With the new solution, Mirka's application components can be governed from Microsoft Azure cloud platform but executed and run locally at the factory.
Quality management is important for Mirka, as it is a globally growing company offering high-quality solutions for surface treatment and sanding. There is an automated component line in Mirka's factory, where components for the company's first-class grinders are produced with the help of factory robots.
Mirka was looking for a solution which would make it possible to govern application components from the cloud but execute and run them at the factory. The cooperation with Innofactor has enabled Mirka to take into account the whole production life cycle – from writing the code to remote controlling the component line.
Mirka's products need to be of high quality, since approximately 97% of the production is exported, and the products are sold in over a hundred countries.
To start off the project, Mirka chose the technological solutions and planned the necessary architectures. After that, Mirka contacted a number of potential suppliers with appropriate business experience and references.
Prior to the project, Mirka had already been using Microsoft Azure's IoT Hub technology to stream the IoT data.
"Our goal with this project was to build an edge solution which would utilize Azure in a way that would enable us to manage application components from the cloud, but execute and run them at the factory," says Mathias Rönnlund, Systems Architect at Mirka.
In this project, the entire life cycle had to be considered; from how to write code to streaming data in a controlled and secure way to the cloud. This makes it possible to utilize machine learning for guiding the factory robots to detect possible errors or error trends significantly earlier than before.
"Probably the best thing in this project was that we got the solution we had dreamed of. It turned out exactly the way we needed," summarizes André Norrback, Smart Factory Project Manager.
All in all, Norrback sees the cooperation with Innofactor as very successful.
"Innofactor was a very proactive partner to work with. They always have a good flow on while doing these projects."
"Probably the best thing in this project was that we got the solution we had dreamed of. It turned out exactly the way we needed."
André Norrback
Project Manager
Mirka
The following technologies were a part of Mirka's solution:
