The illustration below visualizes the flow of data within Factbird’s manufacturing intelligence solution, from the data collection on the machine level to the data analysis and visualization in the user interface (UI).
Factbird's solution starts with the collection of real-time data. This is achieved through two primary methods:
A customer can choose to use Factbird’s own proprietary IoT Hardware to collect data from sensors. These sensors can capture analog or digital data and can either be retrofitted to the machine or process, or can be an existing system. In the latter case, the 24V or 4- 20mA signal of the sensor will get copied using galvanically isolated cables that get installed in parallel to the existing circuit.
The Factbird Hardware will transmit the data every 20 seconds wirelessly to the Factbird cloud. The customer can choose between cellular (2G/3G/4G) or WiFi connectivity. All data is encrypted and transmitted to the Factbird application hosted in the cloud at AWS via MQTT over TLS 1.2, and it complies with the security standards of AWS’ MQTT broker, AWS IoT Core. MQTT is designed for low-latency IoT applications and the need to handle high volumes of data, making it suitable for real-time applications like Factbird.
In addition to that, the solution also seamlessly integrates with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) using central servers, e.g., Kepware, that can connect via MQTT over TLS 1.2 to AWS IoT Core. For Kepware specifically, it must be configured with the IoT Gateway plug-in to interface with the cloud; other custom connectivity solutions must provide an MQTT client and comply with the aforementioned security requirements from AWS. Customers can choose either one of the data collection methods described or a mixture of the two.
In addition, Factbird's manufacturing intelligence solution is not limited to IoT and PLC data alone. It can integrate data from various other sources, including:
- Additional Hardware: Data from devices such as barcode scanners, scales, or any other relevant hardware can be incorporated as well, meaning Factbird is flexible to hardware requests for any customer in any industry.
- Manual Data Entry: Users have the flexibility to input manually created data, such as operator counts, comments, or downtime reason registration, directly into the system. This allows for immediate and accurate data visualisation of important production data, which allows our customers to make sound, data-driven decisions.
- External Databases: Integration with external systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems allows for the retrieval and consolidation of data from these sources. Retrieving, consolidating, and then visualizing the data from an existing system(s) allows customers to use Factbird as a single source of truth.
All collected data is subsequently securely stored in the Factbird AWS Cloud. This cloud-based Infrastructure ensures scalability, reliability, and accessibility for users. Users can access the data at any time from anywhere in the world in real-time, i.e., with a maximum delay of 20 seconds. This real-time data access is important from Operators all the way up to C-Level, who both need an accurate and timely representation of what is happening on the factory floor, albeit for different reasons.
The heart of the solution lies in its user-friendly web-based (UI). This interface provides a comprehensive and intuitive view of all collected data. Users can easily access, analyze, and interact with this data to make informed decisions.
When you are ready, move on to the next section Performance Analytics Basics.