Industrial Edge on the shop floor
The animation illustrates the structure of the open edge system. Using the data on process level leads to more transparency about the performance and condition of plants and assets so you can make the right decisions to optimize your production.
These data can also be used by the plant manager to better schedule maintenance and enhance flexibility and control. Whether your data stays on-site or is processed in the cloud is up to you – with Industrial Edge you can use the best solution for your needs, with Siemens devices or adapted to your infrastructure.
How can Industrial Edge maximize plant availability?
Plant availability is essential in the process industry – unscheduled maintenance can be poison for productivity: Whether it's due to wear and tear or contamination, sudden plant failures are expensive and need to be avoided whenever possible. This means maintenance is often carried out at frequent intervals, even when it's not necessary. So how can maintenance work be better scheduled and unnecessary maintenance avoided?
Industrial Edge brings AI applications to field devices
Predicting when a sensor, valve or pump is likely to fail is possible with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
Based on data collected via Industrial Edge, algorithms can calculate when failures are likely to occur. First, data from the Edge devices is transferred to a cloud to train AI. The trained AI can then be used as an Edge App on the edge devices within the plant. The app's AI is continuously fed with asset data to detect anomalies that indicate an oncoming failure.
Benefits of Industrial Edge:
- Higher productivity thanks the help of AI on the Edge devices, which can predict the necessary maintenance of a plant in time to prevent failures
- Predictive maintenance makes it possible to plan maintenance work and schedule it for times when the plant is idle anyway or when throughput is lower
- Breakdowns and downtimes in production are expensive – considerable sums can be saved by reducing downtimes
Industrial Edge Apps for the Process Industry
Ready-made and customized apps
The range of ready-made apps available includes the processing, visualization and analysis of data, as well as connectivity to implement applications such as status and condition monitoring or predictive maintenance. IT administrators can make these apps available to their colleagues on the shop floor via the central Edge Management System, but they can also use applications they have developed themselves. Uploading data to the cloud is not compulsory, but does offer advantages as plant owners and managers can gain access to globally distributed plants and optimize their service on the basis of the processed data, as well as develop new business models.
Industrial Edge – the solution in detail
Industrial Edge is designed as an open system and is easy to integrate into existing IT and automation environments. It makes many tasks easier, since it’s possible to automate what were previously manual stages. IT administrators can quickly and easily put shop floor requirements into action, and centrally manage and roll out updates and new apps. The necessary hardware, such as Edge devices and gateways, is industry-ready and can be used directly on the machine even in harsh environmental conditions.
