Data delivers
effi ciency
customers’ production; Schneider
Acollaborative digital technology
project between Siemens and
Hosokawa Micron Ltd (HML) has
seen not only the latter connect its own
factory equipment but also provide
connected equipment to its customers that
can improve their productivity by 15% and
reduce energy costs by 10%.
HML is a member of the worldwide
Hosokawa Micron Group founded in Osaka
in 1916. Today, it is a world leader in
providing process solutions in the elds of
powder and particle processing technology
and blown- lm technology.
The project – Hosokawa Gen4 –
introduced Siemens’ MindSphere IoT
operating system to HML’s manufacturing
facility in Runcorn, Cheshire. Using the digital
technology platform, HML, a global leader in
powder processing equipment, was able to
integrate assets across the factory to
remotely monitor the performance of
equipment. This included real time values
and trending for key measurements,
diagnostic alerts and warnings of problems
detected in machinery.
For customers, HML’s in-house app
‘Hosokawa ReMs’ now allows remote
monitoring of the performance of Hosokawa
equipment and plant, including real time
values and trending for key measurements,
diagnostic alerts and warnings of problems
detected in machinery. App users have
varied options on how they want to use it,
INDUSTRY 4.0 & AUTOMATION DATA-DRIVEN PRODUCTION PROCESSES
including a servitisation model from HML on
providing solutions for any data anomalies
that may show in the analysis. Such a
deployment resulted in HML’s customers
reporting around a 15% improvement in
uptime, capacity gains of between 10 to 12%
and reductions of energy of more than 10%.
Iain Crosley, managing director at HML,
explains: “Since the start of our journey of
advanced digitalisation in our factory in the
last three to four years, we have grown our
own output signi cantly year-on-year.
“Not only have we digitalised our own
production factory but the machines we
deliver to our customers are of higher digital
value, primed for better productivity.”
The Hosokawa Gen4 project was
launched in 2018, as Crosley recalls:
“Our partnership with Siemens is over two
decades old and we have been using their
control and instrumentation – the Siemens
PLCs – in all our products. Having our own
Gen4 products, we remained both
competitive and digitally viable for our
customer base. But we wanted to enter the
next phase of digitalisation. This is when we
found Siemens’ MindSphere, which we
realised would give us the complete
architecture to provide a holistic solution to
our customers.”
At HML, the machine and processes are
controlled through Siemens’ programmable
logic controller (PLC) and, in some cases,
using supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) or Distributed Control
System (DCS). To enhance its processes, an
Powder production machine
maker Hosokawa Micron uses
data to optimise its own and its
Electric uses data to drive
parts production via additive
manufacturing
The Gen4 initiative at Hosokawa Micron Ltd
has seen the company work with Siemens to employ data captured from machines to
better both its internal and its customers’ production effi ciencies and quality
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