Remote Monitoring & Alerts for Industrial Equipment
by Cole Jensen
JASM Co-Founder
Where to Start? - 4 Easy Steps
In today’s competitive manufacturing landscape, maximizing uptime and optimizing performance are crucial for success. Unexpected equipment failures can lead to costly downtime, production delays, and lost revenue to both you & your customers. This is where remote monitoring and alerts for industrial equipment can be a game changer.
Imagine being able to monitor the health and performance of your machines – from anywhere, at any time. This is remote monitoring, and it empowers you to:
- Get real-time alerts on potential issues before they snowball into major breakdowns.
- Schedule preventive maintenance based on real data, not guesswork.
- Troubleshoot fault codes remotely, before having to send a technician out to diagnose.
- Gain valuable fleet-wide insights into your machine performance, which enables data-driven decision making.
- Innovate your industrial product – I mean who doesn’t love their smart home functionality?
But for many industrial equipment manufacturers & decision makers, the question is: “Where do I even begin with remote monitoring?”
Here at JAS Monitoring, we understand the challenges you face. It’s why our company exists in the first place, and it’s why we’ve created this guide to help get you started on your journey to a smarter, more connected industrial product & fleet.
Step 1: Assess Your Needs & Goals
The first step is to identify your specific needs and goals for remote monitoring. What kind of data do you want to collect? Here are some questions to consider:
- What are your biggest pain points in terms of equipment performance or production? (e.g., frequent breakdowns, unpredictable downtime, inconsistent output)
- What are your long-term goals for improving your product? (e.g., increased efficiency, reduced maintenance costs, improved quality)
- What types of decisions would you like to make based on data insights? (e.g., optimize resource allocation, predict equipment failures, schedule preventive maintenance)
By clearly defining your goals, you can determine the data points most valuable to collect. Common applications for remote monitoring in industrial settings include:
- Temperature and vibration monitoring: Detect overheating or excessive wear and tear in critical components to prevent catastrophic failures.
- Energy usage monitoring: Identify areas where your equipment is consuming unnecessary power, allowing for energy cost reduction strategies.
- Environmental monitoring: Ensure optimal operating conditions for your equipment and sensitive materials by monitoring temperature, humidity, or air quality.
- Production line monitoring: Track key metrics like machine speed, output quantity, and product quality to identify bottlenecks and optimize production flow.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Equipment
Next, take stock of your existing equipment. Do your machines have built-in sensors or communication protocols? Here’s what to look for:
- Modern equipment often comes equipped with sensors that measure various parameters like temperature, pressure, vibration, or power consumption.
- Communication protocols like Modbus, Ethernet/IP, or PROFINET allow machines to transmit data to a central control system (commonly a PLC) or cloud platform.
If your equipment lacks these features, don’t worry! JAS Monitoring offers easy solutions for both scenarios:
For machines with existing communication capabilities, our API can seamlessly integrate with them. This allows for secure data transfer directly to the JAS Monitoring cloud platform for visualization, analysis and alerts.
For machines lacking built-in connectivity, we offer a simple retrofit solution which we call the JAS Cloud Module – a small hardware enclosure that easily installs onto your machines. It acts as a bridge, collecting data from various sensors you can add and transmits it securely to the JAS Monitoring cloud platform.
Step 3: Choose Your Monitoring Platform
With your data collection method established, you’ll need a software platform to store, analyze, and visualize the information. There is an overwhelming number of options out there, but a reputable Remote Monitoring platform will include the following:
- Real-time data dashboards: Monitor your key variables in a user-friendly interface. See live updates on critical parameters to identify potential issues quickly.
- Customizable alerts: Set up alerts to notify you via email, text, or call when specific thresholds are exceeded. This allows for proactive intervention before problems escalate.
- Historical data analysis: Gain valuable insights by analyzing trends and patterns in your data over time. Identify areas for improvement and optimize your maintenance strategies.
- Reporting tools: Generate comprehensive reports with charts, graphs, and key metrics to share data with stakeholders and track progress towards your goals.
The above features are key, but here are some other items to consider:
- White-Label Branding: This allows you to easily sell & give your end-customer monitoring & alerts functionality, without them having to log into some other website or download some unique & expensive software: it just looks like your company is innovative and with the times.
- Integrated Customer Billing: Building off of the above, going with a White-Label platform should make this billing part easy. Your customer will put in their payment information, and their subscription will auto-renew for as long as they are using your equipment & monitoring service.
- Remote Control Capabilities: Sometimes it’s nice to offer the ability to remotely control or adjust machine settings.
As this is our blog, it’s important to note the JAS Monitoring Platform is equipped with all of these features, and more!
Step 4: Prioritize Security
Industrial data is valuable, and security is a top priority. JAS Monitoring prioritizes robust security measures to ensure your data is protected from unauthorized access. Our solutions comply with industry-standard security protocols like:
- Secure data encryption to protect your data both in transit and at rest.
- Role-based access control to ensure only authorized personnel have access to specific data sets.
- Regular security audits and updates to keep our systems protected from evolving cyber threats
Ready to Take the First Step?
Remote monitoring and alerts are powerful tools for optimizing your industrial product and gaining a competitive edge. JAS Monitoring would love to be your partner in this journey. We offer the EASIEST method to add this functionality to your product & fleet.
Contact us today for a free, no-strings attached discovery call, and we can discuss how we can help you unlock the power of remote monitoring for your industrial equipment!
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