Why should WIS and WMS be combined into One Platform?
Our customers have often a common question: “What is the difference between buying the Procemex One Platform solution and buying the web inspection and web monitoring systems separately?” This is a good question, and has different answers to different groups, as it touches operators, production management, quality assurance, IT, maintenance and project engineers. The basic elements are always the same.
To improve production efficiency, you should be able to understand the inter-relations between web inspection and web monitoring. In order to do that, you will need a system, that has combined those to info streams into one platform and where you can move flexibly between those ‘two systems’.
We are convinced, this is the only way for the operators to understand the real root causes for paper defects and web breaks created in the dryers, in the press, and in the forming section.
One Platform for IT
At Procemex we combined WIS and WMS into one platform already in 2001. As our Smart Cameras process the data already inside the cameras and sends the results via TCP/IP Network to the server, there is need for only one server for the whole system. It manages the SQL database for storing and distributing data and communicates with 3rd party systems.
By having only one computer for the whole system’s data processing (that can contain over 200 cameras btw), it enables better system virtualization, parallel server replication and easier backups. Therefore, it is more user-friendly and maintenance-free for IT.
One Platform for Maintenance
In addition to the shared data storage infrastructure and user interfaces, it is also important that there is only one application software covering both web inspection and monitoring. This makes it easier for maintenance and application engineers, as everything is handled in one unified way and there is no need to learn two systems.
Web inspection and web monitoring also share the same lighting and smart matrix camera technology, eliminating multiple spare parts and extensive troubleshooting efforts.
One Platform for Support
When our customers need us, our project managers, field service engineers, remote service engineers and service teams can quickly provide support for both inspection and monitoring. One Platform allows our people to help you without application boundaries.
One Platform for Longer System Lifetime
By developing our own smart camera technology, and continually pushing further the boundaries of camera performance, we have been able to go beyond the compatibility problems of fast turning computer and off-the-shelf camera world.
It seems that the systems built on standard technology have today an average lifetime of 5 to 7 years due to component obsolescence from OEM hardware manufacturers and lack of compatibility in new components.
We also believe in systems that are future proof and backwards compatible. All our systems starting from 2002 are fully compatible and can be extended or upgraded even up to today’s releases.
Can you think of any good reasons to keep these two functions separated?