“With Industry 4.0, computers and automation are coming together in entirely new ways—with robotics connected remotely to computer systems equipped with machine learning algorithms. These algorithms can learn and control the robotics with very little input from human operators.”
—Kerem Palabiyik Cofounder and CEO FourDotOne*
Executive Summary
With the advent of Industry 4.0 and the convergence of OT and IT, the global manufacturing industry is poised for a major transformation. Realizing the advantages of connected industry, however, can be both complex and challenging. FourDotOne offers an innovative, advanced data science platform running on Intel® architecture that is helping industry access data-driven insight targeted to specific requirements and growth opportunities. Outcomes range from increased automation to lower costs—all informed by an analytics engine designed for continual innovation and optimization.
Challenges
Today’s automotive and industrial manufacturers rely on cost-efficiency to remain competitive. Machine failure and unpredicted downtime present one of the biggest expenditures for companies, with 82 percent experiencing at least one unplanned downtime outage over the past three years at a cost of more than $2 million.1 Seventy-two percent are unsure when equipment or assets are due for upgrades or maintenance.1
Data from connected equipment and infrastructure is critical to optimize prototyping and production lines, but gathering and analyzing this data in real time proves challenging. Incompatible equipment and systems with diverse protocols and management applications, labor and time-intensive manual inspection, strict regulatory and compliance requirements, and reliance on centralized servers that limit analysis across or between plants are all prohibitive factors in gaining holistic insight and achieving Industry 4.0.
In addition, industrial facilities are reluctant to push production data to the public cloud because of perceived risks to security and IP.
Solution
FourDotOne offers an advanced data science platform-as-a-service (PaaS) in conjunction with Intel® architecture–based gateways and cloud servers. Its global customer base includes leading automotive manufacturers shaping autonomous driving and industrial manufacturers.
Its offering begins with comprehensive data gathering and analysis from legacy and modern equipment, sensors, and robotics. Algorithms and data models are developed to address specific pain points, such as cost overruns or quality defects on the manufacturing production line. Data is analyzed and results generated at both the edge and the cloud—enabling both actionable edge intelligence in real time and deeper, comprehensive insight for strategic growth and innovation. Results are available via an online portal, providing fast access to data visualization for improved decision-making.
FourDotOne’s customer base utilizes the data platform to inform a wide range of essential functions: streamlining processes, supporting predictive maintenance, informing prototyping and innovation, optimizing operation, improving quality, and reducing costs.
Key differentiators of FourDotOne’s offering include long-term engagement, with regular consulting sessions deszigned to help customers mine, assess, and realize greater value from their data for continual improvement over time. The company’s expertise combines with deep data sets drawn anonymously across its install base to bring a powerful breadth and depth of knowledge unavailable to a customer with data from a single machine or factory.
FourDotOne customers see significant impact on manufacturing lines,averaging 15 percent faster operations, reduced maintenance costs of up to 20 percent, and 50 percent fewer cost issues.2 Quality improvements can affect all departments, from design and prototyping to line production.
Intel® architecture-based gateways bring high-performance, scalability, and reliability—gathering and filtering data and enabling near-real-time action at the edge, while transmitting select data to the cloud. Servers based on Intel® processors accelerate data analysis and storage. Combined with the FourDotOne data science platform, the solution offers end-to-end data-driven insight for the industrial and automotive sectors.
- Collect data from sensors, machines, and robots
- Analyze and visualize data at the edge and via public or on-premise cloud
- Increase quality and reduce costs across manufacturing lines
FourDotOne data analytics platform-as-a-service (PaaS) running on Intel® architecture provides insight for modern industrial use cases from automotive to manufacturing
Scattolini factory lowers costs
FourDotOne customers are achieving increased ROI in 6 to 12 months by following its data analytics recommendations.3
For example, by reducing the amount of manual monitoring and transforming the plant to become proactive with its maintenance, the Scattolini factory in Turkey estimates that it has reduced its costs for maintenance operations by 15 percent.4
Sample Automotive and Manufacturing Use Cases
The FourDotOne data science platform powered by Intel architecture brings the flexibility to address predefined challenges, monitor and assess current operations, and identify areas of improvement.
Vertical integration
Vertical integration is often the first step for digital transformation of industrial environments. The FourDotOne platform can be connected to devices from any manufacturer via well-known industrial protocols such as BACnet*, Canbus*, OPC UA/DA, Ethernet/IP*, Modbus* TCP IP/RTU, and Profinet*. FourDotOne integrates these data sources and creates a data network for cloud applications using communications network solutions such as HTTPS and MQTT. The solution can help maximize equipment uptime and enhance machine-to-machine interface with protocolquality connectivity (e.g., Zigbee*, Bluetooth*) for improved optimization.
Condition monitoring
FourDotOne condition monitoring services capture the
state of the machines and equipment in the field and offer visualizing and reporting of real-time data for protection monitoring, machine-human pairing, polyvalence checking, consecutive anomaly detection, regular random quality checks, and quality approval on initial production runs. For example, the solution can make regular random checks, disable individual machines after three successive failures, and alert operators.
Big data
FourDotOne’s data management expertise helps business and industry tap big data to better understand current capabilities and add value to supply chains.
Predictive maintenance
Data-driven predictive maintenance can help reduce or eliminate downtime, and improve cost optimization, utilization, and operational efficiency.
Prescriptive analytics
With FourDotOne, industrial organizations can take advantage of complex prescriptive analytics to inform decision-making and growth. This data can be used to optimize production, scheduling, and inventory across supply chains to ensure the right products are delivered at the right time.
Augmented reality
FourDotOne provides industry with a mobile, wearable platform with advanced augmented reality (AR) features designed to support smart manufacturing activities. AR supports effective communication between field workers and business infrastructure in order to provide smart information about installation, production, and maintenance. Capabilities include object tracking, task creation and assignment, and data analytics management.
Comprehensive data provides an ongoing snapshot of operations and utilization
Advancing edge and cloud intelligence
Intel and its ecosystem help businesses use IoT to solve long-standing industry-specific challenges. Quickly develop IoT solutions that connect things, collect data, and derive insights with the Intel® portfolio of open and scalable solutions—so you can reduce costs, improve productivity, and increase revenue.
Intel® technologies support the rigorous requirements for programmable logic controllers (PLCs), industrial PCs (IPCs), human machine interfaces (HMIs), robotics, machine vision, and many other industrial applications.
How It Works In Brief
FourDotOne’s data models and algorithms are designed to provide customers with the specific information needed to optimize operations. By defining the appropriate parameters and identifying patterns, the FourDotOne platform running on Intel® architecture conducts both edge and back-end data processing and analytics. In the cloud, machine learning algorithms are used to analyze the combined data from multiple machines, so that future maintenance requirements can be predicted.
The FourDotOne platform integrates a web-based analytics interface with sensors, automation systems, robotics, energy analyzers, and relay information systems. The approach visualizes, detects anomalies, and sends alerts based on time-series data at the edge.
Analysis at the edge enables a prompt response in the case of an emergency, power outage, or technical fault. Machine learning algorithms in the cloud can analyze all data generated by all the machines over time to refine the rules for raising alerts, and provide insight into the optimal time to maintain or replace a machine. This intelligence enables the manufacturer to avoid unplanned downtime, reduce the labor associated with monitoring machines manually, and optimize the cost of parts and maintenance. As a result, manufacturers can increase the reliability and predictability of their manufacturing infrastructure.
The cloud infrastructure is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS)* and utilizes Amazon Kinesis* Streams designed to continuously capture large volumes of data from monitored devices. The data is also added to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)*, where it serves as a data lake, bringing together data from different types of monitored devices. Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (Amazon EMR)* is used to set up Amazon Spark* clusters, and map S3 objects to the EMR file system, so that batch analyses can be performed using the data in the S3 buckets. Predictive models are run in EMR, and data can also be consumed from Kinesis streams to enable near-real-time analysis on sensor data. The database, API, and web servers are also hosted on AWS, using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud* (Amazon EC2*). Users can remotely monitor the platform using a visual interface, on their choice of internet-enabled devices.
For industrial organizations that do not want to use the AWS public cloud, FourDotOne offers a version of the data platform that works on premise.
FourDotOne integrates machine learning and analytics with its comprehensive industrial database to solve manufacturing problems and identify areas of growth
The foundation for IoT
The FourDotOne solution is one example of how Intel works closely with the ecosystem to help enable smart IoT solutions based on standardized, scalable, reliable Intel® architecture and software. These solutions range from sensors and gateways to server and cloud technologies to data analytics algorithms and applications. Intel provides essential end-to-end capabilities—performance, manageability, connectivity, analytics, and advanced security—to help accelerate innovation and increase revenue for enterprises, service providers, and industry.
FourDotOne
FourDotOne employs data scientists, collaborates with industry analysts, and works on projects with academicians to provide its automotive and industrial customers cutting-edge solutions based on advanced analytics. The company engages in hardware-agnostic projects including condition monitoring, big data process optimization, predictive maintenance, and the digital factory.
Çimtaş, FourDotOne’s business partner, was awarded Best Operational Excellence Project of the Year in 2017.
Conclusion
FourDotOne digital transformation solutions running on high-performance Intel architecture are enabling industrial and automotive manufacturers to solve complex production line issues and achieve the benefits of Industry 4.0. Fully integrated and easily configurable, the data analytics solutions require zero human touch; allow for smart, efficient operations; and accelerate time to innovation.
Learn More
For more information about FourDotOne, please visit FourDotOne or contact us.
For more information about Intel® IoT Technology and the Intel® Internet of Things Solutions Alliance, please visit Intel® Internet of Things (IoT).
- After The Fall: Cost, Causes and Consequences of Unplanned Downtime
- Based on internal FourDotOne estimates across their current install base, 2018.
- Increasing Efficiency and Uptime with Predictive Maintenance
