ThinkIQ introduced itself to me just a couple of months ago, and I set aside some time to talk with an acquaintance from the industrial software market Niels Anderson. https://themanufacturingconnection.com/2021/02/manufacturing-saas-platform-tracks-material-flow-not-assets/ The company published a couple of news items this month. One announces an extension to the product line; the second announces a partnership with CESMII for a smart manufacturing initiative in the poultry processing industry.
VisualOps Solutions to Suite of Products
ThinkIQ announced VisualOps, which is designed to help organizations obtain easy access to data from a material view, new visibility, and a path towards Industry 4.0 Manufacturing.
ThinkIQ VisualOps was created as a second step for companies on the path to Industry 4.0 Manufacturing. The benefits include having data standardized and available in one location, empowering manufacturing leaders, plant managers, process and data engineers, and operators, by allowing them to explore their manufacturing and supply chain data within the context of their business. The new function can also start the process of creating alerts and notifications that may bring problems to immediate attention.
“The addition of VisualOps allows customers to start the journey of monetizing their manufacturing and supply chain data using an Industry 4.0 Platform that will help them achieve their digital transformation goals,” said Niels Andersen, CTO and CPO of ThinkIQ. “This product will help organizations obtain the benefits of Industry 4.0 and lead them on the path to Smart Manufacturing.”
Some of the additional benefits of ThinkIQ VisualOps include:
- Ability to move companies past raw data to being able to explore, compare, and be aware of the data — with standardized metrics and views to bring wide visibility and context to what is currently just digital bits.
- Allows organizations to harness the power of what are mostly disconnected existing data streams from IoT, IIoT, HMIs, PLCs, CRM, MES, digitized manual data, and partner data, all into one single location.
- Includes on-premise gateways & connectors to centralize the data and securely send this data to the cloud, and most clients don’t need to add any new hardware or software to their existing environment.
- Software includes sourcing existing data from Automation, IoT and IIoT, CRM, and other digital captures, and also includes an equipment profile library, equipment modeling, manufacturing process layout, trending, standardized dashboards, and basic limits & notifications.
ThinkIQ’s SaaS Manufacturing cloud-based platform simplifies the creation of web-based applications and leverages the strengths of the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Science, Semantic Modeling and Machine Learning. The platform collects data across the operation (existing and IIoT sensors) and leverages AI, ML to provide actionable real time insights (e.g., identify correlations and root causes, traceability and yield issues, etc.). It creates a new level of capability beyond what independent disconnected operating environments can provide today.
CESMII and ThinkIQ To Transform Global Food Leader’s Poultry Processing
CESMII selected ThinkIQ for inclusion in its co-funded Smart Manufacturing Innovation Projects. This project aims to transform poultry processing operations at one of the world’s largest food companies, and recognized leader in protein. The project seeks to quantify the impact of variability in the supply chain and the processing of chicken by-products and understand the resulting impact of yield for four product streams, including: bone meal, feather meal, chicken meal, and blood meal.
ThinkIQ will utilize the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform and create Profiles that optimize yield and material utilization on the food company’s poultry processing line. This will enable decisions based on real-time constraints in material flows, manufacturing operations, and energy consumption in a protein-based food processing environment. This project will demonstrate increased operational efficiencies that can be extended to other food processing and energy-intensive industries.
“Delivering value through interoperability and scalability is essential,” says Doug Lawson, CEO of ThinkIQ. “We are leveraging the CESMII SM Innovation Platform to avoid implementing yet another information island on the plant floor, thereby reducing cost and complexity, and facilitating rapid return on investment.”
ThinkIQ’s ability to track material flow through the entire process from “farm to fork” will provide the company with a unique view of their entire poultry processing, allowing them to gain visibility into real-time variance in their manufacturing process. This enables them to quantify and reduce impact of variance improving yield, provide feedback in “plant time” to reduce off-spec, waste, etc. and present profit enhancement opportunities throughout the project.
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