b'Lead AngleEQUIPMENT AS A SERVICEW ith the arrival of Industry 4.0, abased service in which customers purchase business model is emerging for howa platform for providing services around that part manufacturers acquire machine tools:platform, which can connect every machine equipment as a service. Graham Immerman,on a shop floor.vice president of marketing for Northampton,Although the metalworking sector has Massachusetts-based MachineMetrics Inc.,been slow to offer the equipment as a service effectively covers this topic in his new 12- model, Immerman said the adoption rate for page e-book/white paper, Equipment-as-a- this kind of technology can be quick.Service: a Brave New World for Machine ToolThe type of data that we collect from the Builders. equipment is so deep that we can enable this Instead of buying a machine and fullyservice so fast, he said.financing it or paying cash, you can pay as youImmerman said the first use case gaining use it, he said in an interview with CTE. traction is remote machine monitoring, This model provides financial flexibility towhich reduces the time required to have part manufacturers. a machine making chips again. Remote With equipment as a service, Immermanmachine monitoring also lowers service costs said machine tool builders no longer will sellfor machine builders by helping lessen on-a piece of iron but an industrial internet ofsite service visits by 10% to 20% and provides things-enabled piece of equipment that isa better experience for customers, which also a service. By being IIoT-empowered, aare then more likely to invest in additional machine can send data to a machine buildermachines.or distributor to provide a host of services,The ability to remotely diagnose and such as developing a custom preventiveresolve problems without having to go on-maintenance plan based on customer usagesite is a win-win for the machine builder or of a machine, allowing remote machinedistributor and customer, Immerman said.monitoring and revealing whether a machineHe said other gains that a machine builder is operating at optimal capacity. could derive from having data fed directly MachineMetrics can tell you that thefrom production equipment include improved average customer is using their equipmentequipment design and identification of about 25% of the time, he said. optimal changeover sequences.As a result, manufacturers buy equipmentThe path to this new model starts with data that wouldnt be needed if equipmentand data transformation.utilization was more optimized. Its the foundation of all these future Thats just a fact, Immerman said. As allbusiness models, Immerman said.CTEmanufacturers start having data and realizing these facts, builders are not going to sell them these iron things anymore at someabout the author random rate. They are going to enable otherAlan Richter is editor at large use cases and wrap these models around theof CTE. Contact him at 847-sale of machines. 714-0175 or [email protected] said MachineMetrics is a subscription- com.8MAY 2020LeadAngle.indd 8 4/17/20 2:06 PM'