INFM109 M03 - Cengage Chapter 8 You Make the Decision 1
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M03 - Cengage Chapter 8 You Make the Decision 1
You are a member of the plant information systems group for a small manufacturer of
all-natural ingredient cosmetics, GreenGlo. Your firm promotes itself as adhering to the
highest standards of compliance and quality. The entire manufacturing process is
rigorously monitored via sensors and computer controls. Automated temperature
controls ensure that the manufacturing environment is always at the correct
temperature. Sensor tracking is performed from the moment that raw materials enter
your facility, throughout the manufacturing process, as well as during packaging and
distribution.
Once the products are on the trucks for transport, sensors continue to monitor their
location, the temperature in the trucks, and ensure that the drivers take the necessary
breaks for safety.
The sensors and computer controls for both the manufacturing and transportation
systems date to the 1990s. They employ proprietary communications protocols and are
not Internet-enabled. Data from these sensors is monitored by a group of three
technicians at a time in the computer control room. Twelve workers are required to
staff the control room in shifts 24/7, including weekends and most holidays.
GreenGlo just purchased a plant previously owned by one of your competitors in a
nearby state. The work done at each of the two plants will be shifted to minimize
redundancy. Your company's own transportation staff will continue to oversee the
transfer of supplies and equipment between the two locations while the manufacturing
processes are separated between the two plants. Ultimately, your team will be
responsible for monitoring the manufacturing processes at both locations, as well as
the transportation of finished goods from each.
In the meantime, your group has been asked to look at the feasibility of deploying
Internet-enabled sensors connected to the Internet of Things in order to maximize the
efficiency of your team’s work. To do this, you first need to decide which system is the
best fit for an IoT upgrade investment.
Choose a system on which to focus to start the IoT upgrade.
Manufacturing sensors
Transportation sensors
You have chosen to upgrade the Manufacturing sensors to be Internet-enabled. You
think that this will help simplify the data monitoring of the manufacturing process, and
enable staff to monitor the data remotely on weekends and holidays.
Now you need to decide the extent of the upgrade.
How will you approach the upgrade?
Replace all manufacturing equipment at both plants with new equipment that natively
supports modern, standardized IoT communication protocols
Look for solutions that will convert and connect legacy equipment
communication protocols.
You have decided to add Internet-capability to the existing equipment by attaching
devices that can monitor, track, and analyze data.Many adaptation devices are
available to purchase, and the installation should be easy. Adaptation is considerably
less expensive and time-consuming than purchasing all new equipment and migrating
the data to the new system.
Once you have the sensors running on the manufacturing equipment, you need to
decide where to store the collected data where it can be most secure to hacking, as
well as easily accessed by authorized employees.
What method will you use to store the collected data?
Connect to your company's existing onsite data center.
Subscribe to a cloud storage service.
You chose to store collected data in the cloud. The service you selected has an
excellent reputation for security, unlimited storage as your company grows, can
connect data from both plants, and can be accessed by authorized employees from
anywhere.
This turns out to be an excellent plan, which will allow your team to employ data
analysis techniques to further refine and improve manufacturing processes at both
plants.
Now you need to decide how to assign staff to monitor the data. Once the data is
Internet-enabled and stored in the cloud, data collection will be much easier and can
be done remotely. Your existing staff is used to the old way, and you need to decide
whether to retrain them, or let them go and hire all new staff with expertise on the new
technology.
What approach do you take to staff the data monitoring with the new technology?
Train existing staff to learn how to use the new equipment and technology.
Hire new, trained staff who already are experts on the technology.
You decided that you will train the existing staff on the new technology. Although you
know that this will take time, their knowledge of the business and prior experience will
help them adapt quickly.
The CEO is highly impressed with the IoT conversion progress. She says it's on target
for what the newly expanded company needs, maximized the existing resources, keeps
the staffing consistent, and optimizes the potential payoff for the upgrade investment.
You feel good about the choices that you made. You took into consideration budget,
efficiency, and personnel. You look forward to upgrading the other systems once you
get the go ahead.
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