IOT News

In a large automotive parts manufacturing workshop, there are over a hundred pieces of equipment from different eras, including FANUC and Siemens CNC machines, Mitsubishi PLCs, and a number of environmental monitoring instruments using the Modbus RTU protocol. These devices operate independently, with incompatible data formats and communication protocols. The workshop supervisor could only rely on manual rounds to record equipment status, production output, and environmental conditions each day. The data was outdated, often contained errors and omissions, and ultimately impacted the company's operational efficiency.

To address this, the factory set the following requirement: without replacing old equipment, collect real-time operating parameters, alarm information, and environmental data from all devices, and upload them to a unified information management platform in the central control room. This would enable cross-brand, cross-protocol device networking and centralized monitoring.

Solution

WideIOT deployed CNC gateways and PLC gateways for one-to-one data collection, while the environmental monitoring instruments used one-to-many data collection. Data from different devices was packaged into standardized MQTT, connected via Ethernet to the central control room server, and then parsed by the platform. This enabled visual monitoring, alarms, management, control, maintenance, and data analytics, providing comprehensive and reliable digital support for production management and equipment maintenance.

Key Features

Real-time monitoring of all equipment

Managers can view the current process step, spindle load, and fault codes of all machines simultaneously on a central dashboard. They can also quickly check environmental changes in each workshop, such as temperature, humidity, dust concentration, and water ingress.

Smart alarms and fault traceability

When abnormal or excessive data is detected, the system automatically sends alerts via SMS, email, WeChat, and workshop displays. It also automatically logs the equipment involved, timestamp, and values, providing complete fault chain traceability for audit purposes.

Energy efficiency and OEE analysis

By calculating equipment start/stop times, idle consumption, and yield rates, the system automatically generates shift-level Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) reports and carbon emissions per unit of production. This helps the factory eliminate production bottlenecks and improve equipment utilization and production efficiency.