FACTORY MONITORING PLAYBOOK

your gameplan for digital

transformation

Brainboxes Ltd
 TOPICS

TOPICS
05 • DIGITISING THE DATA

01 • IDENTIFYING THE CHALLENGE 06 • CONSIDERING THE NETWORK

02 • ASSEMBLING THE TEAM 07 • CAPTURING THE DATA

03 • PROVING THE CONCEPT 08 • SCALING THE SYSTEM UP

04 • INTEGRATING THE HARDWARE 09 • TAKING THE NEXT STEP

 BRAINBOXES

Since 1984, Brainboxes have OPEN UP MACHINE

developed,manufactured M O N I T O R I N G
and supported our own core
technologies, today we are one of
the leading communication device
developers and manufacturers in
the world.

M A K I N G
THE REMOTE
FEEL RIGHT
O N - S I T E
Our smart solutions connect
S M A R T
industrial IoT projects around the H A R D WA R E
world; from the factory floor to some S O LU T I O N S
of the most rugged terrains on Earth
and beyond.
 INTRODUCTION

ASK THE RIGHT UNDERSTAND SET YOUR END

QUESTIONS YOUR FACILITY GOAL

Use this playbook to self-assess
your position.
What are you already doing?
What issues have you identified?
What do you want to improve?
Asking the right questions as
you begin, will help you to fully
understand your facility and its
individual needs.
Once you have a clear picture
of your production processes,
and how to get (and understand)
signals out of your machines, you
can identify and set your end goal.

SO, WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET STARTED?

 1.
5.
IDENTIFYING THE CHALLENGE
DATA HIGHLIGHT 1

goal: what is the data:

specific goal of your connecting to

DA
SA
project? machines

A
CT
TE
Is there a clearly defined problem you’re Do you already take data from

NA
R
aiming to solve? e.g. Are products stacking your machines? If so, how?

RE
up creating a bottleneck on your production How many machines are in
line? Are you seeing frequent downtime of SUPPORT
use in your facility, and are
certain machines? they all the same?
What processes are you using now?
Quisque ultrices
Are there elements that can be adapted and/
or developed? nisl felis eget
 1.
IDENTIFYING THE CHALLENGE

support: does your

machine supplier have
a monitoring solution?
Consider the ongoing support you might need when
connecting to your machines...
Open-source options make systems tolerant
to change, and can make it simple (and less
costly) to move from one solution to another.
On the other hand, 3rd party suppliers can offer
solutions tailored to your needs, and often offer
expert support for the lifetime of your project.
 2.
get the ASSEMBLING THE TEAM
To install (and get the
right people best out of) factory
monitoring, you'll
around the need the support of a
number of specialists.
table...
MAINTENANCE ENGINEER who
understands the machines Everyone holds a
piece of the jigsaw...
IT MANAGER to co-ordinate and
manage the security requirements of only when
the current company network the various
departments come
PROJECT MANAGER to ensure all
together can you
deliverables are met – someone willing
start to see the big
(and capable) of driving the project
picture.
HARDWARE EXPERT with knowledge
and experience of industrial
communication devices

PROCESS CONTROL ENGINEER to

identify which measurements drive One option is to
factory output and productivity
work through this
PRODUCTION MANAGER/STAFF who
will be the first to see the benefits of playbook once you've
the project assembled your team.
 2.
ASSEMBLING THE TEAM ...then get them all
on-board
Sometimes key stakeholders...
- want to see data before committing to a project (which
can create a potential chicken and egg situation...)
- assume there’s nothing an outsider (or other departments)
can possibly teach them about their own factory or their
established processes

Get total buy-in by demonstrating viability:

- establish Return on Investment (ROI) to convince the whole
team of the project's benefits
- validate the concept before investing money, manpower,
and time, through a small-scale visualisation exercise or
Proof of Concept (POC)

 3.
PROVING THE CONCEPT

Monitor – uncover the

areas, processes, and/or
equipment that can be
improved

Improve – make the

changes that will make a
measurable/visible
difference
ROI
Save – clearly
demonstrate ROI
 3.
PROVING THE CONCEPT

in action: identifying
trends in productivity
The Next Day Delivery Guarantee of a certain major
Logistics Warehouse relies on shipping an order every
second,
Installing remote I/O modules to monitor cranes in the
facility over time, allowed supervisors to identify trends
in the data.
As it was discovered that the night shift was consistently
the least busy, essential maintenance of the cranes could
then be scheduled at night, avoiding downtime during
the other, busier, shifts.

READ MORE
 4.
INTEGRATING THE HARDWARE

SCHEMATICS
Do you have access to the control
panel and its schematics?
How many machines and are they
all the same?
SIGNALS
Identify the signals you want to monitor and whether they
are digital or analog
What are the voltage levels and type of the signals?
e.g. Digital: 24V, volt free, NPN, PNP
Analog: 4-20mA, -10V to + 10V

POWER
Think about the power
supply available in the Are the signals already digitised?
cabinet...
Or will you need to add a sensor to capture the
What voltage is it? information...?
 5.
DIGITISING THE DATA

OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
Are there extremes of temperature,
vibration, moisture?
Is there risk of fire?

POSITION
Consider different sensors' ranges and
ADDING
fields of view
Can they be located away from dust/dirt
SENSORS
(major contibutor to machine breakdown)

POWER SUPPLY
Are the sensors powered passively or
from a DC source? VIBRATION
TEMPERATURE
(typically 24V or battery) PROXIMITY
UPTIME
ENERGY
ETC
 5.
DIGITISING THE DATA
WHAT COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS SUIT
THE DATA BEING CAPTURED?
ARE THERE LIMITS TO THE NETWORK
BANDWIDTH?
IS DATA PRE-PROCESSING REQUIRED AT THE
EDGE BEFORE SENDING TO THE CLOUD?
CONNECTIVITY can vary immensely;
from simple  high-low digital  IO signals,
to Bluetooth, to vibration data sent over
a serial link encoded as a Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT)
The DATA COLLECTION DEVICE will
typically be required to work with multiple
different connectivity interfaces
Working with a partner who specialises
in sensors can add RESILIENCE to your
project
 5.
DIGITISING THE DATA

in action:
SMART ENERGY
MONITORING
• E FFICIENTLY CAPTURE, AGGREGATE AND ANALYSE
YOUR PLANT-WIDE ENERGY DATA

• REDUCE THE IMPACT OF MARKET VOLATILITY ON

YOUR PRODUCTION COSTS

• INCREASE POSITIVE BRAND PERCEPTION

• ACHIEVE SUBSTANTIAL FINANCIAL

SAVINGS

LEARN MORE
 6. Is there a network already installed and is it wired or wireless?
CONSIDERING THE NETWORK
Wireless: check the signal strength in relevant locations

Wired: check where the network points are

Consider putting in a wired network unless wireless is necessary or preferred

The challenge is often WIRED VS WIRELESS
getting data from
machines back to
the server room for
A N A L Y S I S SECURITY OT/IT SUBNET
Do you have a network administrator and Is the network segmented?
A good network are they easily reachable? 
Do you need a route to the internet or
administrator can be What is the network security policy? the IT subnet?
really helpful.

SERVER
Think about the location of the server and what operating system is
running.

Is the server in the cloud or on the local network? Are there security
implications of connecting to the server?

VPN
A VPN can bypass issues with network administration and avoid wasting time fighting
infrastructure...
 6.
CONSIDERING THE NETWORK
SUPPORTING

in action: swapping
VLAN for VPN
Ranheat design and manufacture boilers that generate
heat from the by-products of industrial processes rather
than sending the waste to costly landfill sites.
Communication between elements of the system has
to travel across vast distances; upwards of 2 million ft 2.
Factory floor Ethernet can be unreliable; fragmented
into different subnets, and requiring onerous security
approvals to access and operate.

Creating a VLAN for this scattered system would

be complex and costly, instead a simple internet
connection is all that is required.
 6.
CONSIDERING THE NETWORK
SUPPORTING

Industrial Edge Controllers

circumvent the need to setup
expensive, complex networks
with each individual company’s
I.T department.

For the end user it’s important

to be able to access their
network as quickly and as
efficiently as possible.
With a secure VPN client, Ranheat are able to
offer a full solution that saves time, cost and
infrastructure
READ MORE

Software can be broadly split into 2
types...
- written in-house
- provided by an external company
In either case the data capture software
can be stand alone or can be integrated
into your existing system
7.
CAPTURING THE DATA
WHERE...
- are any existing data capture software systems located?
- will the data be sent/viewed
WHAT...
- data from the factory floor do you want to analyse?
WHO...
- will use the data?
AND DO...
- they have a preferred programming language?
- you need access outside of the company network?
- you want new data adding to the existing system or put
in its own separate system?
 8.
SCALING THE SYSTEM UP

PROVE THE CONCEPT - identify, implement

and review improvements

Demonstrate RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Get BUY-IN for factory monitoring

Secure funding to

SCALE
UP
 9.
TAKING THE NEXT STEP

Let us guide you through

the next step to digital
transformation:

Create your
personal
gameplan
HERE

Make Factory Monitoring Work For You

 GETTING IN TOUCH
FIND US CALL US
(UK) 18 Hurricane Drive, +44 (0)151 220 2500
Speke, Liverpool L24 8RL

(USA) 4600, 140th

Avenue North, Suite 180, +1 (919) 241 8487
Clearwater,FL 33762

HELLEN ROSTRON STEPHEN GREER

MARKETING MANAGER SALES MANAGER
MARKETING@BRAINBOXES.COM SALES@BRAINBOXES.COM

LUKE WALSH
MANAGING DIRECTOR
BRAINBOXES.COM