Eforel and Advantech Cooperate to Provided Real-Time Monitoring and OEE Analysis to a Global Zipper Brand

Indonesian system integrator Eforel has provided an OEE solution to a global Japanese zipper brand, helping them capture real-time data and respond to machine errors faster in order to prevent damage that would otherwise result in production downtime.

The manufacturing sector is critical for Indonesia’s economy. In 2018, Indonesia’s Ministry of Industry launched the “Making Indonesia 4.0” initiative as an integrated roadmap to implement several strategies for the sector to transition to Industry 4.0. That year, a McKinsey survey showed that 90 percent of Indonesian business leaders felt that one of the main benefits of introducing smart manufacturing technologies would be improvements in performance, but only 13 percent of them reported their companies had begun their digital transformation.

Eforel CEO Mr. Hanggar Cahya Kusuma pointed out that the main roadblocks to their customers’ Industry 4.0 journey are a lack of IoT knowledge and talents, as well as insufficient IT integration and cybersecurity concerns. Most companies using programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in their workflow still collect production-related data manually, including information on equipment availability, production performance, and product quality. To help them start their digital transformation, Eforel provides the Advantech iFactory Smart Manufacturing Suite, which delivers a WISE-PaaS private server with various integrated applications including OEE and Factory Energy Management Solutions.

Solving Production Efficiency and Real-time Monitoring Issues with an OEE Solution

Established in 1994, Eforel is a domain-focused system integrator (DFSI) partnered with Advantech, specializing in applications used in water management, transportation, energy, mining, and automated production. A large Japanese zipper brand with many factories around the world tasked the DFSI to implement a new OEE solution in two of its factories in Indonesia. The company had already implemented a system for analysis of production efficiency and equipment effectiveness, but the existing solution did not meet their performance expectations. Furthermore, they wanted to be able to link the OEE solution to five different types of PLC and existing software solutions such as ERP, production management, and energy management. Therefore, Eforel proposed Advantech’s OEE solution, which provides automatic data acquisition, real-time monitoring, and cross-system integration features.

In the trial phase of the project, PLC units from 100 machines were connected to Advantech’s ESRP-SCA-UNO2484 Edge SRP/Visualizer, which has built-in WebAccess/SCADA for data collection. Most projects require only one or two ESRP-SCA-UNO2484 units to connect to all machines, which makes it a very cost-effective solution. Moreover, the powerful WebAccess/SCADA system supports 200 drivers, 450 controllers, and various standard protocols, including Modbus, OPC UA, OPC DA, Ethernet/IP, DNP3, SNMP, and BACnet, making data collection effortless. Data collected by ESRP-SCA-UNO2484 are passed to the IFS-EGM-M77 Solution Ready Platform (SRP), which was linked to the customer’s existing software solutions. Also, Advantech’s Wise-PaaS platform provides online visualized dashboards with an intuitive user interface, making data visualization easy to understand at a glance and enabling management to log into their dashboards from any browser-enabled device for remote monitoring of production lines.

Transforming from a Hardware Provider to a Total Solution Provider

After implementing Advantech’s OEE solution, management at the zipper factory were able to work out when, why, and how many times production lines stopped. They were also able to improve the visibility of day-to-day operations through real-time monitoring of their machines. According to the customer’s feedback, the latter feature in particular played a vital role in this project, because it allowed them to take immediate action as soon as a machine error occurred. This decreased damage that would otherwise result in production downtime. Also, all OEE-related data were automatically collected by the system, thus preventing human error and data omissions. 

Despite some issues with the proof-of-concept design, these issues were resolved before project implementation, meaning that the customer will be able to deploy the same system in their second factory after the trial phase has been completed in the first factory.  Mr. Hanggar Cahya Kusuma commented, “We have been working with Advantech for over twenty years and have now been a DFSI partner since 2018. Advantech has made an excellent move by transforming from a hardware provider to a total solution provider, enabling us to focus on selling their total solutions, such as the OEE solution used in this project.”

Advantech’s comprehensive range of technology has allowed this DFSI to capitalize on opportunities to help companies transition to Industry 4.0. In order to promote Advantech’s total solutions, Eforel has been cooperating with local system integrators and holding seminars and workshops every year. Despite previous limitations in knowledge depth with regard to the latest Industry 4.0 technologies, such as AI and visual recognition, Eforel has now created a new team focusing entirely on the development and promotion of AI-based solutions, hoping to raise awareness on the latest trends in Indonesia and contribute to the “Making Indonesia 4.0” initiative.

“Advantech has made an excellent move by transforming from a hardware provider to a total solution provider, enabling us to focus on selling their total solutions.” said Mr. Hanggar Cahya Kusuma, CEO of Eforel