Success story: VTM sends machine data securely to Office 365 (PowerBI)

VTM Quality Services optimizes production costs with an innovative IIoT solution based on mbEDGE

The Dutch company “VTM Quality Services” has been active in the food processing industry since 1993 and specializes in the poultry sector. What VTM actually sells to its customers is a complete production service, including the machines, the production lines and the specialized personnel to operate and maintain it.

The operating costs of such food processing production lines are highly dependent on the predictability of the supply chain and the regularity of the flow. When there are unexpected delays in deliveries, the lines simply come to a standstill. If more is delivered than production can process, maintaining food safety and hygiene may result in some inventory being lost.

“What is not measured is not managed”

VTM understands that to optimize operating costs they must monitor key performance indicators in each production unit. Only then will they know exactly where in the supply chain efforts need to be made and how they can coordinate and adjust an ever-changing delivery schedule. So they enlisted the help of their system integration partner Schaap Engineering to design a tailor-made solution for them.

Schaap Engineering's solution, the “IOTGATE”, is an integrated modular system that can be quickly adapted to the specific needs of any industry and any type of production. To maximize IT security and OT integration, it is based on MB connect line hardware (an mbNET router with a mbEDGE IoT upgrade) and the remote service portal mbCONNECT24, supplied and supported by 4S industry in Apeldoorn.

The mbNET router works through the mbEDGE as an IoT gateway and is installed in the production line and receives production data from the PLC that coordinates the line activities. The data is then processed on the device to generate the KPI values to be monitored. A copy of the KPI values is then securely pushed to a central SQL database, part of the IOTGATE solution, at VTM.

Integration with Microsoft

In addition to collecting data, Schaap Engineering also takes care of the analysis and presentation of the data. In order not to reinvent the wheel, the technical decision was made to use existing Microsoft tools Power BI. This greatly simplifies the creation of user interface dashboards and the solution takes advantage of the powerful data analysis tools made available in the design environment.

It has also simplified the distribution of the end product (the Power BI “runtime” apps that VTM employees can now download and open on their smartphones) and the control of users' access rights. It has significantly reduced development time and makes the project cost very affordable for such an excellent result.

Technically, the Power BI apps, generated by Schaap Engineering, feed live data for display on their dashboards, directly from the KPI variables of the mbNET at the production line, while the historical data comes from the central SQL database storage at VTM.

The local operational staff at the factory can now monitor the status and performance of the production lines at any time and from anywhere. They can anticipate future availability or saturation of their lines and take action to adjust the supply chain accordingly. An additional benefit is that VTM product managers now have real production data at their disposal, which they can use for benchmarking and to validate fixes, optimizations and new features.

An open system that uses common technologies

“One of the remarkable things here,” says Jorik Schaap, who contributed to the data presentation and distribution part of the project, “is because MB connect line uses common technologies, the products are open and easy to interface. This helped us a lot in the design of the solution and accelerated its implementation. It allows us to keep it modular so we can easily adapt it to other contexts and use cases.”

In addition, remote support and maintenance (remote access) is a natural part of the solution, using either the public remote access service of mbCONNECT24 or, as some customers prefer, its private version, mymbCONNECT24, for even more independence and autonomy. This is not only a benefit for Schaap Engineering, for maintaining the industrial IoT application on the routers, it is also used by technical support staff to update the firmware of the routers and their security up to date or to maintain the machines on the production line, as mbNET and mbNET.rokey provide very useful security features and allow local staff to physically control remote access to the production line. The integrated user access control features of mbCONNECT24 make this a very powerful tool.

Sheep Engineering

The Dutch company Schaap Engineering BV, located in Bunschoten-Spakenburg, approximately 20 km north of Utrecht, has been operating since 1996 and specializes in Siemens-based process technology, measurement and control technology, machine programming and visualizing process data. Schaap Engineering provides tailor-made solutions in close collaboration with its customers. Typical projects include the automation of power plants and waste processing plants, but also the development of custom software for industrial machines, such as welding robots and other production lines.

Schaap Engineering's core activities are focused on projects where customized solutions are developed, where efficiency and consistency are central. It is therefore only natural that the company has expanded into IoT and has built significant expertise in bringing process data into the cloud and offering their customers the ability to view real-time analytics of production data, even on their smartphones, see www.iotgate.nl.

With more than 25 years of experience serving various industries, Schaap Engineering BV is both a reliable and expert partner for creating tailor-made IoT solutions.

For questions about Schaap Engineering or the IOTGATE software, please contact the company directly

Website: www.schaapengineering.nl

VTM Quality Services

VTM Quality Services Holland BV has been active in the Food sector as a poultry processing production company since 1993. The core activity is filleting chicken on location at our customers' premises as efficiently as possible. Through this professional service, VTM takes care of its customers and this results in major cost savings.

At this fast-growing and multicultural company, respect, openness and clear communication lead to a pleasant working atmosphere. Employees come from 14 different countries and the atmosphere is excellent. This is noticeable in an informal, no-nonsense way of working and short lines on the work floor.

The managers themselves also started their careers at VTM in the production process. They guide and support the team they manage in working as well and as safely as possible. 

Website: vtm-quality.nl