Fast Facts
Member Participants:
Bosch, Cisco, SAP SE
Market Segment:
Industrial Manufacturing; Power Tool Fleet Management
The Problem:
Factory systems can detect - within a meter - the location of a tool; Misuse of tools can result in serious accident or injury; The production of many industrial and consumer goods requires exacting work - down to the precise force used to tighten a screw.
Goal:
Manage smart, hand-held tools in manufacturing, maintenance, and industrial environments
Features:
Asset management and work management; integration with factory manufacturing systems
Commercial Benefits:
Enable "Tools as a Service" business model; Enhance productivity, production quality, and work safety
The Testbed
The Track and Trace testbed brings the Industrial Internet onto the factory floor. The goal is to manage handheld power tools in manufacturing and maintenance environments. This "management" involves efficiently tracking and tracing the usage of these tools to ensure their proper use, prevent their misuse and collect data on their usage and status.
Today's factories are highly sophisticated and require exacting work - down to the precise amount of force used to tighten a screw. The tools in Track and Trace will be able to determine its precise location and use and, therefore, will be able to determine the force and work needed to complete a task. In addition, if a tool recognizes that it is being misused, it will promptly power down to avoid accident or injury. Finally, over the two-year project, the testbed participants will look to fine-tune the localization of tools to 30 centimeters, and ideally down to five centimeters. Currently, the accuracy is approximately one meter - a gap large enough to allow mistakes. These features of Track and Trace will contribute to the safety and quality of the goods produced, as well as increase productivity in manufacturing.
Over the two-year project, four Industrial Internet Consortium members will be lending their expertise to the testbed. Bosch is supplying the necessary software; Cisco is taking care of the precision location identification feature; and National Instruments is interconnecting the power tools.
Interested in learning more about the Track and Trace testbed? Email us!