RS, a trading brand of RS Group plc and a digitally enabled global distributor of product and service solutions for industrial customers, has officially announced the launch of multiple Industry 4.0 technologies designed to help energy and utility organizations overcome pervasive challenges and achieve ambitious modernization goals. To understand the significance of such a development, though, we must acknowledge how the stated organizations, at present, have to face significant challenges like downtime, skilled labor shortages, and inefficiencies that affect every industrial market segment, with their cumulative effects only more disastrous. Expanding upon that through one example, an average manufacturer experiences 800 hours of equipment downtime a year, which costs industrial organizations almost $1.5 trillion during that period, roughly 50% more than it did in 2019–2020 and all largely due to spiraling inflation and production lines running at higher capacities. On top of that, the manufacturing skills gap in the U.S. is now projected to result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030, something which could alone cost the industry more than $1 trillion in 2030. Against that, more and more industrial organizations have embraced Industry 4.0 trends, ranging from electrification, digitalization, and automation to remote condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. This they have done by integrating smart technologies, such as smart meters, IIoT sensors, asset management solutions, and industrial data communications solutions, the result being that industrial organizations with even the harshest operating environments succeeding in achieving significant process optimization, efficiency, productivity, quality, safety, and profitability improvements.
Having referred to the initial bits and bobs, we now must talk about what all is packed into RS’ bid to leverage Industry 4.0. For starters, we have the company’s remote condition monitoring solutions like smart meters and sensors, equipped with IO-Link communication capabilities, that can all come together to help energy and utility companies collect more actionable data and access, analyze, and leverage it efficiently. With such solutions, energy and utility companies can spare employees from traversing sprawling facilities and installations rife with safety hazards, free up available employees up for more complex tasks, reduce labor costs, and support predictive maintenance strategies that eliminate unplanned downtime. Furthermore, these remote solutions can also enable smart grids capable of managing and balancing the intermittent flow of renewable energy and integrating it into the electrical grid, which in turn, boosts energy efficiency and reliability. It also makes renewable energy more accessible to fuel adoption and reduce energy costs.
Next up, we have RG’s Asset management solutions, where users can access PLCs, along with edge and cloud computing systems. This makes for a crucial detail, considering PLCs have long been the crux of automated process systems. In essence, they ensure that data received from I/O modules and systems is able to dispatch programmed responses based on those sensor inputs to output devices that affecting the process. These devices include pumps, heaters, actuators, and more. In the given environment, I/O modules will typically transmit information from a single I/O point to a PLC, whereas I/O systems will feature higher channel densities and bonus features, like diagnostics, that are ideal for more complex application environments. Joining the mix would be an assortment of industrial l data communications products, like switches, gateways, routers, and protocol converters, that promise to facilitate the secure, real-time transmission of data. This data, on its part, aids optimization, productivity, efficiency, quality, safety, and profitability improvements
“RS is well experienced in helping energy and utility organizations navigate the complexities of industrial market challenges, ranging from downtime and skilled labor shortages to inefficiencies,” said Mark Russell, Technical Application Support Manager at RS. “We help organizations embrace Industry 4.0 trends — including electrification, digitalization, automation, remote condition monitoring, and predictive maintenance — and implement advanced Industry 4.0 technologies, ranging from sensors and IIoT networks to asset management solutions and industrial data communications products. In addition, our experienced customer support — which spans the design, build, and maintenance phases — is backed by the breadth and depth of our product offerings.”
