Factories with legacy machines faced the daunting task of getting data to provide real-time visibility and insights that are needed in Industry 4.0. Brownfield connectivity aims to help companies extract data directly from PLCs, scraping from screens, or from installed sensors, and channel data via open source communication protocols.
A photoelectric sensor can be used to monitor the level of material supply. The sensor data is used by a Material Supply Monitoring application (insert) to raise an SMS alert when material inventory has reached depletion level.
A thru-beam sensor is used to detect WIP that requires transportation to the next process station. The thru-beam sensor data is used to activate an RFID reader to read the RFID tag ID of the WIP tray so that the Material Handling application (insert) can determine the next process station that is needed in order to create the Moving Order for the material handling crew or equipment.