Construction equipment industry achieve digitalisation goals through OPC UA

The construction equipment industry is on the verge of steep growth. The nation today is focusing on infrastructure to revive economic growth after recent uncertainties. Different sectors such as urban and rural development, railways, road, airport, harbors, industrial zones are expected to see a boost in operations and expansions. It unfolds considerable opportunities for construction equipment industry across all value chain to benefit and contribute to this planned economic development. Manufacturers are constantly innovating to keep up with the pace of growing demand and to stay competitive. Apart from bracing digital transformation and creating a connected ecosystem, it is utmost important that OEMs need to ensure their profitable growth.

Connected ecosystem providing edge

Construction equipment industry is realizing the need for a connected ecosystem, with a scope to deploy connectivity solutions at two avenues. One avenue is at the factory premises to optimize production performance of construction equipment. Manufacturers are keen to connect their shop floor machines to enterprise-levels such as MES/ERP/Cloud in order to get end-to-end visibility of their plants.  Another avenue is on construction equipment itself for exchanging data. Equipment such as excavators, backhoe loaders, pavers, mixers, and so on are typically operated in harsh and remote environments with adverse climatic conditions. Thus, data related to operations and assets monitoring is important for planning equipment utilization and scheduling maintenance. In both application avenues communication is an important catalyst influencing the way crucial and time-critical information across the entire value chain is shared. Adoption of next generation communication technologies for data connectivity and interoperability is important for equipment manufacturers to achieve their digitalization goals.

The existing communication protocols deployed in lines operational on shop floor today are not devised to give manufacturers a single and consistent means for handling generated data. Networks used in assembly lines, paint shops, inspection systems etc. are typically proprietary and are limited to systems from a particular vendor. As a result, existing communication solution makes factory shop floor severely fragmented and make them incompatible to communicate with each other. Moreover, IT (Information Technology)/OT (Operational Technology) convergence has been in the spotlight to have effective implementation of digitalization techniques. Most networks available today on the shop floor lack possibility to communicate with IT systems. It requires factory operators to incorporate additional resources and gateways on the shop floor so that line equipment can exchange data with applications on enterprise level. With increasing factory requirements such as cyber security and big data, existing networks have limitation to scale up.

OPC UA fulfilling connectivity demands

OPC UA is an open, vendor-neutral, platform-independent communication standard developed to address the need for seamless interoperability in a factory. Beyond simple data sharing, OPC UA facilitates a semantic metadata model that enables manufacturers to create value from data. B&R has been a strong promoter of OPC UA technology with its entire portfolios such as controllers, industrial PCs, I/Os supporting OPC UA.

Usually data from all line machines need to be aggregated and analyzed to improve the overall process efficiency and productivity. OPC UA allows seamless vertical and horizontal connectivity across the entire automation landscape. It gives an advantage for a factory to integrate any machines on the shop floor without getting locked to a specific vendor. In addition, data from machines and processes can be exchanged with SCADA/MES/ERP systems using OPC UA. It is hardware and software independent thereby adding flexibility to factories.

Effective information handling boost process performance

Factory managers KPIs are usually associated with process optimization, improving productivity, reducing downtime, and enhancing quality. Lines typically assembling heavy equipment are subject to vibrations leading to wear and tear of moving parts on the line. Moreover, assembly stations may experience heat, wear and tear thereby affecting operation and bring the complete line to a standstill. It becomes critical for factory managers to monitor processes and take corrective actions. With OPC UA supported by Edge Controller, an innovative factory automation solution from B&R, it allows maintenance-related data to be collected from line machines notifying respective personnel of corrective measures. OPC UA is used to update energy consumption parameters from the shop floor to SCADA/MES supporting factory managers to devise a strategy for energy saving. OPC UA enables expansion of lines and stations seamlessly with minimum effort. With strength of openness and effective information handling across machines and enterprise-level, OPC UA is gaining popularity even in construction equipment manufacturing.

Secured connectivity for greenfield and brownfield

The built-in security mechanism of OPC UA gives added advantage for a factory to protect process data from unauthorized access. OPC UA is integrated with security features such as authentication, authorization, encryptions, and data integrity using certificates. It ensures data is authentic for processing.  OPC UA is further supported by various cloud solution providers providing a great opportunity for equipment manufacturers to leverage digital connectivity without any additional investment. OPC UA can work together with messaging protocols such as MQTT and AMQP. B&R Edge Controller together with OPC UA are enabling legacy and old machines, lines, and processes to interact with upstream layers.

OPC UA as de facto standard for smarter future

With emergence of new technologies, construction equipment manufacturers need to focus on innovations in terms of digitalizing processes and interconnect them to gain improved performance and efficiency. OPC UA is playing a vital role in offering interoperability in various industries. It succeeds by offering unified and secured communication across shop floor connecting from field devices to the cloud. Integrating OPC UA in all its controllers, B&R proves to be a one-stop shop for powerful and scalable automation and digitization solutions for the construction equipment industry fulfilling all their needs.

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