Fujitsu has launched FUJITSU Manufacturing Industry Solution VisuaLine, an IoT solution that it claims improves efficiency in the manufacturing process.
In a statement, the Japanese ICT company outlined how the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution supposedly collects log data from the manufacturing equipment used in the production process, and visualizes the operational status for each individual product in a variety of formats, such as graphs.
By comparing these graphs on a daily basis, Fujitsu claims that users can at a glance see portions of the process that are taking more time than usual, enabling them to quickly discover anomalies that would not otherwise be discovered unless they caused the equipment to set off an alarm or cease operation.
Fujitsu argues that countermeasures for issues like malfunctioning production equipment are only taken when they cause an alarm or cease operation, so there have been many issues in shortening lead times and improving efficiency. It has consequently trialled the VisuaLine software at two separate plants in Japan, which have seen efficiencies improve by upwards of 25 percent in both plants.
There’s also a predictive maintenance element to this solution. In its statement, Fujitsu detailed how users can discern problems based on the log data, such as if equipment is failing or deteriorating, allowing them to use the information to discover new places to improve the manufacturing facilities or to establish policies.
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VisuaLine Rundown
Fujitsu list’s the products key features as follows:
- Provides visualizations that allow anyone to determine an anomaly – the data visualizations detailed above make it possible to grasp the operational status of a process at a glance, meaning anomalies can be spotted and dealt with more quickly than in a system that relies on alarms to alert staff to faults
- Field trial-proven video links – Fujitsu has linked the information from the visualization graphs to cameras installed in a manufacturing facility so that users can check the video from any point in time in the process. The theory is that will enable users to study the most efficient processes via video and check what happened during an anomaly
- Easy to implement IoT initiatives – the solution uses performance data from existing IoT equipment, so it can be put to work immediately. Fujitsu also says that a deployment from a single line can be scaled to other factories
The product is currently available from Fujitsu, having launched on December 5. The company says it aims to reach 3,000 licenses by fiscal year 2019.