Industry 4.0: Citus Kalix to ride the digital revolution
Industry 4.0: Citus Kalix to ride the digital revolution
Since the mists of time, humankind has tirelessly tried to smartly adapt to arduous living conditions, by perfecting its skills and crafts. From the invention of the wheel to the advent of combustion engine, our history is scattered with incredible discoveries revolutionizing the way we live, think and work.
Such learning journey is not over yet: technological progress is posing new threats but also creating additional opportunities. The current digital revolution impacting the packaging arena makes no difference.
The Industry 4.0 paradigm has triggered the proliferation of smart factories, where machines and tools are interconnected (Industrial Internet of Things - IIoT). On the other side, the increasing level of competition urges brand owners and manufacturers to master the art of adaptability to stay competitive. Production efficiency and OEE fiercely regain the centre of the stage.
At Citus Kalix, we fully embraced the digital transformation with the primary objective to create value for our customers. All we want is to put our knowledge of digital technologies in manufacturing at the service of our customers. With this idea in mind, we developed two intuitive platforms to allow our customers to stay competitive and thrive in this challenging business environment: OptiMate and PerforMate.
UX at its best: OptiMate
In manufacturing, with plenty of manual work still performed by humans, user experience (UX) can make the difference. A good UX can help decrease the training times and costs while helping employees perform their tasks must faster. Overall, UX is directly tied to efficiency and productivity of your business.
For this reason, we invested into the development of a smart Human Machine Interface (HMI), to allow operators to make the best out of their on-machine experience. OptiMate is our new machine interface endowed with connectivity and smart functionalities.
Intuitive and user-friendly, OptiMate is the way to go to simplify operations. Its main dashboard ensures all production KPIs are kept under control. Multiple widgets, progress indicators, and windows – properly organized to ensure immediate understanding – display output, performances and main machine selectors and parameters. The navigation, through a progress bar, is by process and not by machine section as it happened traditionally.
From the main dashboard, operators can access more detailed sections, where to manage and change the parameters of each machine process. Other sections allow for the management of recipes or for the visualization of active events. Examples of these events are alarms, warnings and info messages together with the alarm history.
Differently from traditional HMIs, OptiMate works as an access point to a world of digital services crafted to empower machine experience. These on-demand services include:
- Digital guided procedures. Step-by-step, operators and technicians are taken through activities such as format changeover, maintenance or even cleaning and safety procedures.
- Digital documentation, such as machine manuals, electrical and pneumatic diagrams.
Performance at the centre - anytime, anywhere: PerforMate
While OptiMate mainly focuses on enhancing operators' experience on a single machine, PerforMate was designed to streamline performance improvement across plants and locations. It is in fact an IoT platform for machine and line monitoring in real time.
Real-time data are collected by a gateway connected to the PLC of the machines. This safe IT architecture is compliant with the tightest cyber-security standards and guidelines. After data cleaning and refining, information are displayed through customizable widget-based dashboards.
Being cloud-base, PerforMate allows for a real-time control from any place and from any device. Users can basically track machine and line OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) through multiple plants, anytime and anywhere.
Several functionalities and data analytic services are also available - including loss tree analysis, active alarms troubleshooting, alarm history, MTBF/MTTR analysis. Information drill down - depending on the specific need - is as easy as pie. It is also possible to receive insights on areas of improvement and guidance on how to make it happen.
An intuitive user interface and customized notifications make it easy to identify issues that may occur to your machine fleet; and therefore respond in the event of a problem.
It is not only monitoring though. PerforMate acts as a unique gateway to a world of innovative digital services - allowing production managers to gain better control over their production processes and to collaborate more effectively. A few examples include:
- Remote assistance, for faster trouble-shooting and issue resolution in case of machine stops, without the need of a physical presence;
- Digital documentation and training;
- Coesia Webshop, an online platform for an easier and faster spare parts ordering.
Citus Kalix by your side in the digital transformation
Starting from a deep knowledge of the cosmetics manufacturing industry, we are committed to provide our customers with cutting-edge tools to make their lives easier.
PerforMate and OptiMate are the building blocks of our digital strategy. Capable of increasing proximity and interactivity with our customers, these two platforms are set to dramatically change operations for the better. Respectively acting at a machine and fleet level, they are your best allies when it comes to optimization and performance improvement.
But we're not done yet. A complete toolkit of innovative services is being developed, to enable our customers to adapt to a fast changing environment, where speed, agility and flexibility are crucial.