#cimcon digital

The global steel market reached a value of US$ 874.6 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach a value of US$ 1,052.25 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 3.02% during 2022-2027. Significant growth in the automotive industry across the globe is creating a positive outlook for the market. But with growth comes a lot of challenges in the steel manufacturing process. Companies in the industry face major challenges with rapid digitalization and unlocking potential in data, shifts in consumer demands, and the attraction of top talents.

Unlocking the potential in digitalization and data

The development of smart factories for automated production to streamline production and support functions will be a giant step for players competing in the field for efficient practices. Investment in digital technologies will be a vital step in promoting effective virtual work to enhance actions across operations ranging from maintenance to customer support functions. The utilization of data in the metals industry will be a disruptor in the valuation of the products and services provided by the industry. Digitally-integrated products and services will become the new norm. Skills in IT and digital technologies will become a vital requirement across industries in order to manage highly valuable IT infrastructures and digital functions.

Shifts in Consumer Demands

By the year 2040, consumer demands for product and service standards will be altered drastically by trends affecting everyday lives. The global population will grow by 25% by the year 2040, causing concerns in demand expectations for industries heavily involved in infrastructural developments such as construction and transportation.  More than 68% of people will be living in urban areas by the year 2050, therefore the metals industry must meet demands from rapid urbanization. Metals will be vital players in the development of sustainable and smart infrastructures globally as investments in infrastructure are projected to increase along with the growing population and growing middle class. 

Talent Drought

With developing technologies and evolving working cultures, talent acquisition for top talents is a constant challenge in the eyes of employers. This is a current issue in the metals industry that will carry on into the future – especially with talent with modern technologies for functions such as plant management and maintenance. Industries like metals must make strong efforts in building reputable brands for employment that meet the desires of the potential talent for future generational challenges.

With all these challenges in place, steel and metal industries must look into the future in order to maintain the assets, have proper data management in place, and with a talent shortage, more automation should be there for increasing operational efficiency. Some of the ways by which steel industries can improve their manufacturing plants are listed below

Predictive Maintenance using artificial intelligence

Due to the mass automation of the smart metals plant, physical access to the plant is mainly required in order to maintain equipment and machinery. Utilizing artificial intelligence, maintenance can be scheduled according to the production schedules onsite, reducing lag time and delays. Immediate repairs that may cause halts to production can be communicated and coordinated between onsite engineers and digital control managers. Onsite or offsite, maintenance can be assisted digitally from start to finish. For example, with the use of Vibration sensors and Edge devices, employees can receive real-time assistance and guidance about the machine’s health and the actions needed to be taken. These tools provide step-by-step instructions and guidelines required in order to carry out maintenance operations – they will guide employees through what maintenance work needs to be done and in what order in order to ensure efficiency and prevent mistakes. As the maintenance is managed digitally, data will be collected on maintenance processes and improved automatically. 

Digitalization and Data Integration

With rapid digitalization in the metals industry, the organization must be able to manage a vast amount of data collected throughout the entire production process and the ecosystem surrounding the plant. Integrating collaborative data management into the metals production cycle is imperative in managing production cycles, shipments, resource management, and maintenance of equipment and machinery in order to develop a streamlined production process. For eg with the help of Vibration sensors, the steel manufacturers read the data in real-time and analyze the anomaly using various AI/ML methods. Based on the data and insights from the expert’s team, the team can take necessary actions based on the data provided to alert the users and take proactive actions to reduce unplanned downtimes.

Digitally Driven employees

A majority of plant operations will be controlled virtually and remotely in the coming years. With the development of AI/ML technologies, Edge computing, and predictive maintenance, processes can be controlled and supervised in real-time. Due to the exponential improvements in automation and the vast amounts of data collected, human interaction with these processes is mainly limited to maintenance, process development, and attention to special, unpredicted situations. A majority of the work in day-to-day processes will be the development of digital technologies and IT infrastructures controlling the automated processes in the plant. With talent shortages in the future, companies like CIMCON Digital can act as the partner who can help the employees by providing the data in real-time, and automating the processes, so that the employees need to act only when it is required instead of manual intervention.

Benefits of the steel industry with Digitalization

There are several machines used in Steel and Metal industries like De scaler pumps, Cooling towers, Downstream and upstream rolling mills, Piercing mills, and many others. All these machines can have unwanted issues and if not managed properly can cause huge delays in the introduction and unplanned downtimes, leading to huge losses. With the advent of technology and hardware like Vibration sensors, Edge Computing merged with AI/ML technologies, steel manufacturers can not only reduce losses but improve the health of the assets, thereby improving operational efficiency. 

Some of the major benefits of implementing the latest technology are

Real-time monitoring of critical equipment’s health 

Prioritizing and planning maintenance before catastrophic failure

Reduce the risk to safety operators with remote monitoring

Reduce planned downtime and eliminate unplanned downtime

Reduce process and quality-related issues

Increase equipment efficiency and reduce carbon emissions

Conclusion

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced and technologically advanced world, the need for efficient and proactive asset management is paramount for businesses to stay competitive. CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform emerges as a game-changer in the realm of Predictive Maintenance, empowering organizations to detect anomalies in advance using ML algorithms. This capability not only enables customers to plan schedules well in advance and avoid costly downtime but also provides real-time visibility into the remaining useful life of assets. In this article, we delve into how CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform revolutionizes Predictive Maintenance with practical examples of proactive asset management.

1. The Challenge of Reactive Maintenance

Traditionally, companies have been plagued by reactive maintenance practices, where assets are repaired or replaced only after failures occur. This reactive approach leads to unexpected downtime, reduced productivity, and increased maintenance costs. Predicting asset failures and planning maintenance schedules in advance is critical to ensure smooth operations, optimize resource allocation, and minimize overall downtime.

2. Empowering Proactive Maintenance with ML Algorithms

CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform is equipped with advanced Machine Learning algorithms that analyze real-time data from connected assets and machines. By continuously monitoring sensor data and historical performance trends, the platform can accurately detect anomalies and deviations from normal operating patterns. This proactive approach allows businesses to predict potential asset failures well in advance, providing ample time to schedule maintenance activities before any critical failures occur.

3. Planning Ahead to Avoid Downtime

Imagine a scenario in a manufacturing facility where a critical piece of equipment experiences an unexpected failure. The consequences could be disastrous, leading to costly downtime and missed production targets. With CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform in place, the same equipment would be continuously monitored in real-time. As soon as the platform detects any unusual behavior or signs of potential failure, it triggers an alert to the maintenance team.

Armed with this early warning, the maintenance team can plan the necessary repairs or replacements well in advance, avoiding unplanned downtime and minimizing disruption to production schedules. This capability not only ensures smooth operations but also optimizes maintenance resources and lowers the overall maintenance costs.

4. Real-Time Visibility into Asset Health

The IoT Edge Platform goes beyond detecting anomalies; it also provides real-time insights into the remaining useful life of assets. By analyzing historical performance data and asset health indicators, the platform estimates the remaining operational life of an asset with high accuracy.

Consider a scenario in a utility company managing a fleet of aging turbines. The maintenance team needs to know the remaining useful life of each turbine to plan proactive maintenance and avoid sudden breakdowns. With CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform, the team can access real-time information on the health of each turbine, enabling them to make data-driven decisions about maintenance schedules, parts replacement, and resource allocation.

5. Benefits of CIMCON Digital's IoT Edge Platform

CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform offers a host of benefits to businesses seeking to enhance their Predictive Maintenance capabilities:

a) Proactive Decision-making: By detecting anomalies in advance, the platform enables proactive decision-making, reducing reactive responses and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

b) Minimized Downtime: With the ability to schedule maintenance activities in advance, businesses can avoid costly downtime, leading to increased productivity and higher customer satisfaction.

c) Optimal Resource Allocation: The platform’s real-time visibility into asset health allows for better resource allocation, ensuring that maintenance efforts are targeted where they are most needed.

d) Cost Savings: By avoiding unexpected failures and optimizing maintenance schedules, businesses can significantly reduce maintenance costs and improve their bottom line.

Conclusion:

CIMCON Digital, a division of CIMCON Software (I) PVT LTD with a relentless focus on facilitating a digital world through preventive and predictive maintenance products and solutions, announced today that it has been named the most promising technology company founded and managed by an Indian in the United States in 2022. The award is significant for the organization because it demonstrates how the CIMCON Digital team is reshaping industry 4.0 by using the latest technological advancements to manufacture, improve, and distribute products.

“The award signifies how the employees of CIMCON Digital are putting in efforts to envision a world where all industrial assets are connected and can be monitored and controlled in real-time for maximum productivity and improved bottom line,” said Anil Agrawal, CEO, and Founder of CIMCON Digital and CIMCON Software (I) Pvt Ltd. “Each and every employee had an equal contribution in making this vision a reality and we are all thrilled to be awarded one of the most promising technology companies.”

Silicon India publishes exclusive and authentic content through stories of burgeoning entrepreneurs, outstanding technologists, and accomplished CXOs, along with business analysis, leading technology trends, and opinions. Through these awards, Silicon India wants to create a single operational workflow that interconnects business silos across their enterprise harmoniously and enables multiple teams to come together as a whole to work for progress.

“With the most promising technology company award, we want to assist our readers in understanding the right technology partner and for the same, we do through research of the organizations and search endlessly to find the top Indian-origin US Tech companies that are well-versed to deliver a collective operational workflow management system.” said one of the top representatives at Silicon India.

Industry 4.0 is reshaping how companies manufacture, improve and distribute products. The next big thing is edge computing, which allows manufacturers to ingest, process, and analyze data in real-time on the machine itself. Unfortunately, many plant owners still operate without real-time visibility into their operations, adversely impacting the bottom line. CIMCON Digital challenges this status quo with its modern, powerful, and easy-to-use industrial platform, CIM 360, and a preventive maintenance solution using VIBit.

CIMCON Digital also focuses on the enterprise-wide deployment of the CIM 360 with its iCloud. It ensures the quick provisioning, authorization, and authentication of edge devices from a web-based, centralized management platform. “We are thrilled to be awarded from Silicon India and we will continue to strive forward in reshaping the industry 4.0 going above and beyond,” said Anil Agrawal. About CIMCON Digital CIMCON Digital was spun out as a division of CIMCON Software (I) Pvt. Ltd. with a relentless focus to help facilitate a digital world through our products and solutions. We at CIMCON Digital make it all happen behind the scenes. We believe that technology is just a means and not an end. We have worked hard for 33 years to make technology as seamless as possible so that you, the user, do not have to see the technology, you only see the outcomes being delivered, be it better customer satisfaction, improved margins, doing more with less.   About SiliconIndia Silicon India entails the editorial coverage of successful entrepreneurs, proficient CEOs, industry leaders, well-versed technologists, and many others.

It brings in the nuances of both US and Indian technologies across the content delivered and stands as one of the largest ecosystems encompassing the perspectives and business ideas of eminent professionals in the world. Silicon India has been seamlessly impacting the lives of emerging entrepreneurs, businesses, students, and a lot of others since its inception in 1997. Today, Silicon India is eminent for the circulation of around 96,000 hard copies across PAN India with 4 lakh readers and 47,000 downloads of e-Magazines.

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Contact Detail

CIMCON Digital,

Ahmedabad

Anil Agrawal

[email protected]