THE NEXT LEVEL
Industry leaders are turning to ConnectedAI for balancing performance, sustainability and cost
The pertinent need for sustainable growth and the rising saturation of operational efficiency in the industrial manufacturing industry demands new and innovative solutions for growth. The latest solution developed by ei3, ConnectedAI, is a compelling combination of cutting edge analytics and AI-driven algorithms encapsulating the value of human experience and insight to deliver solutions for the next wave of sustainability and efficiency improvements.
Arising from two decades of experience in developing industrial solutions and the direct result of ei3’s recent acquisition of the Zurich (Switzerland)-based AI company Cognitive Solutions & Innovations AG, the ConnectedAI utilizes modern data science techniques to deliver targeted solutions for machine builders and machine owners.
ConnectedAI is based on a unified architecture seeking to solve the complex problem of applying data analytics algorithms to industrial machinery. It functions using two fundamental concepts: finding deviations and sharing them.
The process begins with the detection of events based on time-series or frequency domain data, whether it is process data, machine data, or data concerning operator actions. Through machine learning, the events are then categorized to specific effects or causes. In this manner, inefficiencies and irregularities and their root causes are identified over time by comparing baseline data measurements with data deviations. This data is shared securely across the network to combine data from individual machines across fleets of machines which significantly improved the speed and accuracy of the event categorization. Once ConnectedAI has identified patterns of cause and effect, it identifies the particular machine problem at hand.
"Every Monday morning, our board gets reports from ei3 and sets the agenda for the week. It's about having the data when we need it and where we need it. Now we have definitive answers about what we did last time, that paves the way to repeatable success."
ConnectedAI’s predictions of machine wear and tear allow for the seamless retrieval of replacement parts and for the overall improvement of productivity in the manufacturing process.
With ConnectedAI, OEM machine builders can:
- Predict when and where a spare part will be needed to keep an important industrial machinery working without interruption.
- Understand the lifecycle of consumables and drive replenishment models.
- Reduce warranty costs by getting alerts and notification on machine health scores and responding proactively.
- Help customers reduce equipment downtime by using secure connections to remotely access and help machine owners troubleshoot specific equipment issues.
ConnectedAI allows machine owners to take control of their manufacturing processes, and:
- Access uniformed metrics across a host of different equipment manufacturers to analyze KPIs and benchmark performance to identify the leaders and laggards.
- Track the most costly downtime issues and address them with targeted predictive solutions or by revising operating procedures.
- Get status and condition reports of machines, tools and dies enabling better job planning and avoid doing unnecessary preventative maintenance when the machine is not used.
- Avoid machine damage caused by part failures with our out-of-the-box predictive solutions.
- Use algorithm-based analysis of operator actions to harvest a library of “best practices” that improve machine operation, reduce energy usage, or achieve other operational advantages, and can be shared across users.
- Integrate tasks into your CMMS, ERP or MES systems using powerful APIs for external data exchange.
These benefits are being delivered based on ei3’s highly secure network architecture based on Zero Trust Remote Access (ZTRA) that ensures validation and access control of the remote personnel to the designated equipment or device in the specified duration to get support quickly. The system maintains logs of all activities for future reference.
"At Milacron, our vision is to create and inspire a sustainable future. ConnectedAI has been game-changing for our customers; for example, we can first tell customers when a part needs replacing and then also show the economic benefits of doing so"
The uniqueness of ConnectedAI lies in ei3’s relentless focus on scalability and effortless implementation.
SCALABILITY FOR A GROWING INDUSTRY
The IIoT sector is quickly becoming one of the largest online industries, predicted by Grand View Research to grow by 22.8% from 2021 to 2028 and currently estimated at a value of over 200 billion USD. The massive scale of both the industry and of the growing needs of global manufacturing has made ‘scalability’ a prerequisite for any existing or new digital solution.
Fulfilling the demands of scale, ConnectedAI provides fleet-level insight by aggregating data through multidimensional analysis, meaning the toolset melds data dimensions and data measurements to develop insights from across manufacturing operations and through varied time scales. Multidimensional data aggregation allows ConnectedAI to generalize efficiency insights while simultaneously providing unit-specific information to machine operators. ei3 currently collects over 300 million data points every day, in order to facilitate the growth of manufacturing operations. ei3’s edge device, the Amphion S14, allows advanced real-time analytics to be gathered on the device and in the data center at the same time via secure network links.
Effortless Implementation: Actionable Feedback and Out-of-the-Box Applications
Scalability is insignificant without effective and economical means of implementation, and at ei3, the core of effective implementation is a human connection. A key tenet of ei3’s mission is embodied in ConnectedAI: the indispensable value of compounding AI-driven analytics with human intuition. As a result, the insights provided by the toolset are designed to support and reward operator knowledge with actionable feedback and insights.
From a manufacturer’s perspective, ConnectedAI’s out-of-the-box applications provide a seamless transition from traditional maintenance towards digitized measures of quality control, recipe optimization, and predictive maintenance. The toolset was equally designed with continuous improvement in mind, and features methods of insight-justification which allow manufacturers to collaborate with ei3 data scientists to develop accurate and insightful information into client-specific needs while simultaneously building upon the well of information available to the global fleet of ei3-equipped machinery.
Conclusion: A Connected Future
At the digital roots of ConnectedAI is a functional toolset that provides tangible improvements to the sustainability and operational efficiency of industrial manufacturing. The value of the toolset is that it works, though what sets it apart, and what makes it unique, is ei3’s particular experience and focus on the elements of AI-solutions most desired in the industry now, and most necessary for the future.
