Airbus to deploy Israeli Plataine’s production optimization solutions
12 September, 2016
Airbus’s manufacturer of complex CFRP components CTC will deploy Plataine’s industrial production optimization software, a first step in the deployment the company’s solutions in all of the European Aerospace corporations manufacturing plants
Airbus’s manufacturer of complex CFRP components CTC will deploy Plataine’s industrial production optimization software, a first step in the deployment the company’s solutions in all of the European Aerospace corporations manufacturing plants
Petah-Tikwa, Israel based Plataine has signed a cooperation agreement with Airbus subsidiary CTC Stade. According to the agreement, CTC will deploy the Israeli company’s software as part of its integration of new Industry 4.0 and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). The move is the first step towards the deployment of Plataine’s solutions in all of the Airbus Group manufacturing plants.
German CTC Stade, located in the north German city Stade is a subsidiary of Airbus. The company is a center for research and development in the field of the design and manufacturing of
large and complex CFRP components. The company focuses on the development of series production technologies and assembly of CFRP components for aircraft construction. The company will deploy plataine’s industrial production optimization solutions.
“It is our goal to explore innovative technologies in the fields of Industry 4.0 and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and recommend how they can be widely used in production to bring benefits and efficiency to the Aerospace Community, such as Airbus and its suppliers” said Prof. Dr. Axel Herrmann, CEO at CTC Stade. “After surveying the market we decided that Plataine is the perfect partner for us.”
Plataine’s Total Production Optimization (TPO) solution collects manufacturing and quality related data for each manufactured part and creates a paperless ‘Digital Twin’ and ‘Digital Thread’ to ensure all produced parts comply with the industry’s rigorous regulations and quality standards. The solution automatically provides real time visibility along the production lifecycle of critical assets such as raw material, work in process (WIP) inventory, kits, assemblies, tooling and end-products.
Additionally, the solution alerts production staff and supervisors when individual kits or rolls reach quality or production thresholds such as shelf-life limits,
production delays or bottlenecks, or when unauthorized asset movement is detected. The solution is integrated with ERP, PLM and MES systems to holistically evaluate any stream of work orders for product mix and volume, producing efficient manufacturing plans.
The composite problem of composite materials
In an Interview for Techtime, Plataine president and CEO Avenr Ben-Bassat explained, that the company’s solution is integrates production line sensors, workers and cloud based computing power which activates an artificial intelligence based algorithm.
Ben-Bassat: “When building a composite product, based on composite materials, storage conditions have to be monitored closely. The life span of the material, the state of machines and much more. For example, the raw materials for components is stored in a freezer at a temperature of -25°C. The component has to be produced no more than 200 hours from the moment the raw materials came out of storage – this means, a system has to be in place, to count the passing hours. We enable the use of RFID tags, which give a full pictures of the materials history and state”.
In the last few years, Plataine has nurtured cooperation’s with leading industrial companies. It has a close relationship with Siemens PLM (formerly Israeli Technomatix). GE’s Aviation division is also a cutomer, and was integrated in GE Digital’s new software divisions IIoT project, participating in the development of a management module for the aerospace industry, as well as for the management of wind turbines.
“We currently develop a composite materials application for the auto industry, which was originally developed for the aerospace industry. The automotive industry has a problem with material coating, which is similar to problems faced by the aerospace industry”.
IoT revolutionizes production lines
Plataine was born of Klick software, and currently employs 60 workers. Eight years ago, it started distributing its production line management solutions. Three years ago, the company started implementing a new strategy, due to a conceptual and technological revolution brought by the advance of IoT. According to Plataine chief marketing officer Amir Ben-Assa, the company initially focused in RFID tag based optimizers, but later came to the conclusion that IoT is the future.
Ben-Assa: “we are now developing technologies which interface with all these data sources, and this requires us to bring some cloud computing experts in, as well as to bring our existing software solutions to the cloud. When processing came to the cloud, and we were able to employ massive computing power, we saw that we were able to solve big problems – not of specific machines – but of whole factories, of the whole production chain in fact”.
In which direction is the company developing?
Ben-Bassat: “The new architecture creates new opportunities for us, as well as the possibility to tackle the new demands raised by the advance of IoT – demands that can’t be tackled outside the cloud. We now invest in the development of next generation of our architecture, according to the idea of cloud micro-services. Two years ago, we employed 30 workers. Now, we employ 60. This year alone saw the recruitment of 15 new employees. Until the end of this year, we paln to recruit five more, and we hope to continue and expand next year as well”.
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