John Prows has pondered that question for 20-plus years, in his former role at DuPont and now as vice president of manufacturing excellence for specialty chemical manufacturer Huntsman LLC.
Humans, Prows has concluded, make mistakes generally because of a lack of information. "There are lots of tools focused on the plant and equipment, but the key to making plants run better is giving people tools [to obtain] better information," Prows says.
And the key tool for getting that information to a person, regardless of where that person is located in the plant, is wireless technology, be it RFID, sensor-based networks, or WiFi.
Until now, wireless technology has not been viable, primarily because of the complexity of the infrastructure and a lack of security. But the outlook for wireless technology in manufacturing has never been brighter. With encryption and the use of a demilitarized zone (DMZ), security has become less of an issue. And networks are becoming easier to install, manage, and maintain, taking the burden off the plant and IT staff.