Remote Assistance for Plant Problems
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 4:21 am
An unexpected machinery failure causes stress, a corrective maintenance effort, additional costs for special logistics to meet deadlines, or dissatisfied customers. Remote problem assistance helps to quickly overcome this situation.
This blog post explains the benefits that remote assistance offers to businesses when their machines fail.
Constant productivity in manufacturing is leading industrial companies to look for new strategies to ensure maximum machine availability. Although it is not an easy task, efforts are being made to reduce downtime by adopting new strategies to optimize problem resolution. One popular strategy is remote troubleshooting, which allows manufacturer experts and maintenance technicians (in-house or from other plants) to access machines.
A fictitious situation
The machine operator calls the maintenance technician for help. Tick tack tick tack, the clock starts ticking . The technician uses his years of experience to fix the faulty machine. After two hours and reading the manual of good maintenance practices, the maintenance department decides that this is an unknown fault in the machine and that it is part time data time to call the manufacturer. After an extensive phone call, the manufacturer sends a technician overseas. The flight time is 16-20 hours to the destination. The technician detects the fault on site and heads to the head office to fix the new fault on new machines. After two days, the machine is back in operation .
This example shows: The consequences of this incident are long downtimes, products not delivered to the customer, stress for the maintenance and production departments and, worse still, customer dissatisfaction and (unexpected) additional costs for special logistics to meet deadlines. Remote problem assistance helps to remedy this situation. Let's look at the issue in detail.
Remote troubleshooting
Remote troubleshooting reduces time by allowing manufacturer experts and maintenance technicians (e.g. from the manufacturer itself or from another factory) to access the machines. The expert then diagnoses the machine, identifies the problem and recommends a solution. This reduces response time and, consequently, downtime.
Technically, you could connect the field laptop to the machine's PLC and launch a remote desktop application for the manufacturing company's expert or maintenance technician. Voila, problem solved . Well, not entirely, there are a few things to consider:
Compliance with IT guidelines by the solution, especially connection security and user management. The established virtual point-to-point connections provide a secure channel via virtual private network (VPN) protocols (e.g. Secure Shell VPN, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), SSL/TLS). In addition, the secure channel or tunnel is authenticated (e.g. via passwords, biometrics, two-factor authentication (2FA)).
Network segmentation. Let's say there is only one network for office devices and shop floor machines. A remote desktop application could be an open door for an attack vector (such as malware, phishing, distributed denial of service (DDoS)) or for (unwanted) access to other company computing resources.
The communication interface to the machine means that the machine control must be accessible (for example, some machines only have their own communication protocols).
User-level agreement between the factory and internal/external users, including a protocol for using the service and coordination with production management to stop the machine(s).
User access management that defines user permissions and restricts access to desired machines.
This blog post explains the benefits that remote assistance offers to businesses when their machines fail.
Constant productivity in manufacturing is leading industrial companies to look for new strategies to ensure maximum machine availability. Although it is not an easy task, efforts are being made to reduce downtime by adopting new strategies to optimize problem resolution. One popular strategy is remote troubleshooting, which allows manufacturer experts and maintenance technicians (in-house or from other plants) to access machines.
A fictitious situation
The machine operator calls the maintenance technician for help. Tick tack tick tack, the clock starts ticking . The technician uses his years of experience to fix the faulty machine. After two hours and reading the manual of good maintenance practices, the maintenance department decides that this is an unknown fault in the machine and that it is part time data time to call the manufacturer. After an extensive phone call, the manufacturer sends a technician overseas. The flight time is 16-20 hours to the destination. The technician detects the fault on site and heads to the head office to fix the new fault on new machines. After two days, the machine is back in operation .
This example shows: The consequences of this incident are long downtimes, products not delivered to the customer, stress for the maintenance and production departments and, worse still, customer dissatisfaction and (unexpected) additional costs for special logistics to meet deadlines. Remote problem assistance helps to remedy this situation. Let's look at the issue in detail.
Remote troubleshooting
Remote troubleshooting reduces time by allowing manufacturer experts and maintenance technicians (e.g. from the manufacturer itself or from another factory) to access the machines. The expert then diagnoses the machine, identifies the problem and recommends a solution. This reduces response time and, consequently, downtime.
Technically, you could connect the field laptop to the machine's PLC and launch a remote desktop application for the manufacturing company's expert or maintenance technician. Voila, problem solved . Well, not entirely, there are a few things to consider:
Compliance with IT guidelines by the solution, especially connection security and user management. The established virtual point-to-point connections provide a secure channel via virtual private network (VPN) protocols (e.g. Secure Shell VPN, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), SSL/TLS). In addition, the secure channel or tunnel is authenticated (e.g. via passwords, biometrics, two-factor authentication (2FA)).
Network segmentation. Let's say there is only one network for office devices and shop floor machines. A remote desktop application could be an open door for an attack vector (such as malware, phishing, distributed denial of service (DDoS)) or for (unwanted) access to other company computing resources.
The communication interface to the machine means that the machine control must be accessible (for example, some machines only have their own communication protocols).
User-level agreement between the factory and internal/external users, including a protocol for using the service and coordination with production management to stop the machine(s).
User access management that defines user permissions and restricts access to desired machines.