The Importance of IoT and Paperless Operations in Indonesian Manufacturing

In manufacturing IoT, data on product and machine performance and maintenance information is collected to conduct operational and trend management for predictive maintenance. This allows for the prevention of machine downtime and performance degradation analysis, directly enhancing productivity.

Minimizing Physical Contact Through Paperless Operations

Our company has advocated for paperless operations as the first task in improving the operations of Japanese companies in Indonesia. The main reason is not just cost reduction through paper savings, but also preventing transcription errors of performance data onto paper. However, customer responses have often been, "It's difficult right now, but we want to address it in the next budget," not viewing it as an urgent issue.

However, with the spread of COVID-19, paperless operations have become an urgent issue.

Case: Paperless operations have been discussed for over 20 years, but "efficiency improvement and paper savings" often lead to "no budget, maybe next time." However, in situations where reducing physical contact is necessary for infection prevention, paperless operations have been strongly promoted.

Key Point: Paperless operations, which are often postponed for efficiency and paper savings, gain priority when reducing physical contact becomes necessary.

To hand over manufacturing instructions or production reports, one must physically approach the recipient's desk. If a cluster of infections occurs in the factory due to droplet or contact transmission, line stoppages or temporary operation halts may be considered, increasing the priority of measures to minimize physical contact.

In Indonesia, clusters of infections are common in mosques and hospitals, and while PSBB (large-scale social restrictions) and Mudik (homecoming) are prohibited, there are still opportunities for contact with relatives and acquaintances. Concerns about the spread of infection remain when factories resume operations after the Lebaran holidays.

Minimizing Indirect Contact Through IoT

Even if physical contact is minimized in the factory, viruses can survive for hours on objects like paper or metal. If viruses are present on paper or shared PCs touched by others, the risk of indirect contact infection remains. Therefore, a system that minimizes physical work and machine operation and automates work processes is required.

Specifically, production performance collection for inventory management on production management systems is automatically linked through sequencers from machine counters. Additionally, machine operation management, which was previously managed outside production management systems, is promoted through IoT by attaching IoT gateways and sensors to andons (patrol lights) to obtain operation and downtime.

However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with continued production cuts and sales declines, IT investment is likely to be the first area to face budget cuts next fiscal year. Even if IoT investment budgets are not approved, focusing on reducing indirect contact opportunities through objects can be achieved by introducing a system where information input is done via personal Android smartphones, reducing the risk of indirect contact infection.

The pandemic has accelerated the push for paperless and IoT operations in Indonesian manufacturing. Moving forward, trends towards integrating production planning, scheduling, manufacturing, labor, quality, and operation management into Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) will be noteworthy for both production efficiency and contact risk reduction.

Why Manufacturing IoT is Necessary in Indonesia

When conducting system sales in Indonesia, a common remark from customers in industrial parks is, "Our president (chairman) is eager to invest in machinery but reluctant to invest in systems." This is due to the focus of small owner companies, which specialize in exports to Japan or Japanese companies in Indonesia, on increasing production capacity.

Case: Pre-sales of equipment operation management IoT solutions were conducted in Cibitung. In manufacturing, there is a growing demand to minimize physical contact while automatically obtaining operational status via patrol lights and PLCs, and evaluating OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). Whether the ability to check operations from home is accepted depends on the counterpart.

Key Point: The demand for automatic acquisition of operational status and OEE evaluation is increasing from both the perspective of reducing contact in the field and visualizing productivity.

However, in an era where stable orders from major customers are not guaranteed, it is necessary to accumulate small-lot orders from multiple customers. Productivity improvement, a supreme imperative in manufacturing, is key to enhancing competitiveness through cost reduction. This applies to the entire domestic industry in Indonesia, and enhancing export competitiveness is essential for increasing national wealth.

The Indonesian government has proposed "Making Indonesia 4.0," the Indonesian version of Industry 4.0, but specific guidelines have not yet been presented. As of February 2020, the mindset is shifting from "investing in machinery but not in systems" to "we must do it to compete globally." The purpose of introducing IoT in manufacturing is to collect information on capital goods like machinery and people to efficiently flow production goods such as materials, work-in-progress, and products.

Case: Despite having a domestic automobile production capacity of over 3 million units, production is stagnant at just under 1 million units. The main reason is the lack of export competitiveness.

Key Point: The lack of export competitiveness leads to low operating rates, forming the background for IoT investment decisions for productivity improvement.

Contents of Manufacturing IoT

In manufacturing, IoT refers to "connecting things to the internet," where "things" include "industry goods" and "capital goods." Industry goods include materials, work-in-progress, and products, while capital goods include machinery and people. For industry goods, performance information such as input numbers, production numbers, yield numbers, and NG numbers is collected.

For capital goods, direct time such as operation time and work time, indirect time such as downtime, and status information such as temperature and rotation speed are collected.

This information is collected from industry goods and capital goods through manufacturing IoT. Items 1 and 2 were traditionally managed by ERP systems, while items 3 and 4 are managed by Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). This provides decision-making materials for improving production efficiency.

Maintenance Management of Equipment and Machinery

Maintenance involves performing regular maintenance to prevent machinery from breaking down. Maintenance work is divided into "preventive maintenance," which involves regularly replacing spare parts based on the number of shots or operation time of press machines, and "predictive maintenance," which predicts signs of machine problems.

Our company converts existing patrol lights and analog meters into numerical data for data analysis for predictive maintenance. This visualizes machine operation rates and performance changes, realizing operational and trend management through IoT systems.

The collected data helps prevent future machine downtime, analyze causes of performance degradation, and analyze causal relationships, directly enhancing productivity.

Case: The left image shows the conversion of machine operation and downtime into numerical data by sensing the signal color of patrol lights with light sensors. The right image shows an IoT system that converts analog meter images into numerical data using surveillance cameras.

Key Point: By digitizing existing patrol lights and analog meters, IoT can be started on a small scale even before replacing equipment.

The point is that IoT can be started on a small scale without replacing existing analog equipment with IoT-compatible equipment. Affordable IoT implementation is possible as an interim measure until the time for full equipment replacement.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is an indicator for evaluating machine operation rates. It is calculated from production management systems and is a comprehensive indicator calculated from three aspects: availability factor, performance factor, and yield.

In short, it is an indicator that measures the contribution of machines to production from three aspects: how well they operate as planned (time aspect), how well they perform their original capabilities (speed aspect), and how accurately they produce (yield aspect).

Case: While we receive consultations on maintenance management and spare parts management, many give up when we convey the price perception. Even if they can invest tens of millions of yen in equipment, they cannot secure a management budget due to a lack of shared cost perception.

Key Point: Demonstrating cost savings in monetary terms is effective for investment decisions in maintenance and parts management.

Frequently Asked Questions | IoT and Paperless

We summarize questions that are directly answered by the points of this article regarding reducing contact opportunities and visualizing operations.

Why is paperless often postponed?

Because "efficiency improvement and paper savings" often lead to "no budget, maybe next time." When the need to reduce physical contact is added, the priority rises sharply.

What information is collected in manufacturing IoT?

Performance information of industry goods (input, production, yield, NG, etc.) and status information of capital goods (operation, downtime, temperature, rotation, etc.). The former is often handled by traditional ERP, while the latter is often handled by MES.

How is OEE broken down?

OEE = Availability factor x Performance factor x Yield. It assesses equipment contribution from three aspects: whether it operated as planned, whether it performed at its capability speed, and whether it produced good products.