For more than a century, the Electrolux Group has been synonymous with reliable and beloved home appliances in households around the world. During this time, the company has built a diverse brand portfolio and has grown into a globally leading home appliance manufacturer that has enriched people's lives. With a presence spanning numerous manufacturing sites and dozens of brands – including Frigidaire, White-Westinghouse, and Eureka – Electrolux knows that sustained success is not simple; it requires smart planning and careful, data-driven execution. So the company has embraced digital transformation across the entire value chain. This includes leveraging operational and machine data to reduce defects, improve performance, and ensure product quality.
The challenges of a global manufacturing ecosystem
With a global presence that brings 60 million home products to over 120 markets every year, Electrolux is well acquainted with complex value chains. They also know that continuous improvement is a prerequisite, not a destination.
Digital transformation promises efficiency, sustainability, and reliability. But the operational complexity for market leaders like Electrolux means not only that digital transformation and data-driven improvements bring about crucial changes – it also means that digital transformation is inherently viewed as difficult and potentially risky. In fact, just the foundational step of connecting to factory machine data is a big enough hurdle to dissuade less ambitious manufacturers. But Electrolux did not get where it is today by shying away from big changes.
Identifying Electrolux's connectivity needs
Each Electrolux factory encompasses hundreds of different machines and equipment. Most of these machines automatically generate data that can be leveraged to increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), reduce scrap and waste, and ensure safe conditions and reliable products.
Each of its factories is in a different location and has various equipment that differs in terms of purpose, age, manufacturer, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
What is a PLC?
Programmable Logic Controllers are industrial computers used to control, monitor, and automate machinery. While connectivity standards have evolved over time, PLCs frequently use proprietary protocols for data transmission. That is one reason why PLC connectivity has historically been viewed as a point-to-point endeavour, connecting one machine at a time.
Each individual Electrolux factory contains hundreds of assets speaking dozens of different protocol languages – and that diversity multiplies across every site. So, gathering this data has always been a manual, labour-intensive, and time-consuming process prone to human error. And at some sites there may be older machinery that is still entirely from the era before native connectivity. The harder it is to get that data and distribute it to the right audiences, the harder it is, of course, to use that data to drive performance improvements.
In order to unlock the advantages of automated machine communication, monitoring, and control, Electrolux recognized the need to rethink machine connectivity at a macro level. So, the company sought a platform for implementing a standardised, scalable connectivity layer that could eventually cover all of its machines globally. It was also clear that any solution would need to bridge the gap between OT (Operational Technology) and IT (Information Technology) systems.
This would allow all data to be fed into a central repository and transmit data to wherever it is most urgently needed – whether at the production line or on the production manager's desk.
Because digital transformation efforts that link IT and OT systems depend on a trusted connectivity foundation, there was no doubt that selecting an industrial automation and connectivity solution was a mission-critical step for Electrolux.
After a thorough review of available solutions, the Electrolux Group chose the PTC ThingWorx Kepware Server. The deciding factors were the comprehensive connectivity, access to real-time data, granular security, scalability, and the comprehensive support that ensures success.
Meet Kwabena Hobbs, IT Automation Lead at Electrolux
Kwabena “Kwab” Hobbs is responsible for IT automation initiatives at Electrolux in North America. Kwab and his team were tasked with “ensuring a successful pilot and rapid scale-up of production.” Electrolux was interested in quick deployment and fast value, with little patience for the “pilot purgatory” – the nebulous state where an initial investment can’t bridge the gap between a small experiment and a large-scale, enterprise-wide implementation.
“To be honest, the team was momentarily overwhelmed by the challenge,” Kwab admits. “Connected manufacturing is not a typical challenge for IT professionals. For our team, connecting to OT systems literally meant speaking a different language. When you consider the number of machines we have, it was as if we were speaking many different languages.” Electrolux’s IoT resources collaborated globally to initiate connectivity – including the question of how to handle machines developed without native connectivity.
“Thanks to the ThingWorx Kepware Server platform and PTC’s support, we were able to get up and running as fast as possible,” confirms Kwab. “The training was very hands-on and simulated conditions in our factory. And the results speak for themselves: our first connectivity required weeks of testing and configuration; what used to take a month now takes seconds.”
In the first six months, the automation team built a pilot at a single site; within the first year, Electrolux standardised connectivity at enterprise level and enabled industrial automation at several other sites.
„Connected manufacturing is not a typical challenge for IT professionals. For our team, connecting to OT systems literally meant speaking a different language."
– Kwabena Hobbs, IT Automation Connectivity Lead NA, Electrolux
Bridging the gap between OT and IT systems means not only dealing with the complexity of OT machinery, but also with the diverse ecosystem of users and IT systems. Kwab credits Kepware’s granular security with simplifying this process. “Security policies can be set down to the system tag level. We have full confidence in the way we enable our teams to view and control systems. And we do this in a way that reduces data complexity rather than creating an information overload.”
Why ThingWorx Kepware Server
ThingWorx Kepware Server, PTC’s platform for industrial connectivity, is the preferred choice for leading manufacturers like Electrolux. The connectivity layer enables improved automation and helps to extend the use of data across the enterprise with remarkable features including: comprehensive connectivity with extensive support for OPC applications and native connectors; a cloud-based approach that simplifies management and configuration, including batch processing and project creation; comprehensive localisation support for companies with a global manufacturing presence; granular security that allows administrators to assign and manage access permissions down to the system tag level; native ThingWorx integration that puts connectivity into action.
What digital transformation looks like at Electrolux
While connectivity is only one part of digital transformation, it produced nearly immediate benefits. Kwab explains: “Within a few months, we achieved a number of benefits through connectivity, including scrap reduction, OEE automation to improve efficiency, and accelerating our response to downed equipment.” All of this helps to reduce production costs, eliminate defects, and strengthen the supply chain.
Digital transformation redefines the nature of change. Improvements are no longer seen as a single, disruptive event but as a continuous state of agile evolution. It signals the end of a mindset that equates heavy manufacturing equipment with a very slow pace of change. In keeping with this perspective, Electrolux is already looking to the future and how they can build on their achievements to date, including deeper integration with their PLM systems and implementing machine learning that leverages their connectivity to accelerate performance analytics. This promises even more advances in predictive maintenance, so that fewer machines ever fail or run out of spec, but are instead held in a perpetual state of optimal performance.
All of this is part of Electrolux’s ongoing strategy to maintain and build upon its leadership position with a more efficient production process, less scrap and downtime, and a brand that is synonymous with durable, trustworthy products.
Result
Electrolux’s forward-looking commitment to digital transformation and its strategic, value-oriented approach to achieving that goal is another example of how PTC is defined not by the software solutions it develops, but by the quality and innovation of its customers.