DSM APPLICATION

Unified Shop floor Management System solution

COMPONENT INDUSTRY

The customer's goal is to create a Shop floor management and connectivity solution with devices to be installed in component manufacturing plants, such as electric motors, automotive and industrial lights, electrical circuits, suspension systems, injectors, etc.

This Shop floor system applies supervision logics to the production lines. Moreover, it is responsible to verify consistency of products, congruency of components with current production and collect process and product data from lines.

It was developed by Hermes Reply and installed in several plants worldwide (Europe, North & South America, Asia).

SHOOP FLOOR SYSTEM

The solution created can be divided, into three main constituents:

User Dashboard: it is the main entry point for interaction with the system, which include monitoring, diagnostics, reporting, plant mapping, materials management, production operations and system configuration. It is presented with particular attention to the user experience and the visual aspect, which must be compliant and universalized for all functions
Connector: it is the heart of the system, it is responsible for connectivity with devices and other applications that can be found in production contexts, and implementation of supervisory logics such as consistency, congruence and traceability. It is suited with common and standard protocols like OPC.UA, REST (HTTP/HTTPs) and MQTT. The modular design enable to quickly implements new protocols and new tasks
Data Exchange Middleware: is responsible for data exchange to and from other systems, used for example to send the process and product data collected and receive the master data (such as materials, models, and bill of materials) from the MES systems

Challenges

The lack of shop floor-level connectivity in many cases or the presence of traceability systems but highly customized for each line, made visibility and control over processes and production data difficult. The goal of the initiative and the system is to unify communication and integration with production lines in order to have a common user experience and standard integration on a global scale.

ONE SHOP FLOOR SYSTEM FOUNDATION

The system controls the production line by communicating in real-time with the devices and collects product data (results, measures, quality data, components traceability) and process data (station status, alarms, warnings, variables), it also provides input commands to the line for process control, like consistency (check if a product is workable for specified station), congruency (check that components can be mounted on current product) and sending data (as an example, sending parameters to adequate stations according to the current product type).

The DSM has the main target, therefore, not only to collect and write data to shop floor, it acts as an intermediary layer between the line devices and the higher systems by sending results and values.

The DSM provides these set of capabilities through analysis and monitoring tools to be used by production managers, assembly line workers and quality managers.

OPEN DEVICE & PARTNER CONNECTIVITY

Usage of common, mature and widespread protocols, especially in industrial contexts, like OPC.UA, a protocol widely supported by PLCs, REST HTTPs and widely distributed as it is the base of internet navigation and communication. MQTT broker or client, is a widely used protocol for Industrial IoT devices, and NFS used for network shared exchange file, to complement a still present data exchange channel
Use of XML and JSON data exchange formats between devices and / or partners, as two extremely common and well-known formats in order to restrict the diffusion of different formats, and, be able to include examples in the documentation that everyone would understand
Adopting a modular architecture, which divides the logic from the transport (channel, protocol, format), in this way, speeds up and isolates the implementation of logics, like getting alarms, or more complex ones, like checking probability that product will become defective in the next station. With this division, new logics would be usable on all channels automatically

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

The solution implemented has enabled, with a view to continuous improvement, a series of subsequent implementations going so far as to incorporate and manage many operations, such as the collection of product and process data, material management and congruencies, production analysis, performance reporting and collection of data of high-frequency machine cycles for the monitoring of trends.

From a technological point of view, this product was born as a simple traceability system evolving into an ecosystem for the Shop floor contexts. From a monolithic application approach, the customer with our support have moved to a micro-service architecture acquiring the ability to granularize the development of evolutions, installations and new modules.

Hermes supported the customer in this process of digitization and innovation and over the years has created a valuable collaboration.

Hermes Reply is the Reply group company specialized in architectural and technological solutions, Application Maintenance services for Automotive & Manufacturing industry and Management Consulting services. Hermes Reply accompany the customers throughout the digital transformation process in order to support the adoption of digital enablers and achieve short-term and long term results, combining in-depth knowledge of production processes, industry 4.0 technologies, delivery skills and strategic vision.