Industry 4.0, encompassing disruptive technologies such as Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and the most representative of all, the Internet of Things (IoT), known as IIoT in the industrial and commercial world, is the foundation of an absolute digital revolution.
In 2014, after 32 years of significant industrial evolution, making it one of the largest shrimp farming companies in Latin America, OCEANS S.A., with its 1,100 hectares of farms and the capacity to process over 7,000 tons of shrimp annually, felt the need to innovate in its processes.
Within one of the most lucrative markets in the region, the need for improvement and optimization in operations seemed unusual. However, the demand itself required a search for solutions to issues such as unfavorable weather conditions, substandard storage leading to stock wastage, and an incessant struggle against nightly theft of crustaceans.
Two years later, AZLOGICA®, a Colombian company specializing in digital solutions using the Internet of Things, sponsored by Dell and Intel (two of its 61 strategic allies today), received the Dell Internet of Things – Connect What Matters global competition award for developing its IoT for Water Treatment Plants tool (IIoT System applied to Water Treatment Plants).
The innovative proposal led the company to present at the Global DELL Convention in Austin, Texas, showcasing multiple solutions in its portfolio. One of them, focused on aquaculture, was the Shrimp Farming Production Management System.
This solution demonstrated its effectiveness when AZLOGICA® implemented it as a system to track OCEANS S.A.’s shrimp pools. Initially, it reduced shrimp theft, providing short-term operational efficiency by decreasing cases by 28%. The scalability of AZLOGICA®’s solutions, one of its strategic advantages, further demonstrated its effectiveness by monitoring measurable water metrics, such as variations in pH levels, temperature, oxygenation, and salinity.
From a climatic perspective, the system provided the ability to manage the measurement of factors like humidity, wind, and precipitation. Sensors detecting variations in these items generate alerts when values are not suitable, prompting immediate adjustments. Leveraging the strategic alliance with Intel and Dell, gateways and devices were integrated, successfully providing this operational solution within the aquaculture industry, resulting in a 36% operational efficiency, translating into a 10x return on investment and a 5-month payback.
For AZLOGICA®, the IoT solutions landscape presents itself as an almost limitless world. The figure is elemental. By 2020, and excluding the Covid pandemic’s effect, there were over 50 billion devices connected to the internet worldwide. A significant number, considering the tentative current global population is 7.8 billion people. Needless to say, the internet has ceased to be a tool and has become a fundamental element in human activities in all dimensions.
The term “Industrial Internet” had been implemented several years ago under the parameters of an industrial transformation associated with artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, cloud developments, machine connectivity, and cyber-physical systems (autonomous and semi-autonomous decision-making and actionable intelligence). Recently, it has been designated as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), becoming the largest, most important, and functional part of the Internet of Things.
Given its characteristics, it was baptized as Industry 4.0 in 2011, assuming it as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The first (second half of the 18th century) was linked to the invention of steam engines and mechanization in manufacturing, among others. The second was related to the arrival of electricity and automation. The third to the rise of computers and computer networks, including the internet. And this fourth revolution is about the relationship between digital and physical environments, involving cloud, Big Data, robotics, and artificial intelligence, among others.
AZLOGICA®, Latin American IIoT Leadership
With its 13 years of experience in Latin America, AZLOGICA® has been a leader in the region in developing various IIoT solutions. As a horizontal multi-platform IoT provider, the company continually enriches itself with developments and integrations using the best global technological standards. Several of its projects have demonstrated the effectiveness and optimization of processes through these IIoT solutions.
The renewal brought about by IoT has already benefited sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy production, utilities, logistics, transportation, food and beverages, energy generation, fuels, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, chemicals, oil, gas, agriculture, livestock, mining and metals, aviation, government sector, smart cities, education, research, regulatory entities, and other industrial sectors.
Predictions suggest that in less than a decade, IIoT will allow many sectors of the economy to completely reinvent themselves. Sector-specific solutions and machinery types have unimaginable scopes, especially in industrial manufacturing. Measurements of any physical or chemical variable for machinery, equipment, and processes involved in the production chain enable applications to monitor lubricant and fuel conditions, as well as filtration, separation, and fluid cleaning systems.
Companies like RAMGUZ and COLMAQUINAS have benefited from AZLOGICA®’s IoT platform for the industrial sector, offering value in the proper management of boilers. They enable online visualization of assets, activity history, reports, alarms, as well as the parametrization of operational variables such as temperature, wind speed, and humidity. This includes tolerable variables such as temperature, pressure, and fuel level in tanks, capturing signals and variables that provide automatic intelligent reports optimizing and ensuring the maintenance and efficiency of their boilers.
“Our growth strategy includes accelerating our services with technology, and AZLOGICA® is the ideal partner to incorporate IIoT and Industry 4.0 into our digital transformation and that of our clients.”
Sandra Martinez, Manager at RAMGUZ
Another success story in AZLOGICA®’s proposed solutions is the result of working with its strategic partner, Alianza IT, on projects for industrial equipment management with various companies like EQUISOL. EQUISOL specializes in hydraulic and pneumatic solutions, as well as manufacturing associated with sanitary processes, gas treatment, fluids, and solutions. IoT-based projects optimize solutions within their processes by connecting gas burners from various brands. The interfaces make it easy to extract information and connect, allowing the generation of reports and alerts, leading to preventive maintenance and support actions.
Another industrial solution with high impact that AZLOGICA® has worked on, in collaboration with one of its global partners, NOKIA, is the project for the telecommunications company CLARO and its Claro Share service. This service involves renting space on communication towers without investing in infrastructure. It is a co-location service that allows the use of CLARO’s base stations (BTS) on towers and/or floors nationwide. Customers can install technology solutions, and AZLOGICA® delivered a solution for remote management and control of CLARO’s Base Station and technical sites’ Domotics. This IoT platform enables real-time control, activation, shutdown, restart, and monitoring of equipment, reducing downtime due to faults, interruptions, or network degradations.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning the technology known as Digital Twins, a key component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, understood as a virtual replica of an industrial process, a production plant, a product, or a service that simulates the behavior of its physical counterparts. In this field, BINNOPS, a company experienced in Digital Twins and asset digital transformation, has a consolidated strategic alliance with AZLOGICA®, recognizing it as a fundamental partner that complements and strengthens its value proposition, especially in the industrial market in North America.
IIoT, a Sum of Solutions
These achievements by AZLOGICA®, among many others in its portfolio, are part of the digital methodologies enabling processes to be easier, more efficient, and affordable. This is within a solid framework of rationalization, automation, and maintenance, which is essential for the advantages offered by IIoT solutions.
AZLOGICA® can offer significant opportunities to the industry in automation, smart manufacturing, and industries with proper controls and maintenance, all for the sake of optimization that results in a different dimension of customer service and the generation of new revenue models.
Some IIoT solutions already resonating in areas such as:
Intelligent Measurement and Smart Grids: The use of sensors significantly reduces operational expenses by monitoring resource consumption, such as water, fuels, and electricity, optimizing energy consumption.
Smart Factories and Intelligent Storage: A cyber-physical system (CPS), a combination of interconnectivity and tools, facilitates smart factories and intelligent storage, optimizing tasks through data collection and analysis for more efficient production techniques and better product creation. Wireless IIoT sensors and devices collect and constantly store data that is centralized and used for decision-making regarding conditions, values, projections, and performance, among other variables.
Advanced Process Optimization: With a higher amount of data, coupled with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analysis, process models achieve higher performance levels. This enables detecting patterns and generating predictive models. For example, defective pieces in a manufacturing process can be automatically separated without requiring quality control by an operator, resulting in significant time savings.
Predictive and Remote Maintenance: Continuous and advanced monitoring of equipment and processes generates warnings that prevent failures, reducing interruptions, complex repairs, and additional damages that cause production losses.
Industrial Safety Systems: Industrial safety and health monitoring for workers, including monitoring gases and environmental temperature, control of air conditioning systems, ventilation, and heating, as well as environmental solutions.
Smart Logistics: IIoT solutions enable high levels of optimization in intelligent logistics. Connected logistics, including tracking assets, cargo, goods, and transportation, makes product and supply tracking easier, providing real-time information on the supply chain.
The entire IIoT environment aims for more affordable, easier, and efficient maintenance of industrial processes, and AZLOGICA® has the capacity to assume and confront these challenges.
