AUVESY
Simplifying Automated Production with Effective Data Management

One of the primary reasons is the concern surrounding the critical data management component in modern industries. Even the most seasoned of manufacturers and production line engineers are now forced to rethink their data management strategies with automation in mind. From simple batch processing to the most sophisticated real-time processes, effective data management is the key to boosting efficiency, increasing productivity, and reducing costs in industrial applications. Users need to switch from manual data collection and analysis to automated systems and improve their ability to handle the increasing amounts of live data generated within today’s increasingly sophisticated automation products. Industry 4.0 taking shape, is a direct consequence of the advent of IoT. The development is redefining the future of productivity and growth in manufacturing industries.

At the forefront of this revolution is AUVESY Inc—a subsidiary of AUVESY GmbH, renowned as a global market leader in data management systems. The company is perfectly poised to address the various challenges associated with automated production. AUVESY has been garnering massive traction in the market due to its comprehensive data management and software solutions, which have been implemented in more than 40 countries in nearly 1000 production facilities. The company has a wide variety of customers across the industrial spectrums that utilize AUVESY’S version control and change management software for safeguarding PLCs, SCADAs, CNCs, HMIs, robots, and field devices.

The solution in point, versiondog, is a complete solution for robust version control and change management in automated production, designed to work with all types of data and automation systems. In most automated production facilities, the lack of complete clarity about programs and the devices running them, lead to severe problems. versiondog provides users automated backup, version control, and documentation of software versions, which enables users to detect and monitor all changes. “With the help of versiondog, users can achieve an increase in productivity, reduced downtime, and have a complete and comprehensive change history across all of the manufacturer’s production processes,” states Seiß. The software serves to keep planned and unplanned downtime to a minimum and offers users the comprehensive support necessary for device backup and centralized data management.

“versiondog not only simplifies time-consuming tasks but also creates order wherever project data demands availability from a central source, or where it is periodically changed,” asserts Georg Seiß, Business Development Manager at AUVESY. versiondog provides the necessary level of viability and security in the industrial environment, especially in critical infrastructures (CRITIS), where protecting against cyberattacks at the earliest possible stage has become imperative.

All users of AUVESY's versiondog software benefit from greater utilization of plant capacity and a significant reduction of downtime

Moreover, figuring out the right version is a time-consuming process, and any confusion can hurt the quality and production volumes. versiondog provides complete support to equipment suppliers and production line engineers, right from the project design phase to commissioning and customer acceptance. Whether it's managing the complexity of non-homogeneous production lines, effective documentation of changes made to different programmable devices, or managing the changes to devise programs (while commissioning, maintaining, and optimizing production lines)—versiondog does it all.

Seiß explains that for overall connectivity within the devices and the production line has been yet another major challenge for customers. To meet this, the company developed AUVESY Connect to allow the users to easily connect to a wide range of devices, including PLCs, HMIs, sensors, robots, and actuators from different manufacturers with versiondog and other AUVESY services. AUVESY Connect even makes it easier to backup hitherto unsupported devices with versiondog. Additionally, the merging of information technology and operational technology (OT), have prompted the need for a unifying IT solution, which can provide image servers for the different requirements and costs associated with OT. Against this backdrop, the company formed AUVESY Image Service, to support the automatic creation of images for Windows PCs and servers. The solution allows users to restore important data for disaster recovery using an image. Depending on the configuration of versiondog, the image or link to the image is available in the versiondog backup.

Touching upon the company’s upcoming endeavors, Seiß highlights that for the future, having an automation solution center is of the highest priority. In the AUVESY conference in 2019, this was their crucial agenda—to have both a system as well as a platform where versiondog is a system, and the automation solution center will be the platform. “The center will be a new system, relying on new web-based technology, and enhancing the quality of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), easily available to the users. The standards which come along with the new technologies will extend the range of the network and help in gaining more information about the production,” states Seiß.