Efficient Plant May 2022 - 11

feature | legacy assets
Extend
TODAY, THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
manufacturing organizations recognize that
sustainability is not only good for business
but is also integral to the way products
are marketed, purchased, and operated. It
should infl uence all decisions about engineering,
operations, and maintenance, from
machinery selection, maintenance scheduling,
process control, materials, and component
management, to investment planning,
and health and safety management.
Improving the performance and optimizing
the effi ciency of legacy machinery not
only makes fi nancial sense, it's also far more
sustainable than buying new equipment. If
the purchase of expensive capital assets can
MAY 2022
be deferred by extending the life of existing
assets, it has a direct impact on cash fl ow.
However, there comes a point when investing
in new equipment is necessary to overcome
ineffi ciencies in existing machinery or
to remain competitive due to a step-change
in technology.
Working out which assets to replace and
when is a complex process involving a thorough
life-cycle cost analysis. Th is involves
factors such as the purchase price, running
costs, output, maintenance costs, energy
consumption, and the labor and parts costs
of a new machine, compared to an existing
one. It's rarely as simple as saying that older
assets are ineffi cient and more energy
Implementing Industry
4.0 technology on
existing machinery
contributes to
Lifespans
Legacy Assetegacy Ass
Legacy Asset
overall operational
overall operational
sustainability.
Alexander Hill
Senseye
intensive than more recent models.
To optimize the accuracy and eff ectiveness
of analytics soſt ware, real-time data
needs to be enriched with data on the
maintenance and performance history of
equipment. Th is helps machine-learning
algorithms make more accurate predictions
about how that equipment may perform in
the future and how components degrade,
helping to inform decisions on when to
invest in new assets.
BENEFITS OF INDUSTRY 4.0
In many factories, operators have worked
with their machines for a long time and
have become accustomed to making
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Efficient Plant May 2022

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