The rise of servitisation for manufacturers

Nick Boughton of Boulting Technology

Engineering giant Rolls Royce pioneered servitisation in 1962 with its Power-by-the-Hour approach to jet engine maintenance management. The service, which allows operators to purchase the power used rather than a complete engine, celebrated its 55th year in 2017 and has proven extremely popular in the aerospace market.

Here, Nick Boughton, digital lead at systems integrator Boulting Technology, discusses what servitisation can offer other industries including high-volume, low-margin manufacturing.

Simply put, servitisation is the trend of selling solutions rather than products. It has been growing in popularity in recent years across sectors such as healthcare, automotive and food processing. By providing solutions, the interests of providers and consumers can become much more closely aligned.

Industry 4.0

Companies such as Siemens use servitisation as part of their Industry 4.0 offering, drawing data into a cloud platform that the end user subscribes to as part of an as-a-service model. This is a model in which the industrial business receives equipment, such as a motor, for free and is charged for its use as the ‘owner’ monitors the unit remotely and makes sure it runs as efficiently as possible.

Another important element of Industry 4.0 is the ability to apply digitalisation to the production environment by adding more intelligence to existing processes. Plants across a wide range of industry sectors contain an abundance of legacy equipment, which often has no inbuilt means of communicating with other systems.

However, these machines, which can be between 15 and 30 years old, can still perform their main functional tasks successfully. Therefore, a high-volume low margin manufacturer may be unlikely to replace it.

A wealth of ‘black boxes’ are now on the market, which can be installed alongside existing, isolated equipment to integrate it with the network. In addition, software within the system can allow for visualisation of performance metrics, making it easy for plant managers to identify targets for improvements — allowing the system to run more efficiently.

Although many products are now designed with retrofitting in mind, integration with older and even obsolete equipment could still prove challenging. Consulting an experienced systems integrator such as Boulting Technology is one way to research the possibilities and avoid costly downtime during the integration process.

In this way, retrofitted digitalisation and its benefits such as predictive maintenance, asset tracking, condition monitoring and energy measurement can all be delivered as a service.

In the case of predictive maintenance or condition monitoring, the digitalisation of equipment as a service allows for maintenance engineers to focus on looking after their existing equipment, with no additional concerns. They can benefit directly from the service, through accessing data that can be fed into their own individual maintenance schedules.

A traditional maintenance structure requires engineers to become familiar with all equipment in a plant, organising maintenance around their own schedules as much as production regimes. Often, a lack of manpower during busy times can lead to less-crucial machinery becoming neglected, which could be detrimental to the plant’s performance.

Even with remote monitoring, starting over with a brand-new maintenance plan can be a time consuming and difficult task. A detailed survey, such as Boulting’s BRISK survey, can provide a traffic-light system, which gives plants a risk profile for each piece of equipment. This can be an invaluable starting point when planning a risk-based maintenance strategy.

The offer of services such as maintenance, or digitalisation through retrofitting, to manufacturers who may not have the budget to otherwise invest in industry 4.0, could be the perfect answer for plant managers, particularly within low margin high volume sectors such as food and beverage.

Manufacturing

A plant manager needs their equipment to work effectively and efficiently, reducing its chance of unplanned breakdowns and profit loss through energy wastage. This same plant manager doesn’t mind how these goals are achieved, for the most part, they just need to be reassured that necessary work will be carried out within budget, in the most effective manner.

Other discussions are often necessary but are ultimately a fact-finding exercise to meet these objectives in the best way. Manufacturers of production equipment must recognise that their product is a platform to produce a service.

With the servitisation model, the same plant manager can purchase transportation, electricity or power, as with Rolls Royce’s customers, rather than a motor, conveyor, generator or jet engine. The model means it is no longer the client’s responsibility to ensure the final product is delivered, whether this is power, transportation or electricity.

Servitisation is a growing area that many manufacturers, particularly within the high volume, low margin sector, could benefit from. Similarly, digitalisation of legacy equipment can connect machinery to the network and bring about the benefits of industry 4.0. In addition, it can provide a wealth of data that can be fed back to predictive maintenance schedules.

With a manageable monthly budget, engineers can use data produced to avoid downtime, which is extremely costly for high volume low margin manufacturers and the aerospace industry alike.

The author of this blog is Nick Boughton, digital lead at systems integrator Boulting Technology

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Semtech enhances global connectivity with NTN support in HL78 modules

Posted on: March 29, 2024

Semtech Corporation has announced the integration of non-terrestrial network (NTN) support into its HL series LPWA modules, specifically the HL7810 and HL7812. This significant advancement showcases a leap forward in enabling uninterrupted global connectivity even amidst the most challenging conditions.

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more