The OPC Router increases the level of digitalization at the Zimmer Group

Zimmer Group businesses have grown rapidly over the past 43 years and have developed massively, which is reflected in a high degree of automation. According to Mr. Wiedemer, Head of Organization & IT at the Zimmer Group, however, this further development was not reflected in terms of IT/OT to the extent that would have been technologically possible in the areas of security and automation of data transfers, which is why he saw a need for optimization here.

The Zimmer Group’s production takes place on its own machinery and generates an enormous amount of production data every second: at Zimmer GmbH Daempfungssysteme, for example, all damping elements produced are tested on the basis of many characteristics, a corresponding test certificate is issued and the dampers are assembled and packaged. The data volumes generated by around 50 plants have to be collected and processed. Previously, each system had written this data unencrypted to an SMB drive, which could no longer meet the requirements in terms of security aspects such as data integrity, protection against data manipulation and loss. The solution was to establish direct access via a port.

Storing individual XML files and querying this data also meant that the individual associated tasks became increasingly extensive. The more tasks were created, the more complex and error-prone the processes became. There is clear potential for optimization when it comes to automating data transfers.

Previously, the Zimmer Group had worked with software solutions from in-house application developers. These solutions were not always optimally documented throughout, so that maintaining and further developing these compiled programs was sometimes very difficult and a major challenge for the Zimmer Group. The technology used was also no longer adapted to today’s possibilities and the flexibility of mobile use of visualized process data, regardless of the device and the operating system running on it, was not given at the time, but was an intended goal.

With the help of the Kepware OPC Server, the data from the Beckhoff and Siemens S7 300 controllers is now recorded and transferred to an MS SQL Server in order to merge the numerous measured values from the production of the dampers with additional data from third-party systems, such as the batch index (ERP) or the measurement data (CAQ), and document them in the database. This results in thousands of entries per second across the large number of systems.

In the previous process, this data was generated in the form of two CSV files as part of quality assurance across various test stations at the Zimmer Group. These were stored on the respective file servers and supplemented with additional information from third-party systems before these final files could be used for documentation and visualization.

In order to meet the requirements of data integrity and availability, these many steps were too error-prone, did not meet the security requirements and the process was no longer up to date. For this reason, an automated data transfer via an OPC interface was to provide a solution.

The Head of IT at Zimmer Group, Mr. Wiedemer, was already familiar with the OPC Router as reliable software from its introduction and operation in his previous work at another manufacturing serial production company. He knew that it could also be the solution for the Zimmer Group. The OPC Router is primarily intended to ensure smooth and secure data transfer of OPC UA data to the SQL Server. In addition to the goal of secure data transfers, the OPC Router should also help to replace many of the old compiled solutions with more modern systems or web applications within the new “Zimmer Application Portal”.

Application developer Sebastien Franck was responsible for setting up the OPC Router at the Zimmer Group. “The entire installation went pretty quickly. It didn’t take us long to install the OPC Router, configure everything and set up the network rules correctly. The required information on the licensing model was also quickly provided by the inray sales team,” says Mr. Franck.

„I was amazed. There were no problems with either the installation or the implementation of the OPC Router. Normally there’s always a problem somewhere during a system changeover like this, but the first time it went really smoothly for me.“

Sebastien Frank, Programmer at the Zimmer Group

The next step after installation was to coordinate with the production managers which data and measuring points should be recorded, provided and transferred to other systems. The process was validated using two sample machines to ensure that machines and systems were communicating with each other correctly.

With the help of the OPC Router as a standardized communication solution, the previous data communication could be set up much more efficiently and securely. The data that is written to the SQL database for the traceability of the damping element tests is now encrypted, which has significantly reduced the security risk. In addition, the communication structure has become much leaner because the various file servers have been replaced.

„By using the OPC Router, all data can now be retrieved directly at the test station via the OPC interface, automatically transferred from there and written directly to the databases via OPC UA.“

Ralf Wiedemer, Head of IT at the Zimmer Group

According to Mr. Franck, the implementation of the OPC Router also brought a change in working methods at production and production manager level. Where previously isolated solutions were created as required and separate software programs were developed, communication between machines and systems is now standardized via the OPC interface. The biggest challenge here was the definition of data collection – what data is required for what purpose and to what extent. The task of IT was then to implement these requirements with the OPC Router as a uniform, standardized communication solution.

In the context of digital transformation, the process of further developing digital technologies at the Zimmer Group does not end with the installation of the OPC Router. The Head of IT already sees a wide range of other possible applications for the OPC Router.

The Zimmer Group consists of several companies and each company had previously used a wide variety of software solutions. The challenge for IT was to establish a software solution with which all the production processes of all the companies in the Zimmer Group, with their completely different productions and production depths, could be represented in a standardized way and handled in an easily expandable manner.

The production line for grippers and clamping elements, for example, is already highly automated. It begins with the use of DMG Mori machines coupled to Fastems systems, which supply the production line with raw material. The data from this production line is then visualized for quality purposes using CAQ (computer-aided quality) software. The production line for the damping systems, on the other hand, is also automated, but is not yet fully connected to the CAQ software.

One consideration here is to consolidate the QA data and use the CAQ software as a holistic quality management system across all production lines. To do this, the data from the damping systems, plastics technology and all other areas of the company must be merged in the CAQ software. This requires a link that transports the data. The OPC Router will take over this task in the future.

Thanks to his previous work with the OPC Router, Mr. Wiedemer is very familiar with its areas of application. He also sees clear potential for the Zimmer Group to make more active use of the data available in the company and to further optimize processes. For example, the OPC Router could be used as a data provider for calculating the OEE value to determine the overall equipment effectiveness. The OEE value can be used to determine the productivity of a machine at production level and, if necessary, derive optimization potential to increase productivity.

The potential for digitalization within the company that the Zimmer Group has gained through the OPC Router is far from exhausted. Ralf Wiedemer is pleased with how quickly the first optimizations in terms of security and consolidation were achieved after the smooth and simple installation and implementation.

“But we still have a lot planned for the OPC Router,”

says Head of IT Mr. Wiedemer and is looking forward to further projects.