IoT: A game-changer for equipment performance

There are three generally accepted strategies for approaching equipment maintenance:

· Reactive maintenance, where problems are dealt with as and when they occur

· Preventative maintenance, in which scheduled maintenance is carried out in an attempt to prevent the most common failures, but since this does not catch all failures it is generally combined with some reactive maintenance

 · Predictive maintenance, where the aim is to use diagnostics and other data to anticipate when failures will occur and take action to prevent the problem from even occurring 

Of course the most ideal strategy is predictive maintenance, as this results in the highest equipment efficiency and the lowest maintenance cost in the long term. However, this is in fact the least widely used strategy, with most companies instead using a combination of reactive and preventative measures. The main reason for this is that while predictive maintenance is a wonderful concept in theory, it is not always as simple to implement and in the past required a high implementation cost. 

The main factors that contribute to the complexity and cost are the need for a large amount of data in combination with advanced analytics capabilities. Equipment will behave differently depending on the environment it is used in as well as the actual usage patterns, so a wealth of data is needed regarding the equipment and its environment. Of particular interest in third world countries are conditions such as power quality, temperature and humidity, which can cause equipment behaviour to be highly different compared to first world countries. In the past, this data would need to be stored locally, and the infrastructure to manage this storage does not come cheaply. Furthermore, in order to accurately predict problems from this data, software needs to be available to perform intensive analytics. Until recently, lacking technology and/or unreasonably high costs of analytical software and sufficient processing infrastructure made such implementations unfeasible for the majority of industrial companies. 

But with the emergence and fast adoption of IoT, as well as advances in data science, the intended potential of predictive maintenance is fast becoming a reality. By using IoT as an extension of existing SCADA monitoring systems, various benefits can be achieved which make data storage and analytics far more accessible, including: 

 · Distributed versus centralised system architecture 

 · Increase in visualisation possibilities 

 · Access to data for analytics 

 · Availability of extended data history 

 · Increased scalability and decreased cost 

IoT as an Extension of SCADA 

Until recently, the most common way to monitor and control equipment has been solely using Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. These systems provide an interconnection of various sensors, computers and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which provides two main benefits: 

 · The ability to interact directly with equipment by sending commands to the PLCs 

 · The provision of a visual interface by which technicians, engineers and decision-makers can gain visibility into what the equipment is doing 

However, since SCADAs are localised systems and are focused mainly on the current status of the equipment, the amount of data storage and long-term analytics is limited. 

This is where the Internet of Things (IoT) can help, and its increasing use in equipment environments has in fact given rise to the term Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). At its core, IoT has many similarities to SCADA systems, in that the focus is on obtaining data from various sensors and visualising this data. The main difference is the fact that IoT systems store all of the sensor and other data in the cloud as opposed to locally, which moves the main goal from short term visualisations to long term analytics. Therefore, by adding IoT capabilities to existing SCADA systems, the best of both worlds can be achieved.

Distributed Versus Centralised System Architecture

Since IoT systems are by definition based in the cloud, this provides a distributed as opposed to a centralised system. This lowers the cost of data storage since it is not necessary to have separate storage infrastructure at each site, and means that decision-makers can obtain a comprehensive view of all the equipment at different sites as opposed to one system in isolation. This is beneficial for determining which problems are unique to specific sites, and are hence a result of different environments and/or usage, versus which are common to the same equipment type regardless of where and how it is used. It also provides a form of security in terms of data backups – if something happens on site, the data is not lost since it is stored in the cloud. 

Visualisation 

The distributed nature also widens the possibilities of visualisation – certain levels of data can be made available to particular users without them having to connect directly into the SCADA and this data can be viewed not just on a computer but on any mobile device that has internet connection. Furthermore, the visualisations can be customised to particular users and made cleaner, more graphical and more informative through the web-based interface to facilitate decision-making. Enhancements such as 3D can also be used, which takes the visualisation to a whole new level. 

Analytics 

 With the data being stored on the cloud, it can easily be accessed from anywhere in the world in order to perform analytics and processing. This is key to following a predictive maintenance strategy, as it is the analytics which will make it possible to predict failures. Trends can be drawn that provide answers to the typical questions that equipment owners and manufacturers typically ask, such as: 

 · What is the efficiency of my equipment? 

 · How does this efficiency vary between sites? 

 · What is the average lifetime of my equipment? 

 · What are the most common failures that occur? 

 · What are the specific conditions and timelines that lead to these failures? 

The distributed nature of the data means that these analytics can be carried out per site but also for the same equipment across multiple sites, which is critical to gaining a holistic view of failures. In some cases data from a single machine may not show obvious trends, but when aggregated with data from numerous other machines, patterns could begin to emerge. This empowers decision-makers to take steps to prevent failures that would not have been anticipated otherwise. 

With the data science field constantly expanding, the insights available from analytics will only increase in coming years and are likely to extend from just predicting failures to developing usage patterns and ideal environmental conditions that will optimise the equipment’s lifespan and Return On Investment (ROI). In terms of forward planning, an IoT system is well suited to these coming advances since all of the data will already be on the cloud and available for analysis. This also means that it is not necessary to have dedicated analytics infrastructure and software at each site. The analytics can even make use of cloud processing capabilities, so it may not be necessary to purchase more powerful infrastructure at all. 

Data History 

The cloud storage makes it possible to view the complete history of a piece of equipment, and compare to other similar equipment. While some historical data can be viewed using SCADA systems, the centralised setup means that storage space is often a limiting factor and therefore only more recent data is generally stored. This is suitable for a SCADA system since the focus is on current data observation, whereas with an added IoT layer there is a shift towards analytics and predictions, for which historical data is a key component. This can be used to identify whether newer trends are emerging that did not exist in the past, such as whether a change in environmental conditions has made a particular failure more common, or whether equipment lifetime has been shortened after changing a particular component or service provider. 

Scalability and Cost 

While SCADA systems typically use proprietary communication protocols to receive data from sensors, IoT uses standardised protocols. This opens the door for more open communication between many devices and is far more scalable in the long term. With an estimated 30.1 billion connected autonomous objects predicted by 2020, and with manufacturing environments following the Industry 4.0 trend of moving towards ‘smart factories’, monitoring systems have to be designed to allow for seamless integration of numerous additional sensors in the future and IoT makes this possible. 

Not only that, but it also achieves this at a relatively low cost rather than using more expensive proprietary hardware and software. With mini-computers such as the Raspberry Pi, a sensor network can be set up quickly and at an extremely low cost, and the cloud storage provides an additional cost saving. This makes it feasible for smaller factory or equipment environments to also adopt predictive maintenance, whereas in the past cost was a prohibiting factor. 

As with any solution, there are negatives as well as positives, and there are certain challenges that IoT systems face, such as security concerns in terms of access to data and dealing with problems with internet connection, which means it is not yet the optimal choice for directly controlling equipment. With the rapid evolution of technology it is likely that solutions to these issues are not far around the corner, but the ideal solution is likely to combine both IoT and SCADA elements to develop a system that meets the requirements of both comprehensive monitoring and accurate control. 

One of Looksee.do’s core focus areas is remote environmental monitoring, and since we are always abreast of the latest technologies, our solutions are all IoT-based. Contact us to find out how we can give you more visibility of your remote equipment.

Virtual Reality: so much more than just a gaming platform

Ask a handful of people about the potential uses of virtual reality and you will most likely hear things relating to gaming and entertainment. While it is true that this is where virtual reality has gained most of its fame in recent decades, this is sadly also the reason that many of its other more beneficial uses have often been overlooked. For so many, the hype around the virtual reality experience and the subsequent failure to prove itself rapidly enough outside of the entertainment industry, have led them to disregard it as a gimmick.

It might come as a surprise then that one of the first uses of virtual reality was for an entirely different purpose, and perhaps a far more appropriate one – as early as the 1920s flight simulators used a form of virtual reality for training pilots. Here the value was not in the exaggerated effects or the ‘wow’ factor – it was in the potential to save lives by training pilots in a low-risk environment.

Perhaps now that virtual reality has gained its fame through entertainment, it is time to go back to basics and recognise its true potential in industrial environments. After just a small focus shift, the list of ways that virtual reality can make real improvement in such environments far outweighs the initial few uses that come to most people’s minds.

Training 

Training is by far the most meaningful use of virtual reality in industry. The low-cost and low-risk environment can overcome many of the challenges to providing practical training and have huge benefits in alleviating skills shortages and capacity. 

For industries that require large equipment, making this equipment available to trainees and/or transporting them to regions where this equipment is available is a costly exercise. Add to that the potential cost of safety breaches or breakages to the machinery caused by trainees, and the whole idea of practical training becomes so risky that it is often sidelined, leaving trainees with only theory-based training. Sadly this is insufficient on its own - in the traditional teaching method of ‘Tell, Show, Do’, the ‘Telling’ component is suggested to be the least effective form of training. This can mean that many trainees cannot reach the technical level of expertise that they are capable of until they have had years more experience. The effects of this reach further than just the individual trainee – a widespread lack of skills can do serious harm to the economy and can lead to many missed investment opportunities especially in emerging markets. 

 But virtual reality provides a solution to this in the form of virtual training. At a fraction of the ongoing cost and effectively risk-free, trainees can be exposed to equipment and procedures in a virtual environment on a computer or mobile device, or can be immersed even further through the use of virtual reality headsets. Evidence has shown that this has huge benefits over theory-based learning - a study with students from the Technical University of Denmark showed a 76% increase in learning effectiveness when using virtual laboratories instead of traditional theory-based teaching. Generally this type of training should not entirely replace theoretical training but rather be used in conjunction with it, and in that case the benefit reaches even further - the same study further showed a 101% increase in learning effectiveness when using virtual training in combination with traditional teaching methods. 

For industries where safety is paramount, the value is even greater. Numerous fatal accidents have occurred in the mining industry alone that could have been prevented by simply following the correct electrical lockout and grounding procedures, and with virtual training these procedures can be taught much more effectively to drive down the number of incidents. 

While virtual training can never entirely replace hands-on training, it puts trainees in a much better starting position to go into practical training with a solid foundation of principles that they are unlikely to forget due to the immersive representation. 

 As an additional benefit, virtual reality doesn’t just make standard training more feasible, it also creates training potential that would never be possible in the real world. The opportunity to make mistakes without consequences and to push the boundaries without safety limits creates learners with a far better understanding of what can and can’t be done and may even lead to new techniques which would not have been found in the real world due to necessary safety constraints. 

Remote Support 

As you will have read in our previous article, virtual reality also creates opportunities for remote support. An expert anywhere in the world can step into a virtual environment and lead a technician through fault-finding, maintenance or repair steps, which results in huge savings of both travel costs and time. This also assists with the transition from training to practical problem-solving. In fields where the equipment is highly complex, such as the medical field, recent graduates can take years to become technically proficient, even with factory training. With remote support, such employees can be provided with assistance that can drastically reduce the time taken to reach technical proficiency and thereby diminish the period for which a salaried employee is not yet able to fully do his/her job. 

Planning 

In many industries such as architecture and engineering, mistakes can easily be made when taking a project from the planning phase into the real world, resulting in wastage of both time and materials. But now an architect, engineer or designer can walk through the project in virtual reality and iron out any issues long before the first tool is lifted. Close to home, this is already being used by key industry players at the University of Pretoria’s Kumba Virtual Reality Centre to simulate plans and designs, and hence enable better decision-making. 

Marketing 

Some might say that the use of virtual reality for marketing is taking things back towards the sensationalism of the entertainment industry, but while the visual impact of virtual reality marketing has its benefits, the real value lies again in the cost saving. Instead of transporting large-scale mining, medical or other equipment to tradeshows, all that is needed now is a headset and a computer. A perfect example of this is a virtual reality solution developed by Looksee.do for GE Healthcare that is currently in use at the GE Africa Innovation Centre – this system allows customers to experience large scale medical equipment and even simulates the experience of undergoing a scan, all within a small room. Perhaps not far into the future when a virtual reality headset is standard in every office there will not even be a need to travel to showrooms or tradeshows - clients can view your entire product range, in full scale, without either of you leaving your desks. 

Data Visualisation 

Big data is one of the latest buzzwords in technology. But one of the key challenges is still how to make sense of all of this data and use it to make informed decisions. Again, virtual reality provides the answer by bringing this data to life, and the race is on to grab market share in this new industry. Traditional data visualisations such as graphs and tables can be enhanced and made interactive, geographical or spatial data can be overlaid on the environment to which it relates, and engineers and scientists can walk through large datasets or explore multi-dimensional data in a way that simply cannot be done on a 2D computer screen. 

Virtual Meetings and Conferencing 

The days where all of an organisation’s employees worked in the same building are long gone, and many teams are now split across various countries or are working from home. One of the disadvantages of this is that teams can feel disjointed, and while many communication technologies exist, a Siemens survey showed that 43% of users felt frustrated and disconnected by these technologies. Virtual reality has the potential to reduce this frustration by adding a whole new dimension to virtual meetings, and allow employees to feel as though they really are in the same boardroom together. 

Healthcare 

If the above list has not yet convinced you that virtual reality has value in solving real-world problems, then healthcare is bound to push you over the virtual edge. In addition to the value in training doctors and nurses, as well as the possibility of virtual surgeries, virtual reality has now been shown to have real benefit in the treatment of patients. This includes neurological problems such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, but also rehabilitation and coping with problems such as phantom limb syndrome. Research teams are now using and investigating these forms of treatment at places such as the University of Southern California’s Medical Virtual Reality Lab. 

It is clear that virtual reality has the potential to make a huge difference in industry, and now is the time for key role players to take advantage of that and allow virtual reality to find its true fame. 

If you are interested in learning about the real value that can be added to your business by virtual reality, contact us at Looksee.do to take the first virtual step towards your new reality. 

Remote Support Tools: Bridging the Gap in Equipment Maintenance

In our fast-paced modern world, time is increasingly becoming one of our most valuable resources. Globally, companies are searching for ways to reduce time wastage and ensure that every minute is being used optimally.

For equipment service providers, one of the main culprits for wasted time is travel. Each time a piece of equipment breaks down or requires maintenance, a Field Service Engineer (FSE) must travel to the site before any work can begin. In some cases this may mean a 30 minute drive; in others it can take up to two weeks just to make the necessary travel arrangements, followed by a lengthy flight. Such delays and dead time are simply no longer acceptable, not to mention the resultant equipment downtime.

While we can still maintain hope that teleportation will become a reality, luckily there is an interim solution - remote support tools. With these tools, FSEs and/or other technical experts can communicate with the client’s technical support staff or send a less experienced team member to the equipment site and thereby have eyes and ears on the equipment without needing to be in the same country, let alone the same room, as the equipment. Using these tools, they can communicate about the issue and even guide a technician through the steps to fix the fault, without having to leave their desk.

Not only does this save time for the technical expert, it also saves time by speeding up skills transfer. By sending a less experienced team member to site, but offering them remote support from an expert, their on-the-job training becomes far more effective and they gain confidence much quicker. The technical expert can even provide support to multiple technicians at various sites at the same time, allowing him/her to transfer skills to other team members exponentially faster. 

To meet the growing need for remote support, a wide range of tools are becoming available, each with different combinations of features and benefits, and the choice of tool depends largely on the available budget and accessible infrastructure, especially internet connection. 

Voice/Text Communication 

The first critical component of all remote support tools is the communication medium. The client or technician at site must be able to communicate with the FSE or expert elsewhere in the world in order for them to explain the problem and be guided through the steps to a solution. The most commonly used medium for this is voice or text. This can be done using any entry-level phone, but many businesses now also make use of communication apps on smartphones, such as Skype or Whatsapp. 

However, these simple forms of communication in most cases do not provide enough context, which is why phone calls or messaging platforms are not sufficient unless the problem is simple. For the majority of problems, the communication needs to be supported by one or more visual feature. 

Live Video Feed, Screen Sharing or Photo Sharing 

If bandwidth and internet connectivity are not limiting factors, the ideal remote support tool includes a live video feed. In this way, the expert can see exactly what is happening at site, and can guide the technician through various procedures as though they were standing next to them. 

 If the equipment is highly software oriented, the equivalent of a video feed is a screen share so that the expert can see exactly how the software is behaving. A typical example of this is Teamviewer, a highly popular and freely available remote support tool, while more recent examples include in-house remote support screenshare tools used by companies such as Philips. 

Photo sharing can provide a next-best alternative to video, as a technician can show the expert the exact situation on site. In some cases just one photo can immediately indicate to an FSE what the problem is. 

However, while photos and/or video feeds allow the expert to see what is happening on site, it can still be challenging for the expert to effectively communicate what must be done. To achieve this, an additional feature(s) is needed.  

Visual Aids and Virtual and Augmented Reality 

The final key to a successful remote support tool is a way for the expert to provide some form of visual instruction to the technician, and thus close the loop in the transfer of information. This allows the expert or FSE to not just tell the technician how to solve the problem, but literally show them. Entry-level solutions include options such as adding annotations and text to photos, while higher-end solutions include full Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) capabilities or 3D models. 

AR is highly suited to live video feed options, as annotations can be overlaid on the camera image to literally point out things to the technician in their own environment. With the AR glasses market becoming highly competitive, this option is increasingly attractive to large stakeholders, and Microsoft Hololens, Meta Spaceglasses and various other glasses have been successfully used as remote support tools. AR can also be used on a tablet or smartphone to provide a more cost-effective solution. 

On the other hand, VR can be highly beneficial when trying to guide a technician through particular steps in a complicated process, as the immersive environment lends itself well to interaction and learning. Parts can also be indicated more clearly on a 3D model as opposed to a 2D image. One disadvantage to VR solutions for remote support is that they require the user to wear a headset, and hence they are removed from the environment in which the problem is occurring. As a solution to this, some solutions place only the expert in a full VR environment, while the technician uses AR glasses so that they can still see their environment.

An alternative to VR is to still use 3D models but view them on a computer or mobile device, which can provide a simple and elegant solution. The technician can view and navigate a highly realistic model including annotations from an expert, and then apply this immediately to their current environment without having to remove a headset.

Machine to Machine Communication 

The more advanced remote support tools take the interaction even one step further and allow the expert or FSE to communicate with the equipment directly despite not being on site. In this way, they can identify and potentially fix the problem without the client having to interact with the equipment at all. 

Benefits of Remote Support Tools 

The above features and examples clearly show how remote support tools have the potential to greatly reduce the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and overall downtime of equipment. This has numerous benefits, both for the customer and the service provider. 

Customer Peace of Mind 

Customers are happier knowing that they will not have to wait days for an expert to be available to come to site, as they can either communicate directly with the expert, or have a less experienced technician come to site quicker. This gives customers a greater sense of control over their equipment. 

Customer Revenue 

With decreased downtime, the customer will no longer lose out on revenue while waiting for an expert to get to site. 

Service Provider Revenues 

Similarly, service providers can attend to more problems and hence also increase their revenues and productivity of expert staff. 

FSE and Technician Job Satisfaction 

FSEs have much higher job satisfaction due to the reduced time spent travelling and more time spent helping. The technicians on site also feel a greater sense of accomplishment when they are able to fix a problem. 

Skills Transfer 

An equally important benefit of remote support tools is skills transfer. By guiding less skilled technicians through procedures, knowledge is transferred much quicker than by passively watching an expert perform the process. This can accelerate the productivity of new staff and lead to a higher-skilled workforce for equipment service providers. Similarly, if it is the client who interacts directly with the expert using remote support tools, they can increase capacity of their own technical staff so that they don’t need to call for expert assistance for similar problems in future. This is especially useful in remote areas where there is low skills availability and it is difficult for an expert to get to site quickly. 

Remote support tools are a key component of what we do at Looksee.do. Our keystone solution combines text, photos and 3D models to create a low-cost, low-bandwidth, low-installation solution for remote support. Contact us to find out more about how our remote support expertise can help your organisation.

Article by Leandra Webb-Ray of Looksee.do

3 Trends that are Revolutionising Equipment Maintenance

With the equipment industry becoming increasingly more competitive, manufacturers need to be ahead of the game to have the edge on their competitors. Advances in technology are making this possible, and three trends in particular are making waves in the industry by empowering equipment manufacturers and service providers to greatly improve their efficiency.

1. Remote Support Tools

Every business wants growth, but with a larger installed base possibly spanning multiple countries, it becomes challenging to provide the level of service your customers deserve. Sending engineers to site for every fault is no longer a viable option since this often requires extensive travel which is lost time for the engineer, and results in downtime and loss of revenue for the customer. What’s worse, the downtime is often unnecessary since many of the faults turn out to be simple fixes. With remote support tools becoming available, these unnecessary losses of time and revenue are no longer a reality that equipment manufacturers have to face. These tools allow an experienced technician or engineer to communicate with a technician at the equipment site. Basic fault finding procedures can then be explained to the on-site technician and in many cases the solution can even be implemented through step-by- step instructions, all in the time that an engineer would have spent just travelling to the airport. Even if the fault still requires the engineer to go to site, they can do so with a much more detailed understanding of the problem and with the correct spare parts in hand, still greatly reducing the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). The use of remote support tools can therefore greatly increase customer satisfaction by reducing downtime. At the same time, the capacity of equipment service providers can be increased and the job satisfaction of experienced equipment technicians is improved as they no longer spend the majority of their time travelling to site.

2. Remote Environment Monitoring

As an equipment manufacturer’s global footprint grows, so does the variation in environmental conditions in which the equipment is expected to function in. Fluctuations in temperature, humidity and power supply can all be detrimental to the equipment, and knowledge of these fluctuations is critical to deciding which markets are worthwhile to break into it and what preventative measures are necessary to make this possible. With advances in mini computers such as the Raspberry Pi, as well as in sensor technology, monitoring conditions is now as easy as pie (excuse the pun). At a very low cost, equipment manufacturers can now gain full visibility of the environment their equipment is sitting in and also gain insight into possible reasons for a breakdown, such as power surges, in order to take corrective and preventative action.

3. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality gained most of its fame in the gaming world, but leaders in the equipment industry are rapidly realising that the fun doesn’t end there. When dealing with large equipment, virtual reality offers a huge benefit for both marketing and training.

Marketing

It is often impractical or even impossible to transport large equipment to trade shows or client demonstrations, but with virtual reality this potential speed bump on the road to sales can be averted. The equipment can be demonstrated to customers in full scale in an immersive environment, which not only shows off the equipment in an elegant way, but also creates a lasting impression and a talking point that will give your company the edge on competitors.

Training

The days where all training was done through listening to lectures or studying written manuals are long gone. Research has shown that knowledge is transferred much more effectively when students are able to interact with the material rather than just seeing it, and virtual reality provides the perfect platform for this interaction. When faced with a problem in the field, technicians and engineers are far more likely to remember how they solved the same fault in virtual reality and repeat that procedure. The virtual world also removes the safety risks inherent in dealing with equipment, meaning that technicians and engineers in training can make mistakes without any implications.

By harnessing these trends in technology, equipment manufacturers and service providers can greatly improve the efficiency of their processes, resulting in both happier customers and employees.

At Looksee.do, we are passionate about changing the way equipment maintenance is done, and have gained expertise in these trends in order to do that. In the next three blog posts, we will be discussing each of these trends in more detail and showing the impact they can have, and already are having, on the industry.

To find out what we can do in the fields of remote support, remote monitoring and virtual reality, visit our website or contact us.

Article by Leandra Webb-Ray of Looksee.do