Elisa has been selected as partner in the European 4.0 Transformation Center project in Germany. Elisa's IoT Smart Factory solution is used in developing the production processes of e.Go's electric car factory using artificial intelligence and 3D visualisation.
European 4.0 Transformation Center (E4TC) is a factory area of the future that is being constructed next to RWTH Aachen University. It is part of the university's Smart Logistics cluster. The factory area, which will employ more than 10 thousand people, will become a unique collaboration platform where companies, research organisations as well as software and service providers together develop a new kind of production that is managed and optimised entirely digitally. The centre will produce e.GO Mobile AG's electric cars, among other things.
– It is our intention to reform the entire outlook for the manufacturing industry with digitalisation. Traditional paper reports, Excel tables and manual work phases are still significantly slowing down European manufacturing industry, although the future Industry 4.0 model has already been discussed for a long time. It is our intention to make digitalisation, real-time data, intelligent logistics and optimisation enabled by the industrial internet the basis of every production phase so that we can achieve an entirely new level of productivity and product development speed, says Rupert Deger, CEO of the E4TC project.
Elisa was selected as a partner for the project to provide tools for production optimisation and visualisation with the Elisa IoT Smart Factory solution.
– Artificial intelligence, 3D and augmented reality have been hot topics already for years. However, so far, the level of their utilisation in the manufacturing industry has been modest. In Elisa's Smart Factory concept, we combined automatic process optimisation to a real-time visual tool, which enables both the production engineer and the factory manager to get a clear view of the production status and potential problems. We are really proud that our continuous work has now brought us the opportunity to be involved in reforming the future of European industry, comments Kari Terho, Elisa's Director responsible for the Smart Factory solution.
Elisa's IoT Smart Factory solution utilises artificial intelligence to optimise the quality and efficiency of single production processes, as well as to identify bottlenecks throughout the production. Various sensor data, the continuous state of production and anomalies detected are presented in a visual tool that includes a 3D model and covers the whole factory. The solution is based on Elisa's IoT product development and service platform that speeds up the development of various IoT solutions and networked devices.
– We are convinced that the shift in the manufacturing industry will speed up significantly both in Finland and in Europe. This will have a significant effect on our competitive advantage, Kari Terho continues.
Construction of the European 4.0 Transformation Center in Aachen is under way, and the first e.GO electric cars were manufactured at the beginning of May 2017. Serial production will start next winter, and mass deliveries will start in spring 2018.
In May of 2017 Elisa was awarded the “Thingworx EMEA Partner of the Year” title by PTC, the developer of the Thingworx IoT development platform, in their yearly LiveWorx event. The judges praised especially Elisa’s Smart Factory Solution for its abilities in predictive maintenance and remote monitoring and management (RMM) aided by a new kind of interactive view. In LiveWorx 2016 Elisa’s Smart Factory concept was awarded the “Best IoT Solution of the Year” title. Forrester Research recently named PTC a leader in the new Forrester Wave™ report that evaluates Internet of Things (IoT) software platforms.
Links to more information:
www.elisa.com/iot
europeantransformationcenter.eu
www.thingworx.com/blog/winners-thingworx-2017-partner-awards/
www.ptc.com/en/internet-of-things/forrester-wave
