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Leveraging IoT to Achieve Excellence in Manufacturing: the Trocellen case

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Trocellen is one of the leading manufacturers of cross-linked polyolefin foams, known for their advanced generation foams renowned for their exceptional thermal and acoustic insulation properties. Headquartered in Troisdorf, Germany, the company currently employs over 600 employees across 9 facilities and provides lightweight, sustainable, and high-quality solutions to 15 different industrial sectors.

The Challenge

When Trocellen approached Avvale, they had an ambitious digital transformation project in mind: to enhance the quality of production and shop floor operations by harnessing the potential of IoT solutions. The primary focus of this challenge was to measure the thickness of foams, a critical factor for a company engaged in the production of insulation materials. Foams have distinctive thickness variations depending on their composition and intended use. Therefore, ensuring the uniformity of their measurement throughout the entire semi-finished product was a fundamental quality assurance and waste reduction element.
 
Before Avvale's intervention, this data could only be determined ex-post on a specific batch or production, causing delays in corrective actions (and consequent resource waste). What was needed was a real-time monitoring tool that could track the thickness measurement ranges within predefined tolerance margins.

For this project, the client sought to leverage flexible microservices technology, specifically focusing on data collection from field measurement devices. Avvale, in collaboration with the client, designed a technological infrastructure based on Amazon Web Services. As part of the initial pilot phase, the project involved the intelligent integration of data collected from a feeler gauge.

The solution was developed in a phased approach: starting with an initial Proof of Concept (POC) in Italy, followed by subsequent roll-outs in Germany and Hungary. The digital transformation presented multiple challenges, including simplifying data collection from shop floor tools, ensuring seamless integration with AWS microservices, and developing a robust system for data processing and analysis.

To support the solution's expansion to different company locations, the Avvale team designed and implemented an extremely scalable, secure, and modular architecture.
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The Approach

To meet the client's needs, data from measuring calipers were collected using OPC UA technology, which collected 250 data points per caliper, twice a minute. This data was then sent to Amazon SiteWise and stored in a cloud system that provides two types of storage:

  • Hot Tier: Ensured fast data access with a moderate cost and limited retention.
  • Cold Tier: Offered slower data access but allowed for maximum data retention at a lower cost.

This setup allowed for maximum data availability in accordance with specific needs while ensuring proportional spending based on actual usage, both in terms of data volumes and accessibility.

After processing, the data was displayed on user-friendly dashboards for easy viewing and monitoring, thanks to integration with Grafana. Avvale's team also ensured integration with other systems through native APIs. A Lambda function, accessible via the API Gateway, converted the data into the format needed for SAP (REST API / JSON). Ultimately, the data was made ready for integration with data visualization platforms, such as MS Power BI, for any potential future needs.

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The Impact

Thanks to the integration of measurement tools, our client has enhanced product quality control. They now receive precise and reliable real-time data on production performance. These insights have empowered Trocellen to proactively address challenges and optimize processes, swiftly identifying emerging issues and improvement opportunities.

The development of two dashboards, one for real-time monitoring and the other for retrospective reporting, delivers valuable information for both internal and external use. It enables quick responses to customer queries or complaints with tracked and documented data, providing a comprehensive view of critical metrics and performance indicators. This allows for trend identification, anomaly detection, and swift issue resolution, ultimately enhancing efficiency and productivity.

Furthermore, the platform has been structured for scalability across the entire production facility. Its flexibility extends its use beyond just thickness measurement, encompassing other machines within the plant. Lastly, through this platform, data is stored and archived, ensuring it's not lost, and enabling future analyses even on more complex, currently unforeseen scenarios.

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