Unlocking the Potential of Smart Factories with Infosys Connected Operations on AWS

By Abhra Dutta, Sr. Principal – Infosys
By Amrit Raj, Sr. Technology Manager – Infosys
By Chad Boulanger, Principal Partner Development Manager, Manufacturing – AWS
By Kiran Killedar, Sr. Partner Solutions Architect, Manufacturing – AWS

Infosys

The industrial manufacturing sector is rapidly evolving, placing a strong emphasis on improving agility, flexibility, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. This transformation is not without its challenges, however.

Hurdles include the need to standardize existing operational technology (OT) systems like SCADA, Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Computer Numerical Controls (CNC), especially in established areas known as brownfields. Additionally, there’s a necessity to break down data barriers, ensure compliance with regulations, and make real-time decisions on a large scale, all while reducing operational costs.

Consider the manufacturing or automotive industry as an example. In these sectors, companies are divided into geographic “shops,” and each of these shops has its own unique equipment, arrangement, and ways to measure how well they perform.

Getting a unified view and collaboration across diverse units is tough because they use different systems. On top of that, challenges like cost pressures, lack of workers, the need for predictive maintenance, sustainability, and increasing demands from various roles (like shop floor managers, engineers, and unit heads) make it crucial to have a connected system with better visibility.

Connected Operations on AWS (ConnectedOps) is a vital component of the Infosys Cobalt solution and effectively tackles industry-specific challenges. It stands on four key pillars: digital product execution, digital industrial asset management, digital workforce, and digital sustainability. The solution leverages AWS IoT services and the AWS Industrial Data Fabric (IDF), offering micro-applications in an as-a-service consumption model.

In this post, we will delve into how Infosys ConnectedOps is structured around these four pillars and its solution architecture, bringing substantial benefits to customers in the industrial sector. Infosys is an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and Managed Services Provider (MSP) that enables clients to outperform competition and stay ahead of the innovation curve

ConnectedOps in a Nutshell

Infosys ConnectedOps is built upon the principles of the Infosys Live Enterprise framework and AWS Well-Architected Framework. It’s adaptable to various technologies employed by different organizations, revolutionizing how companies operate by making them more aware, adaptable, predictive, and transparent.

The ready-to-deploy micro-applications offer a range of essential features:

• Facilitate real-time data acquisition from machines with a standardized data model.
• Seamlessly integrate with legacy assets, enhancing their functionality.
• Efficiently integrate with operational technology, engineering, and enterprise systems.
• Establish a single, reliable source of truth for managing asset and process data.
• Conform to industry standards protocols such as EUROMAP, OPC UA, and MTConnect.
• Employ a hybrid edge/cloud architecture to ensure adherence to service-level agreements (SLAs).
• Provide user-friendly and intuitive user interfaces (UIs) with dashboards.
• Leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for automation, predicting, and optimizing operational processes.
• Support bi-directional closed-loop operations for real-time adjustments and responsiveness.
• Implement comprehensive security measures across all layers, including OT and automation, to safeguard data integrity and protect sensitive information.

How ConnectedOps Tackles Different Scenarios

Infosys ConnectedOps offers a suite of micro-applications that connect machines, processes, systems, and people. These micro-apps cover various functions like monitoring machine conditions, predicting maintenance, analyzing quality, creating digital twins, fault analysis, energy management, and production performance analysis.

The solution integrates engineering technology, operational technology, and information technology to streamline processes at both factory and enterprise levels, allowing for scalable, real-time, data-driven operations with predictive and self-healing features. Let’s explore how it handles specific scenarios.

Solving High Operating Expenses Due to Lack of Visibility and Traceability

ConnectedOps bridges this gap by connecting disparate applications across different layers of the ISA 95 or ISA88 stack. It creates a Cognitive First data engineering framework, transforming data into valuable information through abstraction, contextualization, and harmonization from multiple sources, all while overlaying asset and process hierarchies.

Enhancing Operational Agility and Predictability

The solution uses AWS industrial AI services like Amazon Lookout for Equipment and machine learning (ML) features to proactively predict potential impacts on operations. This includes forecasting critical asset failures, in-line quality issues, and energy consumption based on machine performance and external factors such as temperature and inventory.

Embarking on Organization-Wide Digital Transformation

To ensure successful digital transformation, organizations need to standardize, templatize, and industrialize their processes. ConnectedOps facilitates this by allowing organizations to establish standards for machine connectivity, data acquisition pipelines, user experiences, and processes, all while leveraging the AWS Industrial Data Fabric.

Solution Architecture

The architecture is based on the AWS IDF framework, which comprises HighByte, Elements, and AWS IoT services. The integration addresses complexities associated with data acquisition, security, analytics, and infrastructure for manufacturers.

Figure 1 – Infosys ConnectedOps leveraging AWS Industrial Data Fabric.

Infosys ConnectedOps harnesses real-time data from machines and employs a standardized data model that’s compatible with older infrastructure. The transfer of data from edge to the cloud is achieved through the AWS IDF framework, with element handling metadata processing and HighByte managing edge data sources, including timeseries and transactional data. HighByte also uses models from elements to populate its own models.

Furthermore, the AWS IoT SiteWise edge connector and AWS IoT Greengrass are employed to establish connections between factory data sources and the cloud. Infosys ConnectedOps plays a crucial role in abstracting data from multiple sources, providing context and harmonizing it into structured data models, all while overlaying asset and process hierarchies.

Customer Success Story

Let’s explore how Infosys implemented ConnectedOps for a major auto manufacturer.

Challenges faced included:

• High operating costs: Outdated systems couldn’t adapt to production changes, resulting in increased expenses due to various technologies.
• Costly maintenance: Reactive repairs caused extended production downtime and higher costs.
• Limited visibility: Different IT and OT applications in various units hindered plant floor transparency for executives.
• Process variation: Each unit had unique processes, complicating organization-wide decision making.
• Compliance and traceability issues: Disconnected applications made meeting standards and tracing data challenging.

Infosys implemented ready-to-deploy micro-applications from ConnectedOps to address a range of challenges. The solution involved integrating IT and OT seamlessly, establishing connections among machines, people, and systems.

To ensure reliable connectivity, Infosys designed a hybrid edge/cloud system capable of maintaining operations even during network disruptions. Customizable dashboards were created to provide role-based access, along with hierarchies and key performance indicators (KPIs) for effective monitoring.

Infosys also facilitated the integration of equipment data collection with other vital systems such as maintenance, quality, and energy management.

Benefits achieved for the customer over six months included:

• Prevented 800+ minutes of downtime.
• Averted six machine breakdowns.
• Avoided 12 critical incidents.

Conclusion

Modern customers have raised the bar for seamless digital manufacturing experiences, expecting enterprises to possess the insights required for timely and tailored decisions.

In this post, we delved into the capabilities of Infosys Connected Operations on AWS. This solution is purpose-built to enhance operational efficiency, bolster visibility, and drive cost-effectiveness. All of these achievements are made possible through the deployment of pre-built, integrated micro-applications, setting the stage for a future where manufacturing is smarter, more efficient, and better aligned with customer expectations.

For more details and questions about implementation of Infosys ConnectedOps, contact the Infosys team.

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