Recognizing the Digital Future in Brownfield Plants

In a recent article, ei3 Corporation (a provider of IoT Platform Technology) was highlighted. ei3 referenced ways to help companies better understand how to implement new technologies in manufacuting and processing facilities.
Spencer Cramer, CEO of ei3 Corp. has authored a white paper along with John Kowal of B&R Industrial Automation.

Both Cramer and Kowal discuss a concept from the 1970s known as The Focused Factory, which is a concept that revolves around the idea of a factory within a factory. The Focused Factory can be applied today, to create a “green patch” in a brownfield plant. In order to provide successful metrics for this green patch concept, they suggest using Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) as aids. Cramer and Kowal note that green patches “can be used to redefine a consistent OEE metric moving forward, for how and what to measure, analyze and optimize in the green patch, and therefore serve as a framework for OEE future process improvements without impacting existing operations. …TPM is used here as an example of what to do with analytics once you have the data and you’ve analyzed it.”

To read more on this story, check out the article ei3 has posted on their blog.
Also have a look at the white paper, “A Practical Way to Get Started in Manufacturing IIoT: Cultivate a “Green Patch” in Your Brownfield; An Industrial Internet Consortium White Paper” authored by Spencer Cramer, CEO of ei3 and John Kowal, Director, Business Development of B&R Automation.