Sam Hoff is the president and CEO of Patti Engineering, a Certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). Under Sam’s leadership, Patti Engineering has become a leader in applications of Industry 4.0 and digital twining to improve manufacturing through AI and data science. Plant Service spoke with Sam early last year about how maintenance teams can get their digital programs off the ground, and Sam checked in recently with Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk about what teams can do to kick-start these programs in 2022.
PS: The last time we caught up, COVID was just a whisper coming from outside of the U.S. A lot of what we heard in the past 18 months is that these products are only accelerating. Can you tell us some of what you’ve seen and heard?
SH: Without a doubt, these projects have really accelerated. I think COVID has given Industry 4.0 a kick in the butt, to take it from the concept to practical applications. We’re seeing all types of IIoT projects and IIoT requests. There’s a couple of things driving this: (a) a shortage of workers and shortage of labor, and (b) wanting to keep people off the line and working remotely as much as possible. So, what kind of information can you glean from the production systems without being beside it to be able to track improvement.
