Smart factory solutions address rising demand

Greater individualisation of products, rapid market change and increasingly complex manufacturing processes are characteristic of modern industrial production. It is these factors most of all that are driving forward the concept of the Smart Factory. In order to uncover optimisation potential and achieve increased productivity, companies must digitalise and network their infrastructure in full, control their horizontal and vertical value chains optimally, as well as analyse and evaluate their data in a targeted manner.

With zenon 7.20, COPA-DATA is presenting a software version that meets all important system requirements for a Smart Factory: zenon 7.20 supports the construction of digital value networks and consistent digitalisation with high scalability, security and performance. Companies can carry out targeted analysis and meaningful Big Data evaluations with zenon 7.20, and provide all relevant information at any time and everywhere.

The zenon Cloud Solution makes it possible to integrate zenon with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and easily provide all data from different production locations and sites of a company in just one system, in real-time. It enables companies to compare and correlate this data and display it in the form of clear dashboards. With this solution, companies can also pursue approaches such as energy management and OEE at a global level, and use zenon as a tool for company-wide optimisation.

In order to back up the continually increasing amounts of data in an industrial company and at the same time adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, COPA-DATA also offers a cost-efficient and ergonomic storage solution. The zenon Big Data solution combines zenon with the Microsoft technologies of Cloud-integrated StorSimple storage (CiS) and Microsoft Azure. The data is saved on a hardware appliance in the internal network, the CiS, transferred to Azure cloud storage and archived there. In doing so, companies can access data at any time and use this for their evaluations.

With the launch of version 7.20 of zenon and the technology modules for cloud computing integrated therein, COPA-DATA has already acquired its first pilot customers for the zenon Cloud Solution, including a major machine and equipment manufacturer active throughout Europe.

“The Machine Cloud System that COPA-DATA is presenting at Hannover Messe 2015 is a perfect solution for the IoT. It starts with the equipment in the field and establishes the connection to the cloud. There, the information is combined with data from the ERP level and this makes it possible to get a global view of real-time information and evaluations throughout all sites,” commented Werner Reuss, IoT Commercial Lead, Microsoft Germany. “With this kind of solution, it is possible to benchmark production sites based on important KPIs, to gain valuable insights, to instigate learning processes and to optimise certain business processes.”

“We see great potential for the Smart Factory and cloud computing in the industrial environment – and there is already significant market interest. With our version 7.20 of zenon, we can now offer our customers, interested parties and partners the possibilities of designing their value-adding processes and business processes and implementing solutions that are characterised by high flexibility, expandability and usability,” explained Martyn Williams, Managing Director, COPA-DATA UK.