Plex simplifies IIoT for better machine performance, quality and productivity, avoiding unplanned downtime

Plex Systems (www.plex.com), a specialist in manufacturing cloud ERP and MES, announced at PowerPlex 2019 the release of Plex Industrial IoT, a suite of solutions designed to solve business challenges generating from the shop floor. Plex Industrial IoT connects machines to the cloud, manages the resulting data streams, and contextualizes the information in real time.

The first available offering will focus on asset performance management (APM), helping companies avoid manufacturing disruption caused by common problems like unplanned downtime, diminished machine performance, and substandard quality output.

“Operational excellence is foundational to a manufacturer’s ability to meet quality requirements, efficiency goals and productivity measures,” said Richard Murray, chief product officer of Plex Systems.

“Plex is lowering the barrier to entry for manufacturers to realize the benefits offered by IIoT by creating a plug-and-play offering. This solution suite will level the playing field for big and small manufacturers alike.”

Plex Makes the Industrial Internet of Things Real

Plex’s new solution enables manufacturers to implement and leverage connectivity in the era of Industry 4.0, breaking down siloes created by varying protocols and data types used by equipment and sensors by simplifying the connection to machines and the contextualization of data.

Plex Industrial IoT grants access to the underlying machine intelligence, delivering to manufacturers timely and accurate insight in a single solution, eliminating operational surprises.

According to IDC analysts, by 2021, 90 percent of manufacturers will leverage real-time equipment and asset performance data to self-diagnose issues in advance and trigger a service intervention to avoid unplanned downtime.

Plex Industrial IoT delivers:

l Continuous improvement through access to historical IIoT data: The first solution within the suite focuses on asset performance management (APM), starting with an understanding of current and historical activity. This real-time assessment empowers shift supervisors and plant managers with the data to understand behaviors, trends, and diagnose root cause of common challenges like machine failures, efficiency dips, or substandard quality output.

l Improved productivity with real-time asset dashboards: Plex Industrial IoT helps manufacturers monitor what is happening with any asset, in any facility, from any connected device with comprehensive pre-built dashboards. Customizable and real time, these dashboards deliver access to up-to-the-minute metrics and analytics. The information delivered by the dashboard enables manufacturing leaders to respond to live data immediately and accurately to improve operator performance or overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) mid-shift.

l Minimized operational disruptions by predicting and preempting unplanned downtime: Data collected over time with Plex Industrial IoT, analyzed against historical trends and contextualized against MES and ERP data from the same facilities, will expose an unprecedented quality of shop floor to top floor insights. This reduces operational disruptions to help manufacturers better plan for the previously unanticipated.

“Plex Industrial IoT will provide us a direct view into the status and overall performance of assets, and we are really excited about the ability to tie quality and part-level performance expectations to asset performance—information that has traditionally been extremely difficult to generate,” said Bob Bierwagen, vice president of digital strategy, MPI Corporation. “With this information available we can both correlate data—as well as understand causality in order to make the operational improvements that will positively impact our bottom line.”

Plex Industrial IoT will be available in July 2019. This is Plex’s initial Industrial IoT offering following the acquisition of IIoT leader DATTUS in July 2018. Future releases will focus on part quality and manufacturing efficiency.