Industrial IoT Communication and Analytics Platform for Smart Maintenance

Project Information

ThingSight

Grant agreement ID: 741450

DOI

10.3030/741450

Project closed

EC signature date 7 December 2016

Start date 1 November 2016

End date 28 February 2017

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

CARRIOTS SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ThingSight (Industrial IoT Communication and Analytics Platform for Smart Maintenance)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2017-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Machinery Maintenance is costly. For many sophisticated products or systems, traditional maintenance costs account for as much as 60 to 75% , of their life cycle costs and are continuously increasing. However, 30% to 50% of these maintenance costs are caused by ineffective maintenance management due to the lack of data to indicate when and what kind of maintenance is necessary. This type of maintenance, the one that predict when and what kind it is necessary, is called predictive maintenance (PM).
PM is now considered by manufacturers a main priority in order to increase efficiency. This interest has being raised due to the maturity of certain technologies that are making it possible: Big Data and Internet of Things.
However, only large machine manufacturing companies can afford to implement ad-hoc and costly predictive maintenance system (PMS). This makes small and medium-sized (SMEs) manufacturers to lose track in this competitive market. And SMEs in this sector are the most numerous and biggest employers. In Europe, the manufacturing sector gives employment to about 30 million people, 59% of them are SMEs. In an increasingly competitive market, where the big players are USA and China, SMEs must have access to best market technologies that fit their needs and resources. ThingSight, the PMS that we are developing, is the only solution for PM particularly tailored for SMEs (manufacturers and maintenance providers) by its cost-efficient model that offers high-level analytical insight on the state of machinery and maintenance needs. ThingSight is:
1. A complete IoT Analytics ecosystem for the whole value chain, from data generation and collection, data analysis to presentation
2. A flexible, adaptive, scalable and easy-to-use tool which will foster an early adoption and popularization among European SMEs (machinery manufacturers and machinery maintenance providers).
3. A low-cost PaaS “pay-as-you-grow” model (monthly fee: 4€/device) which is an affordable and competitive solution compared to different commercial products available.
By implementing ThingSight, machine manufacturing SMEs and its clients are expected to cut machinery maintenance costs substantially (at least 40% in downtime, 35% in labour and material) and increase machinery lifetime (by up to 60) and making them to be part of the Industry 4.0 revolution.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

This period covers the time spent in the feasibility study of ThingSight. Results have been a Technical and Commercial Viability Study since the launching of the PMS until 2023, and an Intellectual Property Study.
Technical Viability Study:
1. - Definition of technical areas to focus in the project:
2. - Preliminary selection of tools to integrated in ThingSight
3. - Potential technological partners for SW modules
4. - Technical Risk Analysis
The conclusion of the Technical Viability Study has been that Carriots will be able to develop the different modules of the PMS ThingSigth given: 1) its technical resources and personnel; 2) its already commercialized Carriots IoT Platform, basis for ThingSight; 3) knowledge of potential technical partners; and 4) technical risk assessment and contingency plan done.
Commercial Business Plan:
A complete business plan has been done on ThingSight. The results of this business plan have been:
- Better knowledge on the manufacturing market and target market for the platform and competition
- Analysis on the TAM, SAM and SOM
- Definition of commercial partners and marketing action; commercialization risk analysis
- Forecast on sales and cash flow; Intellectual Property Exploitation Plan
The conclusion of the Business Plan study has been that ThingSight is a unique platform with a big important market of SMEs and whose commercialization could be very profitable with an IRR of 83,3%.
Freedom to Operate Analysis:
To ensure that the platform does not infringe upon any eventual patent, a comprehensive patent examination procedure was established covering all of ThingSight´s distinctive and innovative features. Several different patent databases were consulted during the course of the search.
After a careful analysis of patent´s content, we can tell that most patents refer to features that are included in ThingSight but none covers the complete solution (from data collection, advanced analysis and machine learning to data representation tools). We can conclude that the risk of facing patent infringement litigation is virtually non-existent. This entitles us to operate at a global level and execute the project with a large level of freedom.
After carefully reviewing every possible technical and commercial aspect of the ThingSight project, we have been able to validate its feasibility as well as its outstanding potential. We will therefore continue developing our system with external funding and target and full release it after conclusion of Phase II.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

ThingSight will a unique PM platform geared to SMEs of the machine manufacturing sector.
Two characteristics make the platform unique:
1) Its technical features: low cost IoT integrated with big data and data analytics
2) Its PaaG “pay-as-you-grow” business model that makes it affordable for SMEs
The expected impact of ThingSight will be:

For client/market: (IoT resellers, integrators, machinery manufacturers, maintenance providers),
• Provides a unique tool with powerful analytics tool to offer to their clients (SMEs users of the machinery/devices)
• Expands their client base with SMEs that now can afford predictive maintenance

For end-users (SMEs users of the machinery/devices)
• Fills the gap of affordable predictive maintenance programs for them
• Make SMEs users of machinery/devices competitive in the Industry 4.0 market.

The economical and societal implications is that SMEs (machine manufacturers and maintenance providers), that in Europe employ more than 15M people, will be able to maintain and even increase their competitiveness, assuring, therefore, a significant capacity to provide employment.

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