A clever combination

SCALABLE SOLUTIONS

“Netilion makes digitalization something tangible for the process industry. By linking the physical and digital domains, our IIoT ecosystem ingests field-level data and then generates valuable information from it,” says Tobias Zubler, Service Product Manager at Endress+Hauser. The full benefits come to fruition with dynamic utilization of process and instrument data. Where field instruments themselves lack the required connectivity, there are adapters or edge devices for opening up an additional secure communications channel. This is a must for using other cloud-based services. “Netilion offers customers a wealth of possibilities, consistently aligned with their needs,” explains Tobias Zubler, who goes on to emphasize: “Our solutions are scalable, starting with basic data transmission from individual measuring points, to utilization of digital services for greater operational efficiency, to a full package where we remotely monitor instruments while assuming responsibility for their service.” 

REMOTE MAINTENANCE

Management at the Waterschap Hollandse Delta regional water authority went for just such an all-encompassing solution. The authority operates 19 wastewater treatment plants in the southern Netherlands, spread over five islands and the port city of Rotterdam. “The water authority service technicians have more than 270 sensors and analyzers to maintain and service. For instrument inspections, that previously meant driving to individual plants, some of them unstaffed,” explains Julia Grether, IIoT Product Owner at Endress+Hauser. The issue is that these routine visits take time. And when problems do arise, the technicians cannot see what has actually happened until they are on site. To rectify a problem, they sometimes have to call for help from other experts.
This is what Waterschap Hollandse Delta wanted to change. “To ensure maximum possible plant availability and reduce costs, the authority looked around for a partner who could provide an intelligent maintenance scheme along with a comprehensive service package for the next 10 years,” reports Julia Grether. Endress+Hauser sold the water authority on an all-round portfolio of measuring technology, coupled with the possibilities offered by the Netilion IIoT ecosystem. “What helps us is the capability for continuous remote monitoring of the instrumentation. Plus, over time, we can leverage the data to become proactive and stop problems before they even occur. Our goal is a significant reduction in the number of on-site service calls,” says Julia Grether.
 

LINKING SYSTEMS

“We have talked about condition monitoring and predictive maintenance in the process industry for ages. Now we are gradually approaching these topics,” says Steffen Ochsenreither, Business Development Manager at Endress+Hauser. However, large brownfield plants often contain not just hundreds but thousands of sensors from various vendors. “Compatibility between systems is essential for plant operators to extract optimum benefit from field-level data,” explains Ochsenreither, who adds: “This is why our Netilion IIoT ecosystem offers connectivity with other cloud solutions.” One example is SAP’s Asset Intelligence Network (AIN), a cloud-based maintenance platform giving shared access to operators, suppliers and service partners. The prerequisites are defined interfaces and a standardized reference architecture that ensures all manufacturers adopt the same structure for providing data and information.

Both pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and the Crop Science division of chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer use SAP AIN to administer their field instruments’ master data and manage maintenance and calibration activities. This all helps to optimize plant upkeep. “There is an interface for providing instrument-specific data and information from the Netilion cloud to the SAP AIN platform,” explains Steffen Ochsenreither. “Employees have ready access to up-to-date information and documentation on every field instrument, so they can complete tasks faster without needing to access manufacturer-specific solutions and platforms,” says Ochsenreither, clarifying the advantages. He sees this as a first step toward more transparency and even deeper integration. “Connectivity between IT systems like SAP and production processes at the OT level opens up completely new digitalization potential,” adds Ochsenreither with confidence. “This allows optimization of operational processes over a plant’s entire life cycle, as well as linking of value chains beyond enterprise boundaries.”