Reference

Smart Factory for water meters

Lorenz, Germany’s leading manufacturer of flow meters, aimed to implement a new, efficient production process for smart wireless water meters, which, in conjunction with a networked water supply and billing system, would enhance Lorenz’s market prospects. To manufacture this new generation of water meters, a new production line was to be set up in collaboration with SF’s sister company, ITQ. Software Factory was responsible for developing the fully integrated production control and line management system required for this purpose.

Lorenz wanted to network the data structures in the company in terms of production technology in such a way that both the parameters in production and the data security and encryption of the product data could be digitally controlled. The challenge was to integrate the different IT system environments and to standardise the new forms of decentralised information provision from the planning to the shop floor level.

Following the analysis phase at Lorenz, the companies ITQ and Software Factory were commissioned to develop the best possible combination of digitalisation, shop floor management, production planning, material flow control and plant automation. The cornerstones of the system today are customised ERP and MES applications, including SCADA functionalities and augmented reality scenarios.

Digital manufacturing with augmented reality and IIoT

With the help of ThingWorx, further IIoT applications were developed for production control and system monitoring. The machine and production data collected via ThingWorx is transformed into AR experiences using PTC’s Vuforia Studio augmented reality solution and displayed to the user via Vuforia View. Model simulation and the creation of a digital twin were carried out using, amongst other tools, the PTC Windchill Modeler Suite (formerly PTC Integrity Modeler). The digital twin is used prior to the production of the water meters to identify potential problems before manufacturing begins.

Production of the smart water meters, which can be integrated into standard wireless systems and automatically communicate consumption to the water supplier for simple and economical cost billing, has been underway since mid-2018. Thanks to the successful digitalisation project by Lorenz, ITQ and Software Factory, Lorenz was included in the list of ‘100 Places for Industry 4.0’ by the Industry 4.0 Baden-Württemberg Alliance. Furthermore, the manufacturer was honoured by the Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs as a „model company for the production of the future“ due to the innovative design of the production plant.

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Lorenz GmbH & Co. KG

Branch Measurement technology

For the latest generation of radio-based water meters, Lorenz GmbH & Co. KG has reorganised its production digitally and transparently. The production control and line system for the new production plant, which enables modern technologies such as IoT, IT security, intelligent apps and process data processing while also taking into account the requirements of production for variable batch sizes, comes from Software Factory.

„I am impressed by our smart-controlled manufacturing process. By simulating changes to the digital twin, we can now identify and rectify potential sources of error at an early stage. It’s a highly innovative way of boosting productivity and quality.“