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e-F@ctory Alliance
The Monitoring SCADA and FACOBOT AMR system solution on the AIS 5G network at the YAWATA plant
The transition into the Industry 4.0 era has created a force for change, pushing industry towards greater use of technology in production. Beyond competing on output in the market, production quality is a key reason many industries have chosen advanced technology such as automated production systems — so that an industrial operation can run automatically and with greater capability.
Mitsubishi Electric has developed a wide range of solutions to let industry move smoothly into automation. Having introduced the e-F@ctory concept — the key principle in laying the foundations of automated production — and the e-F@ctory Alliance, partners drawn from many industrial solution manufacturers, all in order to build the automated factory, today we take you to see another example of a plant that has transitioned its production fully to automation, and on the 5G network at that.
YAWATA (Thailand) and automation on the 5G network
The YAWATA (Thailand) plant is one example of the success Mitsubishi Electric and its e-F@ctory Alliance partners have had in jointly developing the Monitoring SCADA and FACOBOT AMR solution, with the system communicating over the AIS 5G network. The result is highly efficient automated production that is convenient to use in the 4.0 era.
Sharing technology for endless solutions across every industry
■ Mitsubishi Electric – Operation Technology components (GENESIS64 and MELSEC iQ-R PLCs) ■ AIS 5G – 5G network service provider ■ Quadra Technology – ERP system provider ■ Lertvilai – manufacturer of the FACOBOT AMR
The SCADA system at YAWATA (Thailand)
YAWATA (Thailand) is a welding wire manufacturer that wanted to raise its production to full automation. Mitsubishi Electric therefore put in a SCADA system (GENESIS64) to handle production quality control and the recipes for mixing raw materials. The system links data from SCADA into the Q-ERP system, so information can be managed across the whole system as well as the sub-production systems, purchasing and accounting. (Q-ERP was developed through the e-F@ctory Alliance collaboration between Mitsubishi Electric and Quadra Technology.) A business owner or operator can control and manage the detail of the entire system completely from SCADA, so problems become visible and operations can be corrected in good time.
This SCADA system can control industrial operations flexibly — from small, medium and large plants through to industrial operations producing across multiple sites — and can control every part of the picture: the production line, IoT equipment, the purchasing system, sales data, accounting and human resources data. All of these data groups connect to a Hybrid Cloud system (local and global cloud), working with Q-ERP on the data management side and Q-IIoT on the production line control side. Processing and data transfer are handled by Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-R series PLCs, which make it easy to control an automated production line.
The AMR robot system at YAWATA (Thailand)
On the warehouse side, YAWATA (Thailand) has brought in the FACOBOT AMR from Lertvilai — a robot in the Autonomous Mobile Robot class that can move goods and other items, working automatically under AI control, carrying loads of up to 500 kilograms and able to avoid obstacles. It is used together with connectivity over the AIS 5G network.
The AMR vehicle (FACOBOT) works together with the Q-IIoT system to transport goods inside the plant and manage the associated data. Mitsubishi Electric has collaborated with Lertvilai to extend various capabilities, such as communication to the OPC UA standard and 5G connectivity within the plant. The data is connected to both global cloud and local cloud, which store data across the whole OT-level system, helping operators understand FACOBOT's operation in far greater detail.
Remote SCADA monitoring for maintaining the production system and AMR robots at YAWATA (Thailand)
Beyond that, control of the AMR system also allows remote SCADA monitoring in order to view data or maintain machinery and the AMR directly inside the YAWATA (Thailand) plant, without travelling to the site.
On top of that, using the 'Monitoring and Control' solution on the 5G network allows machinery or robots to be controlled and maintained remotely without travelling to the production line, and makes reporting on system use and operation quick and convenient — reports can be exported against templates defined in GENESIS64, and those reports can be designed by the user, so no time is lost separating or gathering data specific to a production line.
As for connectivity across the whole production system, YAWATA (Thailand) can control and command the entire system over the AIS 5G network, which provides security at Private Business Network level. The system is divided into an office segment and a production line segment, which can be connected and managed between one another through AIS 5G. It can also be controlled and commanded through any device running SCADA (Mitsubishi Electric's GENESIS64), usable on PC, tablet and smartphone, or equally on a PC connected directly to the other segments. This part of the setup lets business owners and operators reach the system and the production line from anywhere, with nothing more than an internet connection.
The e-F@ctory Alliance collaboration to develop the Monitoring SCADA and FACOBOT AMR system on the AIS 5G network stands as another example of building full-scale automation in the industrial sector. Beyond its use in the YAWATA (Thailand) plant, the solution is ready to extend into other manufacturing sectors, and to raise production so that plants in other industries can build towards manufacturing in the 4.0 era completely — so that production within Thailand can move seamlessly into the front rank, ready for whatever changes the future brings.
