Case Study: Manufacturing & IIoT

5G-connected Factory on Sensfix

Ericsson and Nokia are rolling-out 5G networks in various manufacturing and industrial facilities across Europe. Leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have been establishing consortia with 5G network providers, Telecom Operators and 5G based solution providers.

Sensfix’s flagship product sens-Facility suite was identified as a potential solution for 5G-connected factories by one such consortia driven by Ericsson, our partner. Lodz special economic zone in Poland instituted an industry consortium program called “S5-5G Technology Accelerator” inviting a leading German OEM, our client, as a technology recipient to test-run and adopt sensfix’s solution.

A leading German manufacturer of house-hold appliances had designated one of its manufacturing facilities in Poland for 5G roll-out and testing of 5G-based applications. Running the 5G network provided by Ericsson, our client wanted to connect the entirety of their IoT sensors over the 5G communication network. In addition, the client wanted to move the predictive maintenance of industrial motors on to the 5G network and realize homogenous and fully automated operations and maintenance (O&M) of the motors leveraging AR/VR based mobility solutions.

Sensfix implemented its flagship sens-Facility suite and successfully met the objectives of our client and the consortium. Sensfix’s partnership with Ericsson was well established in order to scale the solution to other OEMs beyond the scope of this consortium.

At the beginning of the project, integrating the new platform with factory’s existing systems happened in just a few weeks thanks to Sensfix’s modular and easily integrable solution. Thanks to Sensfix’s IoT platform, all IoT sensors, their interfaces and connectivity bridges at the client’s site were onboarded into the Sensfix platform. Sensfix provides O&M stakeholder specific apps (web & mobile) for connecting machinery & equipment in the manufacturing plant, via their IoT sensors, to an online collaborative platform where factory workers, O&M team and other stakeholders of the supply chain, inventory management and service chain can monitor or control different phases of operation and maintenance lifecycle.

Sensfix platform was integrated with the IoT sensors fitted on to chosen industrial motors in the facility for the purpose of proof of concept. Based on the predictive maintenance carried out by the IoT sensors, Sensfix algorithms could map every prediction to an impending service action. Accordingly, sensfix triggered the corresponding service workflow, scheduled the authorized motor service personnel, opened the ticket, setup AR/VR links depending on the remote-assist mode chosen by the service personnel and managed the ticket till service fulfilment.

Sensfix executed a holistic operational model with the ability to extend interoperability to future systems beyond industrial motors in the manufacturing facility. Teams can manage the complete operational maintenance, asset performance, and sustainability from a single interface to deliver new experiences to plant managers, new insights to maintenance workers and operators, and to fulfill the 5G-factory’s vision for creating a connected workers platform using mixed reality.