New opportunities through digital networking
In the context of Industry 4.0, the possibilities for digital networking in production are continuously expanding. A key focus is on monitoring production processes and equipment.
By capturing machine data, companies in the manufacturing and processing industries can not only detect disruptions and deviations early on but also gain insights into performance trends, product quality, and various optimization opportunities. In highly regulated industries, fully transparent production processes may even be a requirement.
At the same time, the digitalization of production offers new approaches for improved production planning and control — such as transmitting order data and various parameters directly to machine controls. One of the initial objectives is usually the implementation of a “paperless production”.
Requirements
In order for companies to benefit from the opportunities of digital transformation, two fundamental prerequisites must be met.
1) Data exchange and interoperability
The systems used in production must be able to communicate with each other, transmitting selected data and processing it effectively. This requires appropriate interfaces between systems and the ability to provide data in suitable formats.
The systems to be networked include both OT systems, such as controllers, sensors, printers, HMIs, and SCADA, as well as IT systems like ERP, Business Intelligence, or cloud platforms.
2) Profitable use of production data
Companies must establish the right infrastructures to benefit from extensive system networking and process data efficiently and profitably — without losing track of large volumes of information.
The software applications used must meet the specific requirements of the industry environment, considering factors such as functionality, simplicity, and interoperability, as well as security and scalability.
Seamless cloud integration of production with OPC Router and manubes
As inray Industriesoftware GmbH, we have been supporting companies in implementing digitalization projects for nearly 30 years.
Our middleware and communication platform OPC Router ensures automated and seamless data exchange between various industrial systems across numerous industries worldwide. With a wide range of Plug-ins and graphical configuration options, OPC Router enables companies to integrate data from sensors all the way to the cloud.
manubes as a tailored cloud platform for production
With our manubes platform, we have added a specialized cloud solution for production to the inray product portfolio. While the OPC Router enables industrial systems for the IoT, manubes offers a central platform for managing and visualizing production data, as well as controlling and automating production processes.
As a cloud platform, manubes is fully tailored to the needs of industrial production: Users can access data and processes remotely via web browser and create their own data models, visualizations, and workflows using intuitive no-code tools. Innovative features like the AI-based Chat Assistant ensure unprecedented speed in accessing production data.
To make production data available in the cloud and allow manufacturers to remotely control production processes, manubes supports standard interfaces such as OPC UA, MQTT, and common database interfaces. By installing Edge Nodes in local networks, secure connections can be established to OPC UA Servers, databases, and other IT and OT systems.
Company-wide cloud connectivity in production
In combination with the OPC Router, the entire system landscape can be integrated into manubes — even in complex production environments.
While manubes communicates directly with controllers, local databases, and APIs, the OPC Router ensures that data from printers, ERP systems, and many other sources reaches the manubes cloud. Communication between the OPC Router and manubes is standardized through proven interfaces such as OPC UA or REST.
This way, companies gain complete access to production data in a cloud environment that supports the entire production management process with innovative tools, enabling manufacturers to develop their own custom solutions.
For more information about the different manubes features, please visit manubes.com.