Industry 4.0. initial inspection

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE INITIAL INSPECTION

General facility information

General facility information includes:

- the company’s full and short name

- description of the company’s main activities

EXAMPLE

Company name: “Production site of the Customer
Objects of inspection: Facility No.1

The Customer’s office – production planning and management of activities aimed at reaching the production targets. The Customer’s city of location houses a production facility designed to produce the Customer’s product.

N – the Customer’s production site.
Site 1. Pit М
Site 2. Pit Н
Site 3. Facility R
Site N. Concentrator Plant

The final products of the circuit include:
Product 1
...;
Product n.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPANY

Grasping the customer’s expectations
Conducting a feasibility study to justify the functionality of the system

Strategic goal:

To enhance the financial sustainability of the company by minimising costs while maintaining the current level of products and services.

The above information can be obtained:

formally from the Customer’s representatives if the corresponding document has been issued and is allowed to be disclosed to third parties – i.e. to the Contractor;
as a result of a conversation with the commercial or other responsible department of the customer or with the management.

EXAMPLE

Company name: “Production site of the Customer
Objects of inspection: Facility No.1

N – the Customer’s production site.
Site 1. Pit М
Site 2. Pit Н
Site 3. Facility R
Site N. Concentrator Plant

The final products of the circuit include:
Product 1
...;
Product n.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

The information for the organizational chart can be obtained from a human resources officer. Contact information (phone numbers, email addresses) of the specialists/departments included in the organizational chart should also be obtained.

defining the scope of applicability;
compiling a list of employees to be surveyed (potential key/end users, experts, all who is interested);
compiling a list of employees to be included in the communication matrix (potential key/end users, experts, all who is interested).

Example (mining industry)

EXISTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

the number of associated systems that the new system will need to be integrated with during implementation
integratability with existing systems.

The data can be obtained from the Software Development and IT Support Departments

EXAMPLE

Data acquisition and integration:

Smart Mine
ERP
Document Management
Maintenance
Geobank
Integration Gate

Vendor
Process Control
SRM
CAS
BI
HCM

Vendor 1
Vendor 2
...
Vendor n

AVAILABLE EQUIPMENT

analysing if any auxiliary equipment will be necessary to deploy the new system;
checking the technical data of the equipment against the software requirements

This information can be obtained from the process control or IT departments or from the company’s service providers

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Описание технологического процесса - описание характера и особенностей производств и технологических процессов предприятия, с указанием:

production sequence;
operational features;
means of process automation.

This information is necessary for:

estimating the number of monitored and adjustable parameters;
identifying the critical process stages;
defining the system’s scope of applicability;
developing solutions (estimating the automation potential, as well as the possibility to collect and integrate data)
estimating the functionality of the future system.

These data can be found in the guidelines (process guidelines and job descriptions) adopted by the company.

EXAMPLE

MATERIAL FLOW DIAGRAM

material flow;
points along the route;
navigation between the points;
material flow identification points (if available).

This information is necessary for:

pre-estimating if an end-to-end identification system can be implemented;
designating the points of the route;
estimating the number of monitored and adjustable parameters;
estimating the amount of data to be integrated with the existing automation systems.

These data can be obtained from the process guidelines and job descriptions and from the employees involved in the process. It is necessary to document discrepancies found between the actual work process and the regulatory documentation.

EXAMPLE

BUSINESS PROCESSES

A MODEL OF TOP-LEVEL BUSINESS PROCESSES

The processes should be divided in 3 groups:

managerial processes: Such processes ensure operations management
key processes: Operations that are directly related to the company’s product
support processes: Execution of the key processes

EXAMPLE

BOTTLENECKS

All the drawbacks related to the existing automation systems or operating procedures pointed out by the Customer in conversations should be documented. If a bottleneck falls on the borderline of the system applicability, one of the following options should be applied:

develop a solution to eliminate the bottleneck (if possible);
regard it as an unavoidable project risk and keep it under control.

EXAMPLE

The following bottlenecks have been identified in the existing production planning system:

the lack of a single information environment for scheduling and planning, as well as for discussing and approving plans and schedules;
Microsoft Excel is used for production scheduling and planning and for the approval procedure;
the paperwork related to scheduling and planning are stored in the file server (a network resource).
the document exchange related to the planning processes is realized via email;

GLOSSARY

A MODEL OF TOP-LEVEL BUSINESS PROCESSES

important professional terminology;
key objects of automation;
key processes of the object of automation;
specific abbreviations used by the responsible personnel;
specific abbreviations used in the IT sphere

A glossary is compiled following meetings with the Customer and upon analysis of the Customer’s documentation (initial data) and the contractor’s reports

EXAMPLE