Have you ever wondered how to make water and wastewater treatment plants more efficient? Heading down the path of digitalisation solutions could be key!
Traditionally, industrial plants have relied on on-site data collection and local systems to gain insights into production processes. However, this approach is no longer sufficient for companies wishing to have better operations visibility. This is particularly the case when operations are spread over multiple sites.
“We’ve seen a shift in industry towards cloud-based platforms to access and interpret data from assets strewn across different sites,” explains ifm Australia’s national IoT business manager, Freddie Coertze. “Yet this comes with its own set of challenges.”
According to Coertze, the three top challenges that cloud-based systems present are:
- security;
- latency; and
- data buffering.
This is due to large volumes of data being streamed from distant locations.
New digitalisation solutions support modern plants
“Essentially, this is what we aimed to solve with our edgeConnect tool – an add-on tool to our moneo Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform,” he says. “With this solution, we can collect data from the whole plant and move it safely to the edge – or closer to its source. We can apply analytics and send the most important information to the plant’s top platform.”
Coertze uses the example of a mining client to unpack this explanation better.
“In this context, our client said, ‘Look, we have an issue. We have multiple, scattered assets that we need to collect data from – how can we do this safely and effectively?’” he recalls. “We were able to solve this issue for them. First is the latency and data buffering because we have a device close to the data source, so information doesn’t have to travel far. Second, because moneo has in-built analytics, it pre-qualifies the data, only sending what is important to the cloud. Third, the edgeConnect tool uses encryption, and because it is located on the edge, it keeps information secure.”
Importantly, Coertze says that the moneo solution and its edgeConnect tool are simple. A factory or plant can benefit from this solution the instant they install it.
“It’s very straightforward. Any moneo customer can easily activate this module, allowing them to securely send data to a cloud platform,” he concludes. “Essentially, the edgeConnect module functions as a soft device or tool that can be installed on any PC, and it powers up the PC to be an edge device.”
To learn more about how moneo can help enhance your industrial processes and streamline efficiency, please click here.
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