Plant efficiency through affordable real-time tracking systems

About the project

In the last decade, real-time tracking systems have been gaining relevance due to the advances of technologies and the increasing necessity in industry to use resources to their fullest potential. There are numerous technologies which can be deployed to track assets but no current technology offers at the same time accurate real-time positioning, at a competitive cost combined with a smart asset management software directly linked to the ERP software. This project will upgrade the existing SIGSCAN solution (software, beatcons and gateways) and commercialize the final kit: a low cost tracking system combining positioning accuracy, long working autonomy and beacons compatible with any kind of assets with the associated assets software management. The results will decrease production costs, increase manufacturing efficiency & enhance the assets management for all manufacturing companies regardless of their size and field of activity. 

Purpose of the project

To gain greater insights into their operations, manufacturers accelerated the adoption of IoT under the auspices of Industry 4.0. As an integral part of the IoT, the real-time tracking of assets is yet in great demand as a powerful tool for exciting&various use cases, as locating work equipment or goods, alerting for unauthorized movements, improving the production workflow, allocating the right resources or supporting the facility management. A large panel of tracking technologies exist, but no truly end-to-end solution from the asset locations to the ERP software at low cost with accurate real-time positioning. The studies performed in the SIGSCAN and Aerospace Valley ecosystems show that the wide adoption of tracking systems at the scale of a whole shopfloor in manufacturing industries has been hindered by the difficulty to have the required accuracy, the high energy consumption of the beacons and gateways, the weakness of the functionalities offers of the software and the high dissuasive costs of the whole solution. TrackInWare aims to provide solutions to all the above-mentioned difficulties offering a whole package at reasonable cost in order to scale the adoption by industrials rapidly. This project foresees to market a unique solution combining all the advantages of the existing tracking technologies with digital software suites to manage manufacturing companies. The solution will provide a real-time & precise positioning with high energy efficiency compatible with various size of assets at low cost alongside with the management software based on the data collected from the shopfloor. The TrackInWare project is part of the Thematic “Automation for Human-Centered factories” as the final product will allow a symbiotic relationship between the Human and the machine and lead to better working conditions, increase productivity and improve quality of manufacturers operations. 

Main results & insights

Since the late 2000’s, advanced tracking systems have shown continuous growth. This can be explained by their diverse types of applications in various types of industries as transportation, security, retail, manufacturing and healthcare. According to the report from Mordor Intelligence entitled Asset Tracking market – Growth, trends, Covid-19 impact, and forecasts (2021 -2026), Asset Tracking Market was valued at USD 17.14 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 34.82 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 13.45% during the forecast period 2021 – 2026. The substantial benefits brought by advanced tracking systems are widely recognized enabling the entire operations to run smoother, increasing efficiency by understanding equipment utilization, facilitating budget and decision-making, reducing the size of inventory, synchronizing asset availability to operational needs, improving planning and forecasting processes, reducing maintenance expenses and proactively monitor equipment condition. As societal impact, as tracking systems are implemented in a growing number of manufacturing companies, the content of jobs required for the monitoring of assets will be changed as qualified workers will be needed to improve the systems and exploit the data automatically generated. With the support of the new tracking system and software suites, the operator will work alongside the digital system and their correct interaction will lead to an augmented & virtual operator, as well as an healthy and motivated operator. In the short term, for the end-users (WHR and SONAE) and the members of AV, the results will increase the efficiency & security of manufacturing processes, gain in productivity and decrease operational costs. In the long term, the solution developed has the power to illuminate the full power of asset management and enhance traceability across the whole value chain leading to much shorter response times to asset related challenges and opportunities.