Modernisation of factories and plants for the post-COVID-19 world
By Friedhelm Best, VP Asia Pacific, HIMA
The global COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works for many plants and factories, with legislated shutdowns and lockdowns that prevented many from continuing operations, or at limited operations with skeletal staff.
While many plants and workers languished, leaders of such plants began to hasten re-engineering their plants for a post-COVID-19 world. This re-engineering will not merely be about COVID-19 safe distancing and hygiene measures mandated by regulators, but also automation, modernisation, and conforming to local industrial safety regimes, such as the Singapore Safety Case for MHIs (major hazard installations).
Every plant is unique
Every modernisation, whether to spruce up antiquated equipment and processes, or to completely change over to bleeding-edge technologies such as industrial robots and cobots (collaborative robots), is all about fitting the exact needs of the organisation. There is no single solution that fits any and all companies. The methods and processes to prepare a plant for a safety regime and COVID-19 compliance, although guidelines are clear, can be very individual from plant to plant. Therefore, a leader must first determine the objective that steers the modernisation and safety compliance.
Future-proof strategy to implementation
For a holistic modernisation and safety compliance strategy, there are many pieces to the puzzle. Each piece to the puzzle cannot be a silo, and it must fit into the entire strategy and programme and synergise with other pieces.
For optimisation, a leader should identify current or even future-proof technologies that can work well into the future. For inventory protection, look for technologies with a modularity and compatibility to reduce future upgrades and expansions. So in essence, the wise way forward is to identify technologies that can work well into the future with compatibility and modularity in mind, to reduce investments while allowing for advancement.
Conduct an inventory audit for current assets, resources, and documentation. Plan for the fundamental requirements, such as safety, security, longevity, optimisation, digitalisation, and now, even COVID-19 safety and hygiene compliance. Next, define the preparation steps for a phased migration forward. During the implementation (or action) phase, prepare, execute and document concurrently the modernisation and conformance tasks. And after completing the modernisation and compliance, conduct regular reviews, updates, and the planning of future tasks to improve or expand the new program.
Expert help goes a long way
Look for a modernisation and safety compliance technology and consulting partner which can take you from zero to hero, and sprint with you all the way through any expansion and the future.
All organisations demand the utmost performance to their investments, IEC compliance, with as little downtime and effort. It is important to look for a partner who can offer complete flexibility and exemplary support, while always looking out for your modernisation and safety demands. For example, a competent partner will be able to offer the full spectrum of services such as identification of needs, safety assessments, gap analyses, documentation requirements, safety consultancy, down to detailed safety instrumented systems (SIS) security checks and individualised advice on technologies and functional safety.
During the action phase, identify a partner who can prepare and execute offline and online changes with a complete solution custom-fitted to your exacting requirements, with in-principle engineering, conversion assembly, documentation, factory acceptance test (FAT), site acceptance test (SAT), and commissioning.
After the programme is rolled out successfully, there is a need to always monitor progress, changes, and improvements to be made, in the monitoring phase. Look for a partner who can provide an active lifecycle management with regular reviews, updates, and planning of tasks which are necessary for your systems.
Make safety smart
Safety, whether in its inherent design, or the architecture and systems, can be stoic and static, at least from a traditional standpoint. In the 21st century, there are now available cutting-edge technologies known as "smart safety", which combine all programmable safety policies on one platform with similar properties, functions, handling and operations.
This future-proof architecture opens up a whole dimension of flexibility that is perfect for an agile and iterative paradigm for modernisation, utilising compatible system families which can effortlessly be combined or expanded. Such an architecture would cater for any future certifications, updates, fixes, new features, low to zero downtime, IEC 62443 security compliance, with backwards compatibility with older components while retaining compatibility for all future features and components. This is important for protecting your investments and reducing expenditure and errors. This is smart investment, and smart safety.
Safety instrumented systems (SIS) are a critical part for a plant or MHI alike. Safety is paramount for any plant as safety for workers and investments, and leaders have a regulatory onus as well as a moral prerogative to ensure safety. So while modernisation is the necessary step or leap forward, leaders need to identify the unique demands for their plants, develop a future-proof strategy, find the right long-distance partner, and make safety systems smart.
Hashtag: #safetycasesg
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| Source: HIMA. Best. |
While many plants and workers languished, leaders of such plants began to hasten re-engineering their plants for a post-COVID-19 world. This re-engineering will not merely be about COVID-19 safe distancing and hygiene measures mandated by regulators, but also automation, modernisation, and conforming to local industrial safety regimes, such as the Singapore Safety Case for MHIs (major hazard installations).
Every plant is unique
Every modernisation, whether to spruce up antiquated equipment and processes, or to completely change over to bleeding-edge technologies such as industrial robots and cobots (collaborative robots), is all about fitting the exact needs of the organisation. There is no single solution that fits any and all companies. The methods and processes to prepare a plant for a safety regime and COVID-19 compliance, although guidelines are clear, can be very individual from plant to plant. Therefore, a leader must first determine the objective that steers the modernisation and safety compliance.
Future-proof strategy to implementation
For a holistic modernisation and safety compliance strategy, there are many pieces to the puzzle. Each piece to the puzzle cannot be a silo, and it must fit into the entire strategy and programme and synergise with other pieces.
For optimisation, a leader should identify current or even future-proof technologies that can work well into the future. For inventory protection, look for technologies with a modularity and compatibility to reduce future upgrades and expansions. So in essence, the wise way forward is to identify technologies that can work well into the future with compatibility and modularity in mind, to reduce investments while allowing for advancement.
Conduct an inventory audit for current assets, resources, and documentation. Plan for the fundamental requirements, such as safety, security, longevity, optimisation, digitalisation, and now, even COVID-19 safety and hygiene compliance. Next, define the preparation steps for a phased migration forward. During the implementation (or action) phase, prepare, execute and document concurrently the modernisation and conformance tasks. And after completing the modernisation and compliance, conduct regular reviews, updates, and the planning of future tasks to improve or expand the new program.
Expert help goes a long way
Look for a modernisation and safety compliance technology and consulting partner which can take you from zero to hero, and sprint with you all the way through any expansion and the future.
All organisations demand the utmost performance to their investments, IEC compliance, with as little downtime and effort. It is important to look for a partner who can offer complete flexibility and exemplary support, while always looking out for your modernisation and safety demands. For example, a competent partner will be able to offer the full spectrum of services such as identification of needs, safety assessments, gap analyses, documentation requirements, safety consultancy, down to detailed safety instrumented systems (SIS) security checks and individualised advice on technologies and functional safety.
During the action phase, identify a partner who can prepare and execute offline and online changes with a complete solution custom-fitted to your exacting requirements, with in-principle engineering, conversion assembly, documentation, factory acceptance test (FAT), site acceptance test (SAT), and commissioning.
After the programme is rolled out successfully, there is a need to always monitor progress, changes, and improvements to be made, in the monitoring phase. Look for a partner who can provide an active lifecycle management with regular reviews, updates, and planning of tasks which are necessary for your systems.
Make safety smart
Safety, whether in its inherent design, or the architecture and systems, can be stoic and static, at least from a traditional standpoint. In the 21st century, there are now available cutting-edge technologies known as "smart safety", which combine all programmable safety policies on one platform with similar properties, functions, handling and operations.
This future-proof architecture opens up a whole dimension of flexibility that is perfect for an agile and iterative paradigm for modernisation, utilising compatible system families which can effortlessly be combined or expanded. Such an architecture would cater for any future certifications, updates, fixes, new features, low to zero downtime, IEC 62443 security compliance, with backwards compatibility with older components while retaining compatibility for all future features and components. This is important for protecting your investments and reducing expenditure and errors. This is smart investment, and smart safety.
Safety instrumented systems (SIS) are a critical part for a plant or MHI alike. Safety is paramount for any plant as safety for workers and investments, and leaders have a regulatory onus as well as a moral prerogative to ensure safety. So while modernisation is the necessary step or leap forward, leaders need to identify the unique demands for their plants, develop a future-proof strategy, find the right long-distance partner, and make safety systems smart.
Hashtag: #safetycasesg
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