lion Controls, says: “I would say that IT/OT misalignment is one of the most common potential pitfalls of those looking to move to an Industry 4.0-style environment. By adding an IT or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space to your environment or within your organization, you're really attempting to expand and improve an existing IoT framework. That’s because your IT department already has an Internet of Things that they're using to make devices and processes communicate with each other.
“What you're trying to do in the move to Industry 4.0 is connect the OT data with the existing IoT framework. That means that the IT department and the OT department must be properly aligned on security policies and priorities. These things need to be hammered out at the very beginning so that both are working in tandem to ensure success of the project.”
Turner also underlines the need for manufacturers to have a clearly achievable goal in mind: “The other thing I often see is unclear expectations of what a company is trying to do. Just connecting the OT data with the IT data won’t necessarily work or solve a problem. From the start, companies need to identify exactly what problem they are trying to solve, what benefits they expect to gain and how they will measure success. Only after that is when they should start the process of transformation.”
Conclusion
Making use of IoT and Industry 4.0 in a manufacturing environment has the potential to deliver great benefits, but it also poses great challenges. Establishing the right mindset and deciding exactly how Industry 4.0 can be used to solve a perceived problem is the first stage. Other challenges include integrating data sensors, getting the right connectivity and getting data to where it needs to be. Converging operational technology with information technology is also a challenge.
Manufacturers keen to take advantage of the benefits of Industry 4.0 need to ask if they have the right partners who can help with the transition and ensure they take the right pathway to an optimized facility. Major suppliers of Industry 4.0 solutions such as Red Lion, Eaton and Schneider, whose products are available through Farnell, can help manufacturers meet these challenges and make Industry 4.0 work for them.
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