Valmont Industries

Andy R. Wiseman

Recently, I read an article in the Stamping Journal by Bill Frahm of 4M Partners about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”—otherwise known as Industry 4.0—that made use ofa helpful football analogy. He discussed how, on the gridiron, “successful plays depend on each player’s ability to execute their assignments while responding to the situation on the field as it unfolds.”

This analogy begins to paint a picture of some of the complexities that exist within a metal fabricating business. There is an immense amount of coordination required to effectively and efficiently manufacture a product. There is a need to monitor and respond, in a real time manner, to constant changes on the shop floor. These data needs include mill test reports, inventory, visibility, flow within the shop, actionable real time insights, preventative maintenance, real time productivity, statistical process control, and real time customer delivery data. There is a plethora of data available today within our industry. But the data, being from many disparate systems with lots of noise, makes it very difficult to extract the critical information to make the right decisions at the right time.

What does that really mean in a heavy industrial manufacturing environment that has been slow to adopt to Industry 4.0?Productivity is hampered by manual processes,

paper files, and manual tracking, all of which are prone to errors. This lagging data does not provide the ability to react in real time (or, better yet, autonomously react)to problems or changes, or to provide leading indicators of what our performance will look like in the minutes and hours to come. Minor incidents and complications happen multiple times per hour and per shift that currently go undetected. Once these invisible occurrences are revealed and laid bare, we will be better equipped to quickly and decisively act to improve our business. The automation of these processes will help us to overcome our fallible human nature, reduce costs, allow for real-time action, and free up time for more value-added activities.

"Industry 4.0 provides an excellent opportunity to leverage data and technology to uncover leading indicators around safety as opposed to some of the lagging measures used in the past"

While rolling out Industry 4.0, it is critical to select and cultivate champions at each site. A “What’s in It for Me?” (WIIFM) strategy from management will develop these champions to fully appreciate and drive the changes necessary at the site level. Ultimately it will help the champions to attain their goals more quickly. The initial use cases are critical in that they must solve real problems and produce quick wins to drive value within the business.

Within our industry, we consistently struggle to find, hire, and retain excellent employees. Implementation of Industry 4.0 will also provide a way to attract talent and enhance the employee experience. Some of the technology associated with Industry 4.0 is all about protecting and ensuring the safety of our teams. This technology includes systems that will tap into existing camera infrastructure and watch for proximity of employees to industrial vehicles, look for unsafe behaviors, and PPE usage. There are proximity alarms to warn if pedestrians and fork lifts become in danger of colliding. Real-time down time alerts can be issued for wait times such as cranes, quality, and maintenance. The connected worker of the future may have sensors that alert to improper lifting techniques and exoskeletons that provide for lifting assistance. Industry 4.0 provides an excellent opportunity to leverage data and technology to uncover leading indicators around safety as opposed to some of the lagging measures used in the past.

Sustainability within Industry 4.0 is one area that is often overlooked. Within Valmont, we are finding that the use of sub metering to more precisely measure the energy used in the manufacturing of our products will unlock several opportunities. Among these are the ability to better select more cost effective equipment and manage power factor through the introduction of capacitors and battery storage. And, in our facilities, the use of digitally managed environmental systems will improve the comfort and safety of our associates while reducing onsite energy costs. Combined, these items improve Valmont’s operational impact on the climate by mitigating carbon emissions and exemplify the positive impacts Industry 4.0 can achieve for the manufacturing industry at large.

At Valmont Industries, Inc., our mission is creating vital infrastructure and advancing agricultural productivity. We have found it a business imperative to roll out Industry 4.0 as a complement to and enabler of our core values: integrity, passion, continuous improvement, and delivering results. Research from Accenture showed that industry “leaders” on the cutting edge of technology—the top 10% of firms—have been seeing growth at five times the rate of “laggards”—the bottom 25%—over the past three years. This trend is only expected to accelerate. Ultimately, Industry 4.0 is about improving our business for our customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities in which we operate.