Three sustainability outcomes IIoT helps manufacturers achieve

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) enables manufacturers to more easily access their data. And once readily available, teams can start leveraging industrial applications, models, and other tools to gain critical insights into more efficient data usage. By connecting IoT devices, sensors, and other data points, teams can uncover strategies to increase energy efficiency, provide and improve automation, and assist with energy-led decision-making. 

However, centralizing production data is essentially a launchpad to turning data into intelligence. More strategy and work is required to make it take off.

If you’re looking for strategies to better track and manage your sustainability KPIs and impact, IIoT may be the launchpad you need.

IIoT embraces DataOps by connecting different data sources into a new, more user-friendly format.  One advantage of IIoT is its quick implementation time and time to value. Its flexibility lends itself to either pre-built use cases that can be highly customized or the infrastructure to build applications. 

Examples of Sustainability Outcomes from IIoT

Using Data Visualization for Water Reduction

No matter the industry or product, companies need access to large volumes of water. Water is an indispensable resource. Manufacturers can reduce water consumption by monitoring and getting compelling insights into the water used in their operation and production. Various industries must also adhere to specific water treatment processes and quality regulations. 

There are various actions manufacturers can take to reduce water consumption and monitor quality during manufacturing processes. Historically, manufacturers monitored water systems manually once a month, and it took a lot of work to get reliable and consistent data and respond efficiently. Now, you need to be able to monitor the quality and pressure of the water in your process and locate any equipment water problems at any time of day. 

Water management can be smarter with IIoT solutions that automatically monitor and alert on the amount of water consumed by each piece of equipment.

IIoT Is a comprehensive and fast solution with actionable data available in real-time. These solutions can help you to manage your water system with a simplified dashboard to monitor quality, safety, and water leakage to take preventative action when needed. With this level of control, manufacturers reduce risk, save money, and increase operational efficiency.

A paper products manufacturer in CPG aimed to reduce the consumption of steam used to evaporate the water in the paper. They used the two-year historical data to build  Digital Twins of their process. Then,  they leveraged the Advanced Analysis App to identify critical (and optimal!) settings that display live settings on dashboards for frontline teams.

Using Braincube’s innovative solutions and applications, this CPG manufacturer was able to save 5.3 tons of water.

Condition Monitoring Drives Lower Consumption 

Understanding energy usage is a key step toward sustainable manufacturing. And IIoT can help you to identify areas to focus your efforts.

An IIoT platform continuously collects your production data to analyze and identify threads for process optimization. Once you have this data in a usable format, you can decide what optimizations will be less disruptive, and most beneficial to your production needs. These trends found within your data allow you to set production models and leverage self-service analytics that can reduce energy costs. 

Say you want to understand what happens when you power down or reduce equipment use during certain times (i.e., planned maintenance, product changeover, etc.). Is it beneficial to only keep equipment on when in use, or is there a better way? Do you reduce consumption if your process is slower or faster somewhere in the middle? Identifying these trends will allow manufacturers to set a production model to help consume less energy with notifications on over-energy consumption and monitor blackouts. 

As energy costs continue to rise and companies are focusing more and more on sustainability efforts, monitoring and controlling energy usage can not only control costs but can help reach sustainability metrics. Yet without a clear platform to monitor and report on your progress, initiatives can get lost in the daily shuffle. 

IIoT devices and solutions collect data so that they can more efficiently analyze how much energy is used, potentially identifying areas for improvement with energy optimization. With the Braincube IIoT Platform, manufacturers can reduce the cost of energy by consistently monitoring and addressing energy problems. Of course, there are many more opportunities for cost savings, but you must first establish this baseline before taking on too much.

Sappi, a leader in the paper industry, has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 230,000 tonnes per year by leveraging out-of-the-box Braincube applications to create dashboards, run reports and more IIoT solutions.

Driving Carbon Optimizations with Self-Service AI

It’s inevitable that production processes will release gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during manufacturing, transportation, and other business activities. Reducing the carbon footprint and enhancing sustainability are growing priorities for manufacturers. One of the options to solve this problem is to reduce carbon output during the manufacturing process. 

While that might sound obvious, collecting the necessary data to calculate your carbon footprint can be challenging, and reducing it is even more challenging. Details about gasses released through direct and indirect activities need different types of data points. They may come from expenses, audit reports, or data from each business operation. Those reports likely are delayed, have limited access or availability, and are in different formats. Many manufacturers use IIoT solutions for more efficient ways to reduce their footprint.

By integrating IoT systems and devices, like IRGA and CO2 sensors, manufacturers can monitor their carbon production and reduce their carbon footprint. These systems can help create carbon emission reports to develop accurate action plans and inform customer investors. 

The Production Standards App from Braincube allows you to centralize, align, and leverage production standards companywide via the IIoT Platform. Doing so creates stronger operational efficiency as reporting and instructions can be automated. Now, teams can control operating processes and variables by sharing and displaying up-to-date production standards on the shop floor.

Moving beyond monitoring and reporting, Braincube’s Digital Twins can improve visibility to ensure manufacturers comply with carbon emission regulations. Digital Twins can follow your energy sources and provide insights and recommendations around your key sustainability goals, such as carbon reduction. Digital Twins can be used with AI, such as the CrossRankAI by comparing historical carbon data to live (or optimal) conditions.

For example, a mines and metals manufacturer and Braincube customer wanted to adhere to ISO 50001 standards by reducing their annual energy consumption costs. Using Braincube’s robust technology, they gained access to data that discovered new opportunities in energy management that reduced their gas consumption by 19%. 

Another compelling example is from Braincube customer Sappi. This leading paper manufacturer reduced 230,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually using Braincube’s ready-to-use apps to build dashboards, run reports, and other IIoT Solutions.  

Conclusion

IIoT solutions make data more accessible, and business results more attainable. When it comes to sustainability, use cases include leveraging data visualization to reduce and manage water and energy consumption and using AI to understand the carbon footprint of your operations. 

With the right access to the right data, industries can convert this data into actionable insights that impact the sustainability of the planet and, in turn your business. 

Braincub’s advanced apps, Digital Twins, and a team of industry experts can help manufacturers achieve green manufacturing.