Control Assemblies recently partnered with a global agricultural equipment manufacturer to develop a remote monitoring solution for a series of extruders the company sells. The Iowa-based manufacturer wanted to add remote monitoring to its food and feed equipment as a value-added service to its customers, and to further distinguish their company from the competition.

“We started talking about this project over a year ago,” said VP of Sales, Brandon Billman, “There were other Commercial Off-the Shelf (COTS) systems that they considered but none that offered the high level of customization, scalability, maintenance, security, and support that Control Assemblies offers.”

Remote equipment monitoring is a relatively new innovation that manufacturers are just beginning to embrace because of the many benefits the technology can provide. A key metric that can be impacted by implementing remote monitoring is overall equipment effectiveness or OEE.  By initially capturing and reviewing OEE data, companies can start optimizing the resources needed for efficient and effective production processes. Additional benefits of remote monitoring include:

• Reduce production downtime
• Decrease in overall operating costs
• Increase quality and reduce defects
• Real-time reporting and data back-up

Another project innovation that Control Assemblies developed was a phone and tablet app. The app can be uniquely branded for end users and offers customization for data reporting and alerts. “All of the information can be pushed out to the appropriate users thru the app resulting in faster response times,” said Billman, “By offering end users OEE in a plug and play app, they are able to remotely monitor their automated control system and make real-time, data driven decisions.”

Partnering with Control Assemblies has enabled our customer to offer innovative and technological based solutions to end users. Remote monitoring systems will allow our customer and their end users to have a strategic and competitive advantage in the ever advancing agriculture industry. “New technologies can be hard to sell,” said Billman “But increasing profits by moving end users closer to 100 percent reliability and productivity on manufacturing equipment and operations is something that companies understand and strive for.”