The machinery industry is going through a historical turning point, meaning it is facing a path of change aimed at offering more services to its customers to overcome the challenges of modern industry. In recent years, many have opted for an easily deployable and flexible IIoT solution, which is scalable and configurable, to focus on high-value activities for internal competencies. Those who have already started this process, now find themselves administering hundreds or thousands of “connected industrial machines” worldwide, and those who are beginning IIoT projects will soon face the same need.
Goglio, a leading company in manufacturing complete packaging systems for food in Italy, started this path since 2015 by combining its packaging machines and solutions with digital service, thus mastering the abovementioned challenges. However, the expert is not alone in this endeavor, but collaborates with selected partners 40Factory and Portainer.
The challenge: Managing hundreds of connected industrial machines worldwide digitally and secure upgrades through a hardware- and cloud-independent communication channel
Goglio turned to 40Factory to find a solution for the central and secure management of their fleet of connected devices. The challenge was to create a reliable and scalable way to configure, monitor, and update devices remotely. Goglio is a multinational company with 16 subsidiaries worldwide, operating in various markets, especially in coffee, aseptically or hot-filled food products, sterilized bags and packaging accessory like valves.
The company needed to manage hundreds of devices worldwide, so finding a solution that ensured the devices were always up-to-date and functioning correctly was crucial. Additionally, Goglio wanted to improve the efficiency of their devices and increase the quality of the collected data to take concrete actions for performance improvement.
There is also a need for a hardware- and cloud-independent communication channel for the secure and controlled delivery of necessary upgrades for hundreds of machines and plants. This channel must be reliable and secure to meet the highest industry standards for cybersecurity and scalable to support future developments. It requires technologies that monitor the operational status of devices, safely and centrally update configurations and software, and simplify the configuration of new devices.
Gaetano Zarà, IoT & Technical Data Engineer at Goglio, states: “Today, there are hundreds of devices to manage worldwide that require constant updates to improve data quality and performance. For this reason, it is essential to rely on flexible, secure and scalable tools.”
The solution: IIoT as an enabler for servitization and the rapid growth of connected devices through innovative service proposals
40Factory is a leading provider of IIoT solutions for OEMs and end users. They help ease their digital transformation process. The company offers a SaaS solution developed with state-of-the-art technologies and services to implement and monetize digital services. Their solution is called MAT “Machine Analytics Tool.”
To integrate MAT at Goglio, 40Factory brought Portainer with its edge device management capabilities.
Portainer.io is a container and device management platform that facilitates the use of containers in industrial applications and enables easy integration of IT and OT. With over 3.4 billion downloads and over 650,000 active users, customers from various industries like manufacturing, food and beverage, energy, automotive, healthcare, medical technology, and information technology trust Portainer to simplify the secure adoption of containers at high speed.
Together, 40Factory and Portainer embarked on solution development for Goglio, combining their technologies.
The result is MCC, the “MAT Control Center,” a code-free platform for configuring and managing connected devices. This edge management solution is critical for scalability and minimizing configuration and management efforts for machine and plant builders like Goglio.
One feature particularly appreciated by 40Factory is the configuration environment for remote monitoring and machine supervision. This environment offers a comprehensive library of widgets that can be tailored to needs. Simplifying configuration is crucial, as some of their clients have opted out of the classic SCADA due to perceptions of it being redundant, not very scalable, and flexible.
Focusing on a code-free and customer-specific environment for individual clients proved successful. MCC is available to users in cloud mode, with new features released several times yearly.
Based on MAT or MCC, Goglio has developed the IIoT platform Goglio MIND, which monitors packaging lines in real time and provides advanced control and diagnostics for all plant lines. This platform has an automated maintenance management system, enabling faster identification and ordering of spare parts. The data flows are protected and certified, and a customer service helpdesk.
- The MIND app allows monitoring production lines directly via PC, tablet or smartphone.
- MIND Care provides all the technical documentation of the new packaging lines in digital form with 3D manuals, video tutorials, and online training.
Goglio MIND is versatile, suitable for various industries, and connected to hundreds of machines worldwide. It can be installed in Goglio lines and other manufacturer’s lines without causing production downtime (Plug & Play).
The result: Digital Service with Pay x Performance
Goglio delivers a reliable service app with secure and connected device, the highest cybersecurity standards, and central upgrade capability. The digital service from Goglio works, and end customers appreciate the added value from the tailor-made services to improve the performance and lifespan of their plants. The flagship service is “Pay x Performance,” where the concept of spare parts and labor disappears and is replaced by a bonus/malus concept linked to guaranteed efficiency levels. From this formula, other modular services have been developed to meet the needs of different customers. The central and secure management of a fleet of connected devices is at the heart of future automation.
With the MAT Control Center from 40Factory, integrated with Portainer, it is possible to monitor the operational status of devices, safely and centrally update configurations and software, and simplify the configuration of new devices. 40Factory provides the IIoT Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, and Portainer enables easy and scalable management of the connected device fleet. Testing microservice architectures and knowing they can be centrally managed lays the foundation for 40Factory and Portainer for future machine and plant builder developments.
