Bühler Insights is an advanced IoT platform that allows digital services to be developed and centrally managed. The cloud-based solution was one of Bühler's milestones for the supply of digital services. Thanks to this service, the end customer benefits not only from permanent monitoring of the process, but also from constant optimisation of the efficiency, performance and consumption of a plant’s resources.
The customer
Bühler AG is a multinational technology group headquartered in Switzerland. Bühler develops processes and plant for food and feed production as well as for die casting, wet grinding and surface coating.
The task
The Insights IoT platform allows a plant to be operated as if a qualified operator were on the job around the clock. Intelligent sensors permanently monitor the manufacturing process, record relevant data and thus facilitate constant monitoring of quality. The data collected in this way are transferred to the Insights system for visualisation and analysis. Based on the evaluation of the production processes, they can be optimised in real time.
The solution
Solve has contributed a high level of expertise to Bühler's processes and machines based on many years of experience and has proved its competence in projects that have already reached a successful conclusion. The company’s high-level skills in the field of software development (Angular, .NET, Microsoft Azure) and project management were additional factors in being chosen.
Realisation of the mega-project
Insights provides various interfaces to standard industrial automation and control systems supplied by Bühler. The software platform consists of three main components: a gateway, a gateway software and a cloud solution. The gateway is a hardware box consisting of an industrial PC. The software is implemented on the PC on the basis of the Microsoft Azure IoT Edge technology package. The system ensures that the data from various machines and MES systems are collected and transferred to the core of the Insights platform, the Azure-based cloud platform. This is founded on a micro-service architecture that processes the data and then saves it in a central database.
The central application is the Bühler Insights Portal. It allows Bühler to create customised dashboards and its own digital services and to make these available to customers.
For this project, Solve worked with software teams in different countries, following the Scaled SCRUM Method. Despite the size and complexity of the overall project, this approach made it possible to install an operational version at the premises of pilot customers after a relatively short development time.
Saving of resources
With Insights, Bühler received one of the first secure, high-performance and cloud-based systems for the food and feed industry. The customised solution is capable of perfect integration into existing processes and IT infrastructures. Together with Solve and further international partners, Bühler succeeded in taking an important step in the direction of digital platforms. Insights monitors, analyses and adapts industrial processes to design them more efficiently. The solution interacts with all Bühler production processes and increases both the quality and yield of food products. As a result, it significantly reduces waste, greenhouse gases, water usage and energy consumption.
"Solve's part in the development of Insights is crucial for Bühler. Through its involvement, especially in the areas of project management, Angular, Net, Microsoft Azure and industrial automation, Bühler was able to reduce the development time of Insights considerably. Solve continues to be active in the project as a reliable and highly committed partner."
Robert Cuny
Head of IoT Projects
Bühler AG
