GIB Becomes Part of the io-key Network
The SAP integrator and top-level IIoT specialist GIB is joining the io-key ecosystem. The io-key remote monitoring network connects 10,000 sensors from more than 200 manufacturers. In the future, GIB will use io-key’s connectivity and cloud environment to record, aggregate and transfer sensor data to SAP environments. That will make it possible to record important data regarding system and machine states or material flows from decentralized locations and use them to optimize operational processes.
Siegen, February 25, 2021. With io-key, SAP specialist GIB is adding a cloud-based concept to its portfolio of solutions for integrating sensor data in ERP. io-key also enables location-dependent connectivity. It can automatically detect over 10,000 IO-Link sensors from more than 200 manufacturers and bring them into its own cloud environment in under a minute. There, they can be visualized and analyzed directly or, as is the case here, retrieved through an interface. GIB takes the aggregated data from the io-key cloud and transfers it to the SAP system. “io-key gives us a fully functional sensor-to-cloud solution that we can link to our tried and trusted on-premises architecture,” explains Björn Dunkel, Managing Director of GIB mbH.
Options for Every Level of Digitization
io-key closes the communication gap to decentralized locations. It helps to significantly increase the number and scope of potential application scenarios, while also overcoming the barriers to entry for digitization projects in supply chain, asset and production planning management.
Once the appropriate environment is in place, remote production plants, tanks, etc. can be integrated into SAP processes in no time. For SAP users, that means flexibility and the ability to take far-reaching action. In contrast, anyone who is just getting started with the io-key cloud can take a more gradual approach: where necessary, newcomers to digitization can use the monitoring and alarm functions in the io-key cloud at first and migrate to a fully integrated ERP solution later as their needs grow.
From the Shop Floor to the Top Floor
The solution is similar in principle to the on-premise workflow that GIB has successfully implemented for a huge number of application scenarios. One new feature is that fill levels, temperatures and other sensor data are transferred to SAP production and maintenance planning modules via the cloud and monitored and evaluated there. If events such as limit value violations occur at decentralized locations, they automatically trigger predefined follow-up activities and process chains. For instance, that can include purchase orders for dwindling tank fill levels, or service calls or spare part orders for defects indicated by vibrations or increases in temperature. Using this principle as a basis allows you to keep downtimes to a minimum while increasing machine availability and operational reliability.
“The key to the Smart Factory – and thus also to the enormous technological and economic potential for io-key and its users – is in just such an integration of local processes and ERP,” explains Philipp Boehmert, Overall Responsibility Marketing & eCommerce Division at autosen, a founding partner of the io-key ecosystem. The io-key development and sales partners work together on creating IIoT solutions for industry and trade. Their aim is to collectively push the boundaries of what is technically feasible and use IIoT applications to optimize processes in the widest variety of business sectors, thus creating the basis for the digital business models of the future. “The latest bridge built between IT and OT highlights how io-key can create real digital added value,” says Boehmert.
