In this rapidly evolving world, digital transformation is crucial for businesses to remain competitive.
This is as true for SME manufacturers as it is for the massive multinational players.
Despite this, adoption of digital technologies has not been as fast as it could be, particularly in SMEs. For example, many smaller manufacturers still keep records on paper and enter data into spreadsheets manually; old technologies that are slow and inefficient.
There can be many reasons for this inertia against digital transformation: a lack of funds, a reluctance to jump into the digital unknown, a general scepticism about the real value are just three factors.
In this article I want to introduce a new tool I have been working on that aims to remove some of these barriers and so help SMEs take their first steps in digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation?
A good way to think about digital transformation is the transition away from slow and inefficient processes (like paper-based data collection) to fast digital systems with a high-level of automation and on-demand data availability.
There are lots of aspects to digital transformation, but here I want to focus on one particular problem that faces manufacturers. This problem is often a good start to a digital transformation journey as it is one of the lowest hanging fruits: keeping track of machine activity.
Simply being aware of when machinery is active or sitting idle can enable production managers to make better decisions about production patterns that then yield real savings. For instance, just knowing that some machines are often left powered on for no reason can be transformational in itself!
OpenMachineMonitoring is a tool that will address this simple but valuable requirement.
Enter OpenMachineMonitoring
In terms of functionality OpenMachineMonitoring is not novel; there are many tools on the market that will connect to industrial assets, ingest activity data, visualise that data and perform analytics. All are very capable products that do what they say on the tin.
Where OpenMachineMonitoring starts to differentiate itself is hinted at in the name; OpenMachineMonitoring is open.
The Path is Open
One of my favourite pieces of software is the 3D modelling tool Blender. Over the last 20+ years Blender has transformed the landscape of 3D, opening up the discipline to countless people who would not have been able to pursue 3D art otherwise.
Blender has had this impact because it is free and open source; anyone can download and use it. Anyone can also make their own changes to the codebase and contribute to its development.
Openness has encouraged a huge community to grow up around Blender providing in-depth how-to guides, courses, new features and add-ons to augment and enhance functionality. More people getting involved inevitably sparks more activity and innovation resulting in numerous new businesses and revenue streams (educators, freelancers, independent studios, content creators and more).
It’s clear that open-source software like Blender have been tremendous forces for positive change in all sorts fields.
It’s for this reason that I wanted to make OpenMachineMonitoring open.
By being open, the intention is for many of the barriers preventing many SME manufacturers progressing their digital transformations will fall away.
Barrier #1: “Digital transformation is too expensive for us”
With OpenMachineMonitoring there is no need for significant up front investment.
The only upfront cost will be the hardware you use to measure electricity consumption; this can be as simple or “industrial” as you want it to be. As long as the data comes in a format OpenMachineMonitoring can deal with.
You are not forced to buy hardware that can only be used with OpenMachineMonitoring.
It’s worth noting that OpenMachineMonitoring does use some cloud software components that can incur cost; namely the MQTT server (HiveMQ) and the time series database (InfluxDB). However, the products I have used for OpenMachineMonitoring so far have generous free tiers that would be more than enough to get an idea of whether the tool adds value.
I have plans to make OpenMachineMonitoring capable of using different solutions to give extra flexibility; it is already possible to choose alternative MQTT server providers.
Barrier #2: “We really aren’t sure about what value we’ll get”
With OpenMachineMonitoring people can progress at their own rate, sympathetic to the needs of their business.
With no dependence on a vendor, users are in complete control over how fast and far they go with the OpenMachineMonitoring tool.
If you only want to connect one machine for three days next week, you can do that. If you want to jump straight to connecting your entire workshop, you can do that too!
Barrier #3: “We can’t be sure the solution will keep delivering for us”
With OpenMachineMonitoring everything is transparent.
People can inspect the code, make adjustments to functionality to suit their needs, and contribute back to the community if they wish.
This is good not only because a user can tweak things to suit their precise needs, but, as the community grows they can also benefit hugely from the contributions by other similar users.
The Journey Begins
At the time of writing, I have been working on OpenMachineMonitoring for about 3 weeks so it is still at an early stage. There is a long way to go but I believe this project has the potential to offer real value to SME manufacturers who are struggling with digital transformation.
Next Steps
I have 3 priorities in the short term:
Code Refactoring: OpenMachineMonitoring started as a personal project. As such there is some code refactoring to be done before it is in a state ready to be released and properly trialled.
Awareness: I have created this website/blog to host news and helpful information about OpenMachineMonitoring and its development.
Early Adopters: In addition to raising awareness I will also be creating more content like how-to guides and explainers to help people who might want to use OpenMachineMonitoring get up to speed quickly.
Reach Out
Please feel free to reach out, comment and let me know what you think.
You can comment here or get in touch with me on LinkedIn, Twitter or Threads.