Designed for industrial enterprises, the e-F@ctory digital platform is a component of the Society 5.0, bringing together production process controls and IT.
For example, the system continuously monitors torque as workers drive screws to assemble a device. Any worker who demonstrates a consistently off-the-scale torque requires training. The system analyzes this information before sending it further. Previously, we were simply not able to acquire such data.
Talks about the convergence between production and IT have started long ago, but conventional methods of data analysis require a huge information flow. The global volume of data doubles every one or two years, with the majority being generated by production facilities. These are “dirty” data; they overload servers and many of them are simply unnecessary. Therefore, we believe that whatever is not needed is to be cut off at the lowest level.
The e-F@ctory uses edge computing to make sure that only the most essential data go to data centers and communication channels. The system handles figures in real time and significantly increases the speed of decision-making by process operators. The platform enhances cybersecurity, improves production efficiency, and reduces costs by up to 60%.
The e-F@ctory is not a package solution. It is implemented for each customer subject to production scales and tasks that an industrial enterprise or infrastructure facility is to solve. It may be a single sensor and one computer or it may be a huge production facility that requires multi-level upgrading.
Russian Railways has implemented a project to upgrade a wheelset repair department a while ago. As a result, the company was able to increase the number of railcars repaired on the same automated and upgraded line by three thousand units per year. More recently, we have developed and implemented a production and transport control system for a mining and smelting company. It is used to analyze and prevent technical emergency shutdowns and to achieve performance targets. Consequently, the project minimized the start-up and shutdown times, achieved efficient consumption of materials and power, and increased the service life of equipment.
Certainly, in many respects it is a matter of the committed amount of investment and priorities of the company’s management. But the advantage of digital solutions for production and in particular of our e-F@ctory is that, first, it can be deployed using the existing production infrastructure and, second, production lines can be modernized in parts or on a staged basis. Mitsubishi Electric had a project with BelAZ carmaker where we retrofitted a certain production line using a given budget. This helped to achieve the required effect and provide a basis for further modernization of the enterprise.
Thus, the e-F@ctory is totally adaptable. The scale and cost of the solution will depend on the goals the company wants to achieve.
By Andrey Gulakov, General Manager of Factory Automation, Mitsubishi Electric in Russia