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Internet of Things in industry [Saudi Gazette, The](Saudi Gazette, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Intel Corporation and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation have begun to develop together next-generation factory automation (FA) systems with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The test of these technologies took place in a pilot program at Intel's backend manufacturing facility in Malaysia. The Internet of Things (IoT) is where objects are capable of interacting with other objects. This is because the physical objects have sensors and actuators embedded in them and they are linked through wired and wireless networks via the Internet. The pilot demonstrated the benefits of IoT in a factory setting with a focus on delivering improved productivity through innovative functions, such as predictive failure. The project combined Intel's expertise in developing solutions for IoT and Mitsubishi Electric's "e-F@ctory" automation capabilities. Intel realized a savings of $9 million over the course of the pilot. For the project, Intel and Mitsubishi Electric implemented an IoT and big data solution at Intel's Malaysian manufacturing facility. Using an Intel® Atom™ processor-based IoT gateway called the C Controller from Mitsubishi Electric's iQ-Platform, Intel was able to securely gather and aggregate data for the analytics server. Data was then processed using Revolution R Enterprise software from Revolution Analytics, an analytics software solution that uses the open source R statistics language, which was hosted on Cloudera Enterprise, the foundation of an enterprise data hub. The solution improved equipment component uptime, increased yield and productivity by minimizing misclassification of good units as bad, enabled predictive maintenance and reduced component failures. The $9 million that Intel saved at the factory was through cost avoidance and improved decision making. "The collaboration between Mitsubishi Electric and Intel on this IoT project has enabled field data from semiconductor manufacturing lines to be collected and analyzed to improve operational performance, yet also contribute energy savings for a more sustainable society," said Masayuki Yamamoto, group senior vice president, Factory Automation Systems, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. "We believe that other manufacturers can benefit from this joint Intel-Mitsubishi Electric solution, which combines big data analysis, optimized data capture and processing to deliver improved performance and optimized maintenance." The companies have announced that the solution used in the pilot project will be commercialized next year, making it available to other factories worldwide. (c) 2014 The Saudi Gazette. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |