Automation World has been reporting on research into expected automation technology spending trends as the pandemic begins to wind down. Two articles published thus far from this research look at trends for the discrete and batch manufacturing industries, respectively. (Editor’s note: A full report on findings from the Automation World research into automation technology spending trends will be published in the August 2021.)
While reviewing the findings from the research focused on the continuous processing industry, we noticed that remote access technologies ranked among the top five for expected spending. It did not rank that highly for discrete manufacturers.
Josh Eastburn, director of technical marketing at Opto 22, suggests the reason is largely due to continuous process operations often being in hazardous, restricted, or remote areas. He pointed to petrochemical industry installations as a perfect example. “Remote access increases the safety and efficiency of operations compared to sending operators into these areas,” Eastburn said.
Another differentiating factor is that discrete production assets don’t always lend themselves to monitoring like those in a continuous or batch production process, according to Michael Risse, vice president and chief marketing officer at Seeq. “Time series data—the basis for monitoring—is often limited to short bursts, such as a weld, a dip tank, or a seal in discrete manufacturing because operations are more about assembly than long-running processes,” he said. This scenario changes, of course, when a discrete manufacturer puts sensors on a device. At that point, “telemetry from the sensors is 100% time series data and all sorts of opportunities for monitoring arise, including offering a monitoring service.”
Despite the differences in remote monitoring use between discrete manufacturers and continuous processors, discrete manufacturing plants still have need for remote access and monitoring, said Aaron Crews, director for modernization solutions and consulting at Emerson. “This was a trend we saw rapidly increase when the global pandemic limited the number of people that could be in a facility at any given time. However, these (discrete manufacturing) industries are far more likely to be located close to population centers where having expert personnel arrive onsite is often less complicated and costly.”
Consolidation and Outsourcing
Specific business trends in industry are also influencing remote monitoring applications. Risse said that process manufacturers are increasingly in a transition regarding who handles the monitoring and associated expertise.
As examples of this, Risse cited a supplier of turbines and steam traps that offers a monitoring system to its customers; a partner company of Seeq that offers a monitoring system to its customers to monitor assets on their behalf; and a processing customer that has an internal remote monitoring/best practices center for monitoring assets on behalf of the company’s plants.
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