Adding ‘SMART’ to factories
Case in Point: Plastech Solutions
At a glance
Focus: Adding 'SMART' to factories
Challenge: Plastech Solutions was already operating at good production capacity for the last 12 years, but after understanding the smart factory approach, discovered key inefficiencies: idle motors wasting energy, only 60% production efficiency with untracked wastage, excessive raw material/energy consumption, and no unified dashboard across multiple vendor systems on the shop floor.
Approach: Over multiple interactions with B&R technology experts and plant officials, specific objectives were identified for the smart factory initiative — 24/7 machine monitoring, increased plant efficiency, and improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) — implemented using B&R's APROL process control platform across 40 injection molding machines.
Impact: The performance metrics calculated by APROL provide Plastech with helpful information about shop floor operations, unifying all factory elements into a single control-room system, improving OEE and productivity, reducing wastage, inventory costs, and losses — with Plastech now planning to extend the same integration to four additional manufacturing plants.
B&R Industrial Automation Pvt. Ltd.
B&R is an innovative automation company with headquarters in Austria and offices all around the world. On July 6, 2017, B&R became a business unit of the ABB Group. As a global leader in industrial automation, B&R combines state-of-the-art technology with advanced engineering to provide customers in virtually every industry with complete solutions for machine and factory automation, motion control, HMI and integrated safety technology. With Industrial IoT communication standards like OPC UA, POWERLINK and openSAFETY as well as the powerful Automation Studio software development environment, B&R is constantly redefining the future of automation engineering. The innovative spirit that keeps B&R at the forefront of industrial automation is driven by a commitment to simplifying processes and exceeding customer expectations.
Plastech Solutions
Plastech Solutions has four manufacturing units at various locations in Pune specialising in plastic components for the automotive, switchgear, aerospace and infrastructure industries as well as for consumer appliances. The company also has an automation division, which caters to the requirements of factories seeking to replace legacy controllers with the latest machine and motion control solutions or to upgrade machines for improved energy efficiency. As a hub of India's automotive industry, Pune provides a great platform for Plastech solutions. They are tier 2 suppliers for various well-known Indian and multinational automotive manufacturers.
Business challenge
Plastech Solutions was already operating at good production capacity since last 12 years. However, after understanding the smart factory approach, Plastech was inspired to take action on adopting the new technologies. After initial discussions with B&R, customer realized below challenges;
Multiple motors were operational even when the respective machine was idle which was leading to energy wastage with a strong impact on profitability
Compared to planned production, the factory was running at only 60% efficiency – with the reason for wastage untracked
The excessive consumption of energy, raw materials etc.
With multiple vendor systems on the shop floor, it was difficult to get the accurate data at the glance on a single dashboard to track and monitor entire processing lines
Industry 4.0 solution
Over multiple interactions with B&R technology experts and plant officials, the following specific objectives were identified for the overall initiative towards smart factory implementation:
Machine monitoring 24*7
Increased Plant efficiency
Improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
B&R automation system monitors all 40 injection molding machines with 24/7 connectivity, calculating OEE and improving productivity while cutting wastage, inventory, and losses.
APROL serves as a single, scalable platform controlling the entire plant — from cooling water tanks and compressors to lifts, gates, and IP cameras.
Provides seamless connectivity across inventory management, quality control, material management, and ERP systems.
Enables daily operator-to-machine and mold assignment via dashboard, with variation alerts, logging, and comprehensive reporting accessible on mobile devices.
Converts availability, productivity, and quality data into actionable OEE insights, with plans to scale the solution to four additional plants.
APROL, with ConMon, EnMon, and PDA packages, unifies all plant systems into one central hierarchy for higher plastics production efficiency.
Connects smart molds, multi-vendor machines, and SCADA systems via Ethernet/OPC UA, with X20 I/O modules bridging non-native controllers.
Linux-based Automation PC 910 runs engineering and runtime servers from a centralized control room in a decentralized plant architecture.
Open-source POWERLINK network links X20 I/O modules, cutting cabling and maintenance while improving diagnostics and data storage.
Modular, cloud-ready design (OPC UA, MQTT, AMQP) enables flexible, low-cost I/O selection and quick out-of-the-box integration.
Key benefits
| Area | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Visibility & Analytics | The performance metrics calculated by APROL provide Plastech with helpful information about shop floor operations. Having all elements of the factory integrated in a single system and data available at one location in the control room is one of the numerous Benefits achieved. |
| Operational Benefit | B&R has been relying on the open-source open source solutions, such as, Linux, POWERLINK and OPC UA, which helps customers to remain vendor independent at machine, factory and cloud level. |
| Energy & Sustainability | The out-of-the-box energy monitoring, PDA solution together with customized reports is a unique offering by B&R's APROL. |