_ThingWorx in the cloud – remote access to customer plants

Summary

Sealed Air, one of the leading food packaging solutions companies, and a long-time partner of Transition Technologies PSC with more than 60 years of experience and worldwide operations, approached us with a need to streamline remote monitoring to improve warranty and service processes.

Guided by an analysis of needs and points for improvement, TT PSC provided personalized software for reading and overriding production machine parameters. As a result, once the machines are manufactured and delivered to customers, Sealed Air can monitor their performance via remote access. The innovative solution has helped improve service and operational efficiency, while ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction.

Business Challenges

• Reading data from different types of PLCs: the system had to efficiently process data based on different time triggers, state changes and frequency.
• Fast data analysis: Sealed Air needed a custom OPC server to process information in real time.
• Remote connection to machines: it was important to allow remote access to machines for monitoring and configuration.
• Data analysis across various IoT Cloud systems: integration with platforms such as ThingWorx and AWS was needed to enable comprehensive data analysis.

Solutions

1. Personalized Java-based application: we developed an application that can read and write PLC values at a low level for high precision and reliability.
2. Built-in OPC server: implementation of a data writing interface allows critical settings of machines already in production to be changed.
3. Web-Socket tunneling system: we enabled remote connections to Java applications via RDP, ensuring effective machine management from any location.
4. KPI dashboards on ThingWorx and AWS platforms: we created advanced dashboards to monitor the status of machines during production, enabling ongoing monitoring and analysis.

Main benefits and results

1. Reduced licensing costs: eliminating the need to provide paid OPC servers with each product has significantly reduced operating costs.
2. Reliable access to machine data and statistics: our solutions provide reliable access to all key machine data and statistics for greater transparency and control.
3. Reduced maintenance time: thanks to remote access and the ability to analyze data quickly, the time required to service products has been significantly reduced.
4. Improved monitoring for stakeholders: the use of advanced KPI dashboards has enabled better monitoring and reporting, resulting in better management and business decision-making.