With FactorySense, 3if.eu has been joining the best of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors by Versasense in combination with a business intelligence platform by Optimistik to fast forward enabling of Industrie 4.0 on the basis of big data and analytics in a cost sensitive way. FactorySense is a project that aims to enable Small and Medium Sized Factories with a package of best practices, technologies and tools to improve their day to day operational business activities, by electronically providing insights on and over the production floor, on the business processes and overall operations as a means to further improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
By integrating IoT sensor kits to the Factorythings platform, this project lowered the barriers and facilitated the management of the industrial production and provide a business interface over the industrial processes in order to better manage the production activities. It aimed to demonstrate the possibilities to enhance the productivity, profitability and innovation capacities of production companies, by providing an integrated platform with the sensors and the platform that will serve the use case for condition based maintenance and validating it in a series of manufacturing companies.
About 8 out of 10 manufacturing companies have started to understand the sense of urgency in digitally transforming at least part of their operations in order to be able to reduce cost by optimizing production, supply and demand and warehousing; or to increase turnover through product innovation, reaching out to new markets and expanding in their current customer base with new services or improved existing products. But many companies are getting paralyzed by the complexity and the breadth of the digitalization challenge. They don’t fully understand all of the individual components required (big data, iot, analytics, horizontal & vertical integration, …) and they lack expertise and experience within the company to drive these interests forward. Proof of concept projects are being launched, but fail to deliver because of lack of concrete business objectives and forward looking plans.
With FactorySense, the three expert organizations (Versasense, FactoryThings-Optimistik and 3IF.eu) bring together their core expertise and strengths to facilitate the quick uptake of basic components and providing in a platform that can grow together with the organization in a way that it supports different applications and use cases allowing for a digital transformation and Industrie 4.0. Use cases include condition based maintenance, a digital production process flow, monitoring production indicators, providing business transparency, warehouse control and improved insights in the automation process.
The FactorySense platform aims to digitally connect selected parts of the production shop floor and administrative support system of Small sized Manufacturing companies by means of a Digital Platform and Industrial IoT Sensors. It provides a digital management dashboard that presents Key Performance Indicators and other indicators supporting business decisions and operational activities. It provides a template-model Small Digital Factory using a generic Digital Transformation Plan (DTP) – Industrie 4.0 Map (I40 Map) for small manufacturing companies on the basis of existing use cases. It provides in a Digital Business Dashboard, defining key business drivers to create situational awareness, allow for specific insights (eg condition based maintenance) and support in decision making. From this platform and key insights, business decisions can be made to provide further insights, or to optimize processes and activities allowing for a more efficient production program.
FactorySense has been demonstrated in a Wood processing company (Kulapro.be), in a process manufacturing company, in different discrete manufacturing environments and can be further validated with other interested manufacturers and industry partners. In order to support small and medium sized manufacturing companies willing to experiment, eager to digitize and ready to be innovation driver, FactorySense will be able to be tested and validated.
Is your organization interested in validating the FactorySense platform during the course of 2023 – 2026, contact DIGITALIS or FactorySense for a discussion on scope and the potential business and sector impact. This project was realized thanks to the IoT4Industry.eu Innovation Support program aiming to enhance productiv ity, profitability and innovation capacities of European manufacturing SME’s by enabling them access to IoT technologies.
