IoT solutions for machine and plant manufacturers

Machines without IoT connectivity will practically no longer exist in the future. It is now clear that the Internet of Things (IoT) or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – as an IoT in the industrial environment is also called – brings numerous advantages that also justify the necessary measures for IT security.

Machine and plant manufacturers must create the necessary technological basis with their own IoT solutions in order to be able to offer innovative data-driven services. Because an even better machine increases the perceived benefit for your customers less and less.

Machines without IoT connectivity will practically no longer exist in the future. It is now clear that the Internet of Things (IoT) or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – as an IoT in the industrial environment is also called – brings numerous advantages that also justify the necessary measures for IT security.

Machine and plant manufacturers must create the necessary technological basis with their own IoT solutions in order to be able to offer innovative data-driven services. Because an even better machine increases the perceived benefit for your customers less and less.

Customer benefits from IoT Software

Whereas a few years ago factory operators were still very concerned about security and the loss of competitive advantages due to the networking of machines, today the situation has reversed in many cases. In view of the potential for double-digit efficiency gains in some cases, machine operators today often make the IIoT software solution the decisive criterion when selecting a new machine.

But it is not only in the area of process efficiency that intelligent IoT solutions promise advantages. IIoT software can also generate a significant benefit advantage in maintenance, quality control, setup or production monitoring. In a few years, industrial IoT solutions will be just as commonplace as NC technology is today.

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Trust in real experts – the advantages of our IoT solutions

Machine as data platform: Your machines produce masses of data at your customers. These are valuable to offer new IIoT solutions with.

Don’t waste data: A connected machine increases your application knowledge many times over and is the basis for AI-based business models

Operators demand data: Your customers can also benefit in a variety of ways through IoT integration of machines.

IIoT Solutions and New Business Models: Your customers will demand usage-based business models. For this, you need experience with IoT solutions for machines and plants.

IoT service solutions increase customer value and create new revenue streams

Increasing service quality and creating new revenue streams through IoT solutions.

The opportunities to create customer value through IIoT Products open up the chance for new differentiation potential for machinery and plant manufacturers. The great strength of the German machinery and plant engineering industry is their deep knowledge of customers and their applications. This knowledge can be used even better with the help of industrial IoT solutions and existing business can be supplemented with data-driven business models through IoT. Such digital service businesses are not infrequently very high-margin, as there are no marginal costs for scaling. Discover our offer for the development of your innovative service apps here.

The high complexity of machines and systems and the shortage of skilled workers are causing factory operators to rethink: Either they rely on simple machines offered very cheaply by competitors or they rely on a close partnership with the machine and system manufacturer. Such a partnership is increasingly based on IoT software and digital services built on it. European machine and plant manufacturers must therefore put all their efforts into building up digital know-how with the help of digital twins. This offers advantages for both sides:

  • IoT and digital twin solutions can be implemented comparatively quickly
  • Industrial IoT solutions increase customer proximity and shorten service response times
  • IoT service solutions increase customer value and create new revenue streams

We have been supporting machine and plant manufacturers for many years in the digital transformation

Realization of IoT in medium-sized companies

A first step towards offering an industrial IoT monitoring solution is to provide an OPC UA interface that allows access to data in the control system. For this purpose, control manufacturers offer OPC UA servers, but their information model must be pronounced with the application know-how of the machine and plant manufacturers. 247FactoryNet has many years of know-how in the area of OPC UA. Here you can find our offer in the area of Industrial IoT Consulting.

However, OPC UA is only the first step to read data from the machine or plant. Based on the planned use cases, an individual IoT solution architecture must be developed. This determines, for example, which data processing steps are carried out in an edge controller – i.e. still on the machine – and which data are stored in a digital twin in the cloud.

It must take into account which data is relevant today and which may only become important in the future – such as time series.

The KnowledgeHub IoT platform from 247FacotryNet is an optimal solution for storing and providing data in a customized IoT architecture. A particular strength of this solution is the semantics for establishing relationships of the data. Through this, our customers increase their digital knowledge, which they can use in any smart service solutions. This is because many innovative solutions based on IoT data will emerge in the future, particularly in the area of machine learning (ML).

Project examples for IoT Solutions from 247FactoryNet

IoT Solutions

IoT platform for machine tools

Mechanical engineering

Objective:
All new machines sold by a manufacturer are to send data in the future to an IoT platform to be developed.

Challenge:
 A future-proof architecture must be developed for the customer that allows the implementation of numerous digital services. However, the IoT solution is to be implemented in small and manageable steps. The transfer of know-how with the customer is to be ensured.

Solution:
In the course of a consulting project, the necessary architecture was developed and the customer’s employees were trained with the contents of the planned technology stack. To increase user acceptance, a special security concept was developed that ensures a high level of transparency with regard to the transmitted data. The step-by-step implementation of the project was carried out together with the customer’s specialists. Agile software development methods were also taught in the process.

IoT Solutions

IoT networking of robotic welding cells

Faurecia

Objective:
Development of an overarching IoT platform for AI-based quality assurance.

Challenge
The various automation devices do not have IoT-capable interfaces. The data models of the devices are heterogeneous and not designed for an overarching logic.

Solution:
Customized interfaces were developed for the automation devices (welding controller, robot controller and PLC) based on 247NetConnect. The various data models were integrated into an overarching semantics so that interconnection of the data became possible and new knowledge could be derived. The newly created digital knowledge is made available for processing with AI via the IoT platform 247KnowledgeHub.

We tailor our IoT solutions to your individual requirements

  • Development of your individual IoT architecture with corresponding user cases
  • Individual interfaces and, if necessary, merging of data from different sources based on our NetConnect solution

  • Creation of a digital twin with different data categories (timeseries data, files, etc.) and sematic linking of the data with our KnowledgeHub solution

  • Provision of data in the cloud for further processing e.g. by AI algorithms, predictive maintenance or mobile apps.

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Data-driven business models through IoT

The IoT solution created is the basis for new data-driven business models such as pay per use or operator models. However, machinery and equipment manufacturers need some experience in IoT monitoring of machine behavior to offer such business models risk-free. It is therefore necessary to bring IoT solutions into the field at an early stage to feed the digital twins of the machines with data and sharpen the resulting insights.

  • Efficiency benefits for your customers
  • Service availability 247
  • Benefit-based business models

We have been supporting machine and plant manufacturers in their digital transformation for many years. Take advantage of our expertise not only in building your IoT solution, but also in developing smart business models.

Learn more about the 247FactoryNet consulting offer for digital transformation in mechanical and plant engineering here.

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Your partner for the digital future.