Heineken’s example
To show the power of digitalization, Balasubramanian pointed to a digitalization project at Heineken, which produces 188 million hectoliters of beer annually at 165 breweries in more than 70 countries. Its longstanding paper-based system had proven to be inadequate for managing the vast supply chain and equipment needed to ensure a steady supply of beer. The lack of a standard means for sharing knowledge and the diversity and scale of Heineken’s operations complicated the quick resolution of incidents and the performance of maintenance, risking downtime and productivity losses.
To avoid these problems, Heineken implemented a mobile-based custom app crafted by ServiceNow to streamline incident management and maintenance. “This app provides engineers with quick access to detailed information on incidents and tasks and offers real-time guidance through features like photos and design drawings,” said Balasubramanian. “It even supports offline functionality for areas with poor connectivity.” Besides streamlining problem solving, these features also enhanced the overall resilience of its operations by using historical data for predictive maintenance and by offering tailored support immediately to engineers on the ground.
Creating autonomous processes
Another strategy for improving a company’s resilience is to upgrade operations that are merely automated, transforming them into autonomous operations. “As industrial plants integrate more advanced technologies, the sheer amount of data and complexity can become overwhelming for the existing staff,” said Monil Malhotra, vice president of industrial software at Emerson. “Autonomous operations are founded in technologies that can predict when something will go wrong.”
These technologies help the staff cope with the large volumes of data generated by automation today and to use that data to keep processes running smoothly at the established performance benchmarks. In these operations, data typically moves seamlessly from the intelligent field, through the edge and into the cloud, where it is readily available for use by various software applications.
An example is predictive maintenance software. This class of tools monitors assets, stores the data in the cloud, analyzes it and issue alerts like, “Pump 8 will fail in two weeks.” It also identifies root causes of developing problems and suggests corrective action—such as repairing or replacing the faltering equipment and perhaps reducing or suspending operations in the meanwhile.
Another class of predictive technologies used in autonomous operations is simulation software. “Digital twins can understand the current state of a plant or asset and then try to predict the future,” noted Malhotra. “Powerful simulation software can identify when processes will stall or stagnate and then provide actionable advice to remove bottlenecks and keep operations running at peak performance.” When these tools work with modeling software, they can identify choke points in processes and help to improve speed to market.
Brosset predicts that, as digital twins progressively cover the full scope of operations and embed intelligent agents, artificial intelligence will increasingly make day-to-day adaptations to operations. Moreover, he thinks that the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to shift through vast pools of information will only accelerate the adoption of digital twins. “Generative AI can provide context-based suggestions to the most complex issues not addressed by the intelligent twin,” said Brosset. “This can shorten the time to analyze and resolve such issues—be it quality, reliability or performance—by up to 60%.”
The need to protect operations from ransomware and other forms of hacking makes proactive cybersecurity yet another necessary component of a resiliency plan. Such plans begin with a basic risk assessment and continue with active measures, such as application whitelisting, endpoint security, monitoring, threat detection software and patching known vulnerabilities using automated software. Manufacturing networks should also replicate digital information with backup and recovery solutions in case the data is needed to restore operations.
link