Unlocking Sustainable Success: How to Destroy Data Silos and Shape the Future

We are all growing more mindful of sustainability. As the climate warms, the requirements for businesses have increased dramatically.

Many companies find themselves needing or wanting to meet stricter standards for energy consumption. But in the coming decades, the expectations for sustainability will grow from a set of numbers to hit to an integral part of a company’s function.

Is your company ready to make this transition?

Redefining Sustainability

Sustainability means more than simply cutting emissions or reducing power consumption. With the transition to Industry 4.0 and the continual development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the most sustainable company is the one that chooses sustainability through an accurate and rapid assessment of data.

As Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, put it, "Every business will become a software business." To survive and thrive during this change, organizations had to accept that their traditional models had transformed and that they needed to embrace software and technology.

The future of industry is rapidly moving toward a data-driven, fully-integrated network of devices. In the same way that every business would eventually come to embrace software, every business will have to become a sustainability business because it’s a natural corollary of Industry 4.0 adoption.

Sustainability no longer stands for a box checked on a report or net-zero emissions. It stands for a business’s ability to optimize their devices and approaches in order to find holistic solutions.

Don’t just simply pursue sustainability initiatives, which may leave you hindered by data silos and overcompartimentilization. Instead, focus on optimization, sustainability, and data transparency at the same time.

A Better Approach to Data

The sustainability of the past often revolved around questions like "When can we power down the lights?" or "How do we reduce packaging weight?" However, the true solution to sustainability is not about cutting consumption at the cost of the bottom line. It’s about optimizing how we use resources.

These optimization solutions don't force you to choose between lower power usage and retaining production levels. Instead, they merge OT and IT infrastructure to bring oversight to real-time data systems. By implementing solutions like Digital Factory Now, factories can smoothly migrate toward Industry 4.0, where efficiency and sustainability go hand in hand to ensure future optimization and relevance.

Factories looking to go digital should know that data is their most valuable asset. But gaining information through smart sensors or other IoT devices doesn’t always lead straight to results. Large quantities of data can wind up trapped in data silos, and even when the data can be accessed, it frequently isn’t in an actionable form, leading to stakeholders not being able to use it. These two fronts of data access and processing are where these solutions shine.

The first and most important step in this solution is to connect pre-existing infrastructure.. Manufacturers can use the IIoT Framework, a scalable interface designed for bridging the gap between OT and IT, to accomplish this goal. This part of the solution includes the IIoT Framework itself for data standardization and storage, in-connectors for data collection, and out-connectors for data processing and transmission to OT or IT devices. This gives networks independence and connectivity through an open architecture.

The cornerstone of this integration is based on the Data Collection Box. This device works with both greenfield and brownfield applications, providing comprehensive oversight into the current state of machinery and processes. But it doesn't just stop at resource oversight; it identifies potential process or quality issues as well. Customizable hardware and software ensure the Data Collection box fits your specific needs and challenges, providing a tailored solution for your business.

Low code solutions make data-driven optimization accessible to a wide range of employees without extensive OT or IT knowledge, promoting resource-saving measures and efficiency improvements. Moreover, the integration of data into the production process enables better energy management and evaluation of energy-saving measures.

Another facet of this solution is the implementation of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from the PLCnext Control product family. The PLC can communicate securely and deterministically with the OT world, while simultaneously functioning as an IIoT gateway.

Recording and visualizing the data forwarded by these controllers helps all stakeholders to evaluate energy-saving measures more effectively. Phoenix Contact’s EMMA cloud service grants cross-location overview of machines and processes, allowing owners to compare systems and make informed decisions.

The strength of these solutions lies not only in their individual contribution, but in the way they come together and merge with pre-existing systems to create an open architecture for accessing data. Whether a factory uses a single Data Collection Box or the whole spread of available utilities, they see a positive result in data management. Plus, through the modular and cooperative nature of these solutions, manufacturers have the ability to implement them as needed in a way that allows for easy expansion.

Smart Solutions through AI

Once you've established an open data system, it’s time to put it to work. The application of dynamic planning and other forms of AI, such as MLnext, does just that, contributing to efficient order planning and holistic optimization.

Energy data doesn't just reflect consumption; it reflects system behavior, which can be analyzed to detect anomalies, predict operating states, and answer questions about what and why certain events occur. Through this analysis, a business can determine what processes lead to the most efficient power use and can make informed decisions on production and sustainability measures.

With Phoenix Contact's sustainability solutions, you can transform your factory's sustainability initiative from a cost center into a value center. Why waste time and capital while reducing profits to chase changing sustainability goals?

Instead, transform your plant floor into one that can understand, optimize, and meet any sustainability goal. For more information on how to maximize the value of energy monitoring, reach out to me here on LinkedIn.