Think sustainably, act responsibly

SMART FACTORY AT ITS PRODUCTION SITE IN LEONDING, PIPE MANUFACTURER POLOPLAST USES THREE EXAMPLES TO SHOW WHAT A PRIME EXAMPLE OF AUTOMATION AND DIGITIZATION THROUGH DATA TRANSPARENCY LOOKS LIKE. THANKS TO DRIVERLESS TRANSPORT SYSTEMS AND THE LINKING OF ALL RELEVANT PRODUCTION AREAS BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, EMPLOYEES CAN AGAIN FOCUS ON SUBJECTS AT WHICH HUMAN BEINGS WILL ALWAYS BE SUPERIOR TO TECHNOLOGY: CREATIVE THINKING, INNOVATING AND NETWORKING. PP PIPE SYSTEMS/POLOPLAST HEAVY WORK ONLY FOR ROBOTS ‟Tom and Jerry” work around the clock to transport some 60,000 pallets per year from production to the logistics center. The two driverless transport robots were purchased in mid-2020 for 250,000 euros. The pair prevent the storage capacities in production from being overstretched, especially at night and on weekends. This guarantees optimal use of the available space in production and the logistics center. FOCUS ON THE ESSENTIALS Using brand new data glasses, Poloplast technicians can even access production from home and provide support with technical problems. An artificial intelligence (AI) system also controls the quality of pipes in real time during on-site production. Instead of relying on 400 reference images as used to be the case, the new AI system, in use since 2020, draws on more than 5,000 computer-generated images. This ensures the high quality of the pipes. CENTERPIECE OF THE SYSTEM The centerpiece of the factory is the ‟Manufacturing Execution System”. It links the control center, machine and operating data, production testing and energy, tool, material, and reject management. The data are made transparent, analyzed and any deviations corrected immediately. This has made it possible for Poloplast to increase planning accuracy and reduce batch sizes while retaining the same product availability. Inventory costs and throughput times have significally improved as a result. WIETERSDORFER | THINK SUSTAINABLY ACT RESPONSIBLY