There are many ways to present alarms and alerts from IoT data being collected, but in the case of manufacturing, we have an environment that has special needs. Maintenance people are working in loud, hot, noisy situations that a simple SMS phone message may not suffice – as it would in a front office or consumer environment.  Alerting and Alarms must be generated in such a way to fit the needs of the recipient’s environment.  As manufacturing varies – steel mills, stamping lines, machining centers and hundreds of other typologies, a system that can adapt and be flexible is key.

Andon boards located at strategic areas of the plant floor, SMS or email messaging for certain alerts, flashing lights controlled by PLC devices all would be examples but is far from comprehensive.

Bottom Line – Alerting and alarms must be presented in a way that meets the needs of the user and flexibility is key as the variations to methods is seemingly unlimited.

Stay tuned for part 4, “Process Workflow from Events and Alerts”.

Learn more at www.Godlan.com