#SPS15 Intelligently networking machines, products and humans.

At this year’s SPS IPC Drives (November 24-26thNuremberg D) , COPA-DATA is presenting consistent and robust solutions for the Smart Factory. With zenon, companies can construct scalable value networks – be it on-premises, in hybrid environments or in the cloud. The software for HMI/SCADA and Dynamic Production Reporting offers solutions that excel in flexibility and expandability, are ergonomic and aim for resource efficiency.

Rapidly changing markets, increasing competitive pressure as well as complex manufacturing processes present major challenges for manufacturers. At the same time, companies need to minimise the use of resources and increase energy efficiency. To uncover optimisation potential and achieve increased productivity, companies must drive the concept of the Smart Factory: They must digitise and network their infrastructure in full, control their value chains optimally and analyse and evaluate their data in a targeted manner.

zenon supports the construction of digital value networks with high scalability, security and performance. With zenon, companies can achieve integrated, flexible and ergonomic production systems, which support them to achieve targeted analyses, effectively use relevant information and continually react in an economical way.

Cost-efficient and scalable solutions in the Cloud
The zenon Cloud Solution makes it possible to integrate zenon with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and easily provide all data from different production locations and sites of a company in just one system, in real-time. It enables companies to compare and correlate this data and display it in the form of clear dashboards. With this new solution, companies can also pursue approaches such as energy management, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), etc. at a global level, and use zenon as a tool for company-wide optimisation.

To back up the continually-increasing amounts of data in an industrial company and at the same time adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, COPA-DATA also offers a cost-efficient and ergonomic storage solution: the zenon Big Data solution combines zenon with the Microsoft technologies of cloud-integrated StorSimple storage (CiS) and Microsoft Azure. The data is saved on a hardware appliance in the internal network, the CiS, transferred to Azure cloud storage and archived there. In doing so, companies can access data at any time for use in their evaluations.

zenon for standard-compliant Energy Management
The zenon Energy Data Management System fulfils all of the necessary requirements for comprehensive energy management. It allows companies to measure, record, collect, analyse and process all operational energy and consumption data, all of which can be processed in reports in real time.

zenon also supports displaying different types of data – from key performance indicators, energy analyses, trend curves, alarm message lists and events, right up to complex graphical reports. Furthermore, the software offers industrially proven archiving technologies for storage and open interfaces for redistributing the information.

The zenon Energy Data Management System also conforms to the defined requirements of the TÜV SÜD Certified Energy Data Management standard. The software thereby fulfils important criteria for the international energy standard ISO 50001 and enables the end user to gain a certification.

Predictive Analytics with COPA-DATA and resolto
At this year’s SPC IPC Drives companies can find out more about the topic of Predictive Analytics at the COPA-DATA booth. With the help of Predictive Analytics companies can forecast complex production synergies and use these findings to make well-founded decisions.

In manufacturing, Predictive Analytics can be used in areas such as maintenance or production and consumption analyses. For maintenance issues the goal is to minimise machine downtime and reach maximum equipment availability. The joint solutions and technologies of COPA-DATA GmbH and resolto informatik GmbH offer the collection and assessment of required data from production environments. These can then be interpreted using algorithms from the machine learning area. Patterns can be identified and the learned knowledge then returned to production management.

“These days every company can access large amounts of data to control operative processes. The pressing question that manufacturing companies must ask themselves is How can one distinguish between the important and unimportant and which information and connections will you receive that the process engineer may not know about?”, explains Philipp Schmidt, Branch Office Manager at COPA-DATA Germany GmbH. “Together with resolto we can create a foundation of information to uncover hidden knowledge, to detect developments early on and thereby take the right plan of action.”

COPA-DATA and WAGO – efficient creation and rapid modification of equipment
Processing equipment in the chemical, food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries is often not flexible enough in production to rapidly switch to a new product or to adapt the product quantity according to current needs. So that companies operating in the process industries are in a position to react more quickly to market conditions, COPA-DATA and WAGO, an international trendsetting provider of electrical connecting and automation technology, are collaborating on joint solutions. In Hall 7, Booth 130, 230 and 330 they demonstrate how process equipment can be created and modified quickly and flexibly.

In the framework of the project “DIMA – Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Applications,” COPA-DATA and WAGO are presenting a new development level – the current results of standardisation activities. With DIMA, it is possible to import procedural modules efficiently and consistently in a SCADA project.

“A modular-based system architecture allows software modules to be flexibly integrated in an entire system or be uncoupled. This shortens the conception phase, simplifies engineering and allows quick implementation as well as flexible, demand-oriented adjustment of equipment to market conditions,” explains Philipp Schmidt.