OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 26.04.2016. Industry 4.0 and increasing digitization are the most important topics affecting the global economy. That is why ZEISS is helping its customers with their digital transformation this includes integrating measuring machines into upstream systems such as ERP and production planning. ZEISS will present one particular approach at the Control trade fair in Stuttgart, 26-29 April.
Holger Blum, Product Manager for Software at the ZEISS Industrial Metrology business group, explains: "This approach is still not a product. Its more of a networking concept." However, what will be presented at Control is far more than just a general idea. Very particular technologies and solutions for helping individual ZEISS customers successfully advance their networking will be presented under the banner of MDM. Blum explains: "Were going to present networking options which have already been realized. These will give you a preview of our forthcoming product which is scheduled for launch in 2017 and will help companies push their digitization forward."
Data transparency increases customer benefit
Measuring machines from ZEISS already offer numerous sensors and connectors which collect extremely diverse information, e.g. the temperature of the production facility or the environment along with recorded vibrations and collisions. In the future, heads of production and metrology engineers will be able to display this information using a web app. This web app will process the data transmitted by the networked measuring machines and visualize them in a manner that is easy even for measuring technology novices to understand. Metrology engineers will be able to better plan and consequently increase the uptime of their machines because the data on their current use and capacity collected by the measuring machines are also displayed on the dashboard.
And if the operator grants ZEISS access to the web application and the available data, then service engineers will even be able to use different evaluation algorithms to decide if or when individual wear parts need to be replaced. It will also be possible to more easily perform maintenance remotely for certain problems by having access to these numerous data.
The benefits of the central data bank and evaluating them at the company are obvious: measuring certainty, capacity and planning security increase while maintenance and repair times are reduced. "With this data transparency, service engineers will no longer have to make a second trip to a customers site because they did not bring the appropriate wear part with them," says Holger Blum.
Integration into other systems
But the clear advantages of networking go beyond just maintaining and operating the machines: by linking to a cloud application, the transfer of information to up-steam systems can be performed without any problems. The capacity data for the particular measuring machines will be transferred to the ERP and processed. Blum says: "This is how problems affecting day-to-day production, such as improperly placed planning code numbers, will be minimized or even eliminated with this future ZEISS solution."
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Machine data can also be displayed on a tablet at any time.
Press contact:
Dr. Benjamin Viering
Carl Zeiss IMT GmbH
Phone: +49 7364 20-2144
Fax: +49 7364 20-4657
benjamin.viering@zeiss.com
About ZEISS
ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the optics and optoelectronics industries. The ZEISS Group develops and distributes semiconductor manufacturing equipment, measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cine lenses, binoculars and planetarium technology. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. ZEISS is divided up into the four segments Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, and Vision Care/Consumer Optics. ZEISS is represented in over 40 countries and operates more than 30 production sites, over 50 sales and service locations and about 25 research and development facilities. In fiscal year 2014/15 the company generated revenue approximating 4.5 billion with around 25,000 employees. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).
Further information at www.zeiss.com
Industrial Metrology
The Industrial Metrology business group is a leading manufacturer of multidimensional metrology solutions. These include coordinate measuring machines and metrology software for the automotive, aircraft, mechanical engineering, plastics and medical technology industries. The business group additionally offers a broad spectrum of customer services with measuring houses and competence services in the proximity of its customers around the globe. The Industrial Metrology business group is headquartered in Oberkochen. Production and development sites outside Germany are located in Maple Grove in the USA, Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India. The business group is allocated to the Research & Quality Technology segment. Around 5,900 employees work for the segment, generating revenues totaling 1.356 billion in fiscal year 2014/15.
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