A major drawback to Industry 4.0 that few write about is maintenance of an industry 4.0 plant. Th... more A major drawback to Industry 4.0 that few write about is maintenance of an industry 4.0 plant. The maintenance aspect is a much greater and immediate drawback than even the commonly known major concern of security, and the lesser concern of system integration standards. Maintenance of 4.0 systems has, and will continue to result in related huge increases in process downtime. The barriers to overcoming the maintenance/downtime drawbacks of a 4.0 system are almost insurmountable.
The key to realizing greater savings in your Lean initiatives and from more informed management d... more The key to realizing greater savings in your Lean initiatives and from more informed management decisions is to predetermine the "True" cost of downtime for each profit center category. TDC is a activity based costing methodology of analyzing all cost factors associated with downtime, and using this information for cost justification and day to day management decisions. Most likely, this data is already being collected in your facility, and need only be consolidated and organized according to the TDC guidelines
The standard operation of companies involves managing risk, whether that risk comes from safety o... more The standard operation of companies involves managing risk, whether that risk comes from safety or financial factors. Despite this fact, most companies do little or nothing to manage the safety or financial risk related to their controller automation. This is quite surprising for manufacturing and production companies that depend primarily on equipment and process automation. Those involved in industrial management, plant safety, maintenance and installation of automation equipment should give serious consideration to the risks involved with their PLCs. This article focuses on automation control, but the following approach should be applied to all aspects of manufacturing and production automation.
If you ask the machine end user, the answer by most machine end users will be no. Or they ask; "W... more If you ask the machine end user, the answer by most machine end users will be no. Or they ask; "What is a PAC?" You will even get a few that argue that there is no difference between the PLC and a PAC. Additionally they may claim the PAC is just a new name and acronym that the PLC vendor sales department created to generate new sales.
Of interest to learning institutions interested in expanding their curriculum for students of the... more Of interest to learning institutions interested in expanding their curriculum for students of the industrial automated control systems. This curriculum/courseware will greatly expand your student's knowledge without increasing your course development workload.
A major drawback to Industry 4.0 that few write about is maintenance of an industry 4.0 plant. Th... more A major drawback to Industry 4.0 that few write about is maintenance of an industry 4.0 plant. The maintenance aspect is a much greater and immediate drawback than even the commonly known major concern of security, and the lesser concern of system integration standards. Maintenance of 4.0 systems has, and will continue to result in related huge increases in process downtime. The barriers to overcoming the maintenance/downtime drawbacks of a 4.0 system are almost insurmountable.
The key to realizing greater savings in your Lean initiatives and from more informed management d... more The key to realizing greater savings in your Lean initiatives and from more informed management decisions is to predetermine the "True" cost of downtime for each profit center category. TDC is a activity based costing methodology of analyzing all cost factors associated with downtime, and using this information for cost justification and day to day management decisions. Most likely, this data is already being collected in your facility, and need only be consolidated and organized according to the TDC guidelines
The standard operation of companies involves managing risk, whether that risk comes from safety o... more The standard operation of companies involves managing risk, whether that risk comes from safety or financial factors. Despite this fact, most companies do little or nothing to manage the safety or financial risk related to their controller automation. This is quite surprising for manufacturing and production companies that depend primarily on equipment and process automation. Those involved in industrial management, plant safety, maintenance and installation of automation equipment should give serious consideration to the risks involved with their PLCs. This article focuses on automation control, but the following approach should be applied to all aspects of manufacturing and production automation.
If you ask the machine end user, the answer by most machine end users will be no. Or they ask; "W... more If you ask the machine end user, the answer by most machine end users will be no. Or they ask; "What is a PAC?" You will even get a few that argue that there is no difference between the PLC and a PAC. Additionally they may claim the PAC is just a new name and acronym that the PLC vendor sales department created to generate new sales.
Of interest to learning institutions interested in expanding their curriculum for students of the... more Of interest to learning institutions interested in expanding their curriculum for students of the industrial automated control systems. This curriculum/courseware will greatly expand your student's knowledge without increasing your course development workload.
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curriculum/courseware will greatly expand your student's knowledge without increasing your course development workload.
curriculum/courseware will greatly expand your student's knowledge without increasing your course development workload.