Honeywell will be using cloud-based technology to optimize energy consumption and asset use at its Kodama turbocharger plant in Saitama, Japan.
The proprietary Connected Plant Asset Performance technology allows the company’s Transportation Systems business to remotely identify, analyze and optimize energy consumption at the plant and on the factory’s connected field devices. The platform is designed to help maximize the effectiveness and life span of plant assets, reducing unnecessary maintenance, off-peak performance and downtime.
The technology integrates and analyzes data from assets, equipment and plant processes in the cloud, using an Internet of Things (IoT) approach. It then creates and applies real-time analytical models to monitor and predict their performance. Those models are continuously monitored and analyzed against Honeywell’s extensive library of process models, predictive modeling, best practices and the individual plant’s own performance history. The company claims this removes data silos and helps plants avoid critical asset failures and unplanned shutdowns.
The process at the Kodama plant operates in three stages, starting with collecting data from almost 70 field devices such as power meters and air compressors that are connected remotely to the centralized database.
The technology then combines this data with process data to devise analytics and key performance indicators on asset performance and energy consumption. Using big data analytics and machine learning, it rigorously simulates multiple scenarios to determine the best way to deploy assets and processes.
Finally, the software’s Optimization Advisor communicates the results through a secure user-friendly dashboard to plant managers. It also makes predictions and offers solutions to maximize the energy consumption and productivity of each asset, as well as the overall plant.
This data integrates with Honeywell’s third-party ISO 50001 energy management system.
Honeywell works with automakers to help them meet strict global environmental standards and is applying those efforts to their own energy consumption.
“With Asset Performance, we can monitor asset performance details and, for example, detect air leaks in the manufacturing units, which directly allows us to reduce energy usage and avoid excess cost,” said Yasuhiro Kinoshita of Honeywell Transportation Systems, Japan.
Honeywell’s connected plant technology is growing in popularity. The Kodama plant is the first facility in Asia to use the technology. Earlier this year, Sasol South Africa became the first company in Africa to deploy the technology in its refineries. As Industrial IoT and big data analytics continue to be deployed by production facilities across the globe, technologies such as Honeywell’s cloud-based product will likely be more in demand.
Read more about the evolution of connected factories at Video: Smart Factory Metrology Management Software.