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The challenge
The manufacturing industry is one where the daily production must be predictable, reliable and adaptable to any ad-hoc requirement from customers. The product depends on processes and technologies that needs to work in harmony, without waste, without fail, daily.
Therefore, a dependency on technologies that are modern in their implementation and their integration is critical, here is how IoT.nxt enabled this manufacturing company’s seamless integration with its PLC system, providing information that was previously not available on simplistic, customisable dashboards on any device, anywhere.
Primary pain points
LEGACY SYSTEMS
The greatest deterrent of modernization in any manufacturing business is the legacy technologies that exist since the birth of the plant. The technologies are married to the equipment, tightly coupled with OEM protocols that perform specific functions related to that specific equipment only. Years go by without any modernisation efforts on the technology front, leaving manufacturing plants behind during industrial evolutions. Industry 4.0 requires greater integration, vertically and horizontally, from the shop floor up to the ERP and business systems where critical information is required instantaneously, who placed an order when, what to manufacture according to that order while updating raw materials as orders are being processed. This level of modernization and integration is impossible for manufacturing plants with a legacy system problem, until now.
The IoT.nxt Raptor Gateway was implemented and is now talking directly to the PLC, vendor agnostic, protocol agnostic and with no discrimination for the age of the technology. Enabling various mediums of bi-directional data transfer to and from the Raptor Gateway device, while integrating with existing applications reconfigured via modern containerisation technology. Instantly modernizing the manufacturing process with no need for an expensive and time-consuming overhaul of the plant equipment and its associated technologies, the IoT.nxt implementations are truly agile.
INTEGRATION
Smart Manufacturing, not only in word, but in action was brought about by the IoT.nxt industry leading technologies, coupled with Vodafone Mobile Private Networks and/or 5G, will unlock a revolutionary path for any manufacturing plant with goals of Digital Transformation. Offering secure, fast, low latency and dedicated data communication, it’s what’s needed for this manufacturing plant to fully exploit the hidden capabilities brought about by modernizing and integrating its manufacturing assets with the help of IoT.nxt.
The possibilities are truly endless when things that, historically could not share data, now can and do so in a manner we never experienced before. MPN and/or 5G will ensure manufacturing plants can meet the demands of a rapidly digitalized industry, bringing the shop floor to you, wherever you are, on any device.
VISIBILITY
With the Raptor Gateway retrieving PLC data, the IoT.nxt Commander enabled a critical requirement in this manufacturing plant’s modernisation and integration efforts, Visualisation and Reporting. IoT.nxt implemented its Intelligent Workflow bringing relevant data from the equipment and sensors on the shop floor such as plant telemetry, performance, alerts, alarms and equipment efficiency in a single view dashboard implemented for this IoT Plant Modernisation solution.
The visualisation has enabled the teams to act on relevant data, quickly and concisely without guessing where bottlenecks, plant trips, failed batch jobs or equipment might be throughout the manufacturing process, true real-time data transfer.
