Echternach – At EMO 2019 in Hanover, Factory automation specialist FANUC is giving the go-ahead for the European debut of its Industrial IoT platform `FIELD system`. The company will start selling this system to the European market later in 2019. FIELD stands for `FANUC Intelligent Edge Link and Drive`. Industrial IoT (IIoT) refers to the networking of devices for the purpose of interaction and data exchange. The FIELD system can connect various production machines such as robots or machining centres of different generations from all manufacturers in a plant and thus enables comprehensive data analysis along the entire process chain – a decisive step towards the Smart Factory.

The system which was introduced firstly in Japan and in FANUC’s own factories – has been successfully running and has special features that distinguish it from other IIoT solutions: The FIELD system collects and analyses machine data locally (on premise) and does not send them to the cloud initially. This means that critical customer’s production data stays within their factory. This speeds up the data analysis on site. The analysed results can be implemented to improve the production process immediately.

If necessary, for comparisons between different factory locations, customers can chose to store and analyse selected machine status data in an external cloud. "The FIELD system operates primarily on premise. It ensures a fast response to edge devices without the necessity of uploading production data to a cloud," says Shinichi Tanzawa, President & CEO of FANUC Europe. FANUC’s approach enables customers to decide for themselves how open or closed they want to deal with their own data.

Open platform

While machines with standard protocol can easily be connected to the FIELD system, for all other machines converters can be developed to connect the machines to the FIELD system. The FIELD system is therefore able to connect all machines, independent of brands and generations to offer an overview over the whole production process.

FIELD system Apps are not only offered by FANUC itself, but also by third party software application developers. This openness has just one goal: FANUC wants to help customers to better understand and improve their production. In future, by using FIELD system, Customers will be able to increase production of high quality products and reduce production downtime.

An App store for the FIELD system will be available in selected European countries in the fourth financial quarter of this year. Customers can select and download their desired software solutions themselves. The FANUC-owned Apps FIELD system PMA (Production Monitoring and Analytics Software) and FIELD system ZDT (Zero Down Time) are among the most important existing applications. PMA is used to check and visualise the production process. On a monitor customers can see at a glance whether all connected machines are running regularly and which devices are affected by a standstill and how often.

Preventive maintenance

FIELD system ZDT supports predictive and preventive maintenance. It continuously monitors the health of machines, analyses data and identifies trends, such as changes in torque and disturbance torque. All downtime failure causes and the failure history are visualized. If any abnormalities are detected, the App will inform operators to take preventative actions.

FIELD system ZDT focusses on robots, CNC and machines from FANUC. With FIELD system ZDT not only robot axes but also servo drives in the periphery, drives of servo welding guns or positioning tables can be monitored. At EMO 2019 visitors can experience the operating data of all active robots and machines at the booth. "The analysis of real-time data can help companies improve quality and performance of systems and processes and significantly increase productivity. Our European customers are very interested in such a solution" says Mr. Tanzawa.

A further tool featured at EMO is the FIELD system Daily Check App which is a tool for the easy and reliable execution and recording of daily checks. Checked items are displayed by reading the QR code on equipment. The FIELD system CNC Edit Log App reports who modified machine data and made changes to the program. With this information the App is then able to identify problems caused by those changes.