What is the concrete value of error savings; how can the investment costs be justified? These are questions that the network experts at Indu-Sol can answer based on their experience. They carry out around 400 network maintenance assignments every year. A good 150 of these are emergencies due to unplanned system downtime. Nevertheless, many automation companies take the "bet of reactive maintenance" every day. This is because the costs of investing in network monitoring can only be communicated convincingly if the resulting savings are clearly visible.

Ultimately, the investment and the "harvest" of a CMMS (Condition Monitoring Management System) are an expected value calculation. A CMMS pays off, above all because it addresses the biggest "attack vector", namely system availability.

Four pillars for efficient network monitoring

The OEE of a production facility is made up of availability, performance and quality. The CMMS from Indu-Sol has a direct influence on the first two parameters because it helps to avoid system downtimes, make ageing processes visible at an early stage and enable preventive intervention. The aim of a CMMS for the network is to detect anomalies in communication. These are often sporadic causes that can only be found and eliminated through consistent monitoring. The Thuringian network experts offer a CMMS for Profibus as well as for Profinet and Ethernet IP. It consists of four pillars that contribute to reliable network monitoring.

The first pillar is the intelligent industrial switches of the PROmesh P series. With their online line diagnostics and monitoring features, they help to detect problems in network communication. Around 40% of all anomalies can already be detected with the special switches. The second pillar is the Profinet inspector, which monitors the application itself rather than the network and detects a further 50% of the causes of anomalies there. The collected information is then bundled and analyzed in the PROmanage NT software - the third pillar. Finally, the fourth pillar is the human being, who initiates appropriate measures based on the available information. The solution for Profibus works in a similar way, except that it does without the switches for functional reasons. Overall, the CMMS finds around 80% of anomalies in Profibus.

Digitize brownfield systems cost-effectively and securely

In many cases, brownfield systems are like black boxes and little can be said about their OEE. As things stand today, however, it is difficult to digitize them cost-effectively in such a way that the relevant process variables can be accessed with the necessary accuracy. On the one hand, this has to do with a lack of sensors. On the other hand, existing communication networks would also be unable to cope with the additional transmission of this data.

Indu-Sol meets this challenge with its SIEDS sensors. The multifunctional sensors record numerous different maintenance-relevant variables. To reduce the load on the communication network, this data is then transmitted directly to the IIT level (Industrial Information Technology), where the PROmanage NT network management software also operates, which bundles this data, reports anomalies and identifies optimization potential. To make this possible, all switches are connected in series beforehand. To avoid problems with IP duplication, the network experts have developed a corresponding "digitalization bridge" that enables the separation of data for process control and maintenance. The network remains homogeneous and only allows sensor data to pass through. This allows brownfield systems to be digitized cost-effectively at network level without costly retrofitting.