Industry 4.0: Paving the Way Towards Sustainable Manufacturing Goals

By? Sarang Gujarathi ?|| Associate Director - Client Relations,?Solulever

Compared to other sectors, the industrial sector uses maximum delivered energy - 54% of the total global energy consumption. Within the industrial sector, the manufacturing industry ranks as the highest energy consumer, followed by the mining, construction, and agricultural sectors. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the percentage share of industrial energy consumption by the manufacturing sector was 77% in the year 2020.

As environmental concerns continue to rise globally, the majority of industries, enterprises, and governments have started taking serious initiatives toward the reduction of their carbon footprint. Several countries including the UK, France, New Zealand, and Norway signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, with an ambition to reach net-zero emissions by the year 2050. India aims to reduce its projected carbon footprint by 1 billion tonnes by the year 2030. Their ambition is to meet more than 50% of their energy requirement through renewable energy by this time. The US has set a target to reach 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.

The issue of sustainability is prime for the manufacturing sector. Governments in different countries are taking steps to incentivize sustainable manufacturing and accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Even from an internal cost perspective, energy is a significant cost component in the manufacturing world and there is an ever-pressing need to optimize it for gaining a competitive edge in the market.

Technology has always played a significant role in the efforts toward energy optimization. The recent developments in the Industry 4.0 space, have taken the potential of data-led initiatives several notches higher in this direction. For example - real-time energy monitoring and energy control-oriented analytics are particularly of great value. Having said that, careful use of technology is a must to avoid these initiatives becoming counter-productive. Most of the solutions in this space require increased use of connected devices, which in turn leads to additional energy consumption.

Record: To create a baseline and to monitor energy consumption continuously, manufacturers need technologies that establish holistic connectivity on the shop floor, especially with the production equipment, supporting devices, energy meters, IoT sensors etc. Complexities here are majorly around the variety of communication protocols involved, a broad spectrum of integration needed, data volumes/velocity/variety, and OEM restriction, to name a few.

Analyze: Depending on the use case envisioned, manufacturers may require both or either ‘real-time’ and ‘post-facto analytical possibilities. It is also needed to have a real-time feed from IT systems for analyzing energy consumption around business variables like Batch ID, SKU number, Customer ID, Raw Material etc. Therefore a strong & real-time OT-IT integration becomes a must-have.

Improvise: The insights from analytics pave the way for timely actions towards improvement, optimization and cost avoidance. The insights are generally suggestive, that need to be acted upon at speed by stakeholders like operators, plant supervisors, automation engineers, plant management, continuous improvement team etc. Once a good level of confidence is established in the insights, closed-loop systems can be implemented to automate the actions towards energy optimization and proactive cost avoidance.

Brabo Edge Platform? is one of the recent developments which helps manufacturers achieve the ambitions spelt above and beyond. Brabo is a Manufacturing Connectivity & Intelligence platform developed by?Solulever, a Dutch software startup, with an exclusive focus on the topic of Digital Manufacturing. Brabo is built on open integration, OT-first, Hybrid, Microservices and Headless architectural principles. These architectural choices make Brabo standout in the market, in terms of its comprehensive connectivity, high flexibility, intense scalability and extreme performance, while suiting almost any variety of OT/IT tech landscape existing in a manufacturing plant. The business value derived by the manufacturing operations ranges across the areas of asset utilization, material efficiency, quality improvement, energy optimization, sustainable manufacturing, operator enablement, labour efficiency, process improvement, service management and more.

Dive into the insights and strategies for reducing energy consumption, optimizing productivity, and achieving a circular economy. Learn how technology, like our revolutionary Brabo Edge Platform?, enables real-time energy monitoring and analytics for actionable improvements. Don't miss out on this revolution in the making!

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About the author:

Sarang Gujarathi || Associate Director - Client Relations

Sarang, Associate Director - Client Relations at Solulever, brings over 11+ years of experience working with leading manufacturing solution providers. His extensive background spans various industries, including Chemical, Pharma, CPG, Automotive, and Metal, among others. At present, he is spearheading sales at Solulever, with a focus on selling cutting-edge Industry 4.0 solutions and disrupting the manufacturing space with digital transformation.?