Conair adds auxiliary controls, customised KPIs to Smart Services monitoring platform
Conair has added two new capabilities – centralised, full-featured machine controls and programmable performance indicators – to its latest update of SmartServices, an Industry 4.0 solution for auxiliary equipment monitoring, management, and analysis. The development of these latest capabilities was shaped in part by the experience and input of processors running six-month trials with the program, which was first announced by Conair at NPE 2018.
Smart Services continues to evolve as a web-based portal, supported by cloud-based data processing capabilities. It helps plastics processors manage data generated by dozens or even hundreds of pieces of plant equipment into actionable information. The system collects machine data through a network of compact data hubs that transmit it into the secure, cloud-based SmartServices database for processing and presentation in the user’s HMI, where it appears in a dashboard format.
Another new feature lets users customise and program key performance indicators (KPIs) that can alert them to anomalies. “Through the portal, you’ve got the capability to reach into everything and look at all of your machines. Some of our users do exactly that on a daily basis,” says Alan Landers, SmartServices project leader for Conair, “But other users, pressed for time, told us that they don’t want so much to reach into the portal as to have the portal reach out to them. For them, Conair now offers user-programmable KPIs. They now can choose a specific KPI, set custom performance thresholds, and ask the portal to notify them – or others on the team – and report only when a machine moves performs outside that threshold.”
