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Honeywell says Industry 4.0 to enable quick return to growth post-COVID

Oil&Gas Materials 29 April 2021 09:52 (UTC +04:00)
Honeywell says Industry 4.0 to enable quick return to growth post-COVID

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.29

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

Post-Covid, companies need to be able to return to growth as quickly as possible, Uygar Doyuran, president of High Growth Regions, Turkey & Central Asia, told Trend.

“They need to be faster, more efficient and more accurate in everything they do within their operations, because they cannot afford to miss out on growth opportunities or get weighed down by excess costs.

Industry 4.0 is the enabler of that. Our connected, always-on world is making it easier for companies to operate in a leaner, more profitable way to help them return to growth in the wake of the pandemic. Connected technology will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in the world’s journey to economic recovery.

Think of all the devices and assets that companies use to perform their daily operations, from the machines on the factory floors, vehicles, security measures, to building systems such as heating, ventilation, security and fire systems. These assets sit at the “edge” of the enterprise and often interact directly with employees, occupants and customers– unlike core IT systems that exist on corporate servers,” he said.

Doyuran believes that the great thing about all these OT assets is the vast quantity of data they can generate.

“Take a modern airliner for example. It can generate more than half a terabyte of data per flight. The same goes for any operation – be it a logistics warehouse, a petrochemical plant or a shopping mall. But the future relies on these “things” – 50 billion devices by 2022 – becoming more connected and integrated with IT assets. Without this connectivity, physical devices add little value in their own silos. It’s the combination of intelligence, computing capacity and software that is at the heart of Industry 4.0.

So what does this mean in a practical sense? Consider the processing plant operator who can see exactly where, in a vastly complex infrastructure, small adjustments can be made to reduce system fatigue by identifying and adjusting loads to reduce the risk of costly unplanned shutdowns through predictive maintenance.

Or the logistics warehouse that can use real-time data and AI to automatically optimize goods picking based on distance to travel and order priority, in order to select, sort, and distribute more products per day, with greater accuracy, improving productivity and thus profitability,” he noted.

Doyuran went on to add that there is also the potential to increase the safety of workers operating in challenging environments, by monitoring ambient and body temperatures, step counts, lift loads and even vital signs, to ensure in real-time that workers are operating safely.

“And then, in an example that is particularly applicable right now, there is the potential to monitor building parameters to intelligently manage building access based on occupant utilization, track air quality metrics and increase ventilation, and even remotely check body temperatures and adherence to policies such as mask wearing, to help keep building occupants safe during the pandemic.”

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

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