The world is moving rapidly toward the automation of industrial processes, and new industries are entering the robotics market at unprecedented rates. 

Advancement in technologies and communication make today’s industrial robots more powerful and user friendly than ever before. Companies such as ABB are constantly pushing the boundaries of technology to create new smart products that make factories around the world safer, more productive, and more cost-efficient.

ABB is a leading supplier of industrial robots and modular manufacturing systems. The company has installed more than 250,000 robots worldwide serving a variety of industries including automotive, plastics, metal fabrication, foundry, electronics, machine tools, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage.

ABB has been using an Internet of Things network installed by Jasper, which provides a solution called Control Center.

ABB also offers a wide portfolio of services – ranging from implementation, installation and setup, to continuous equipment monitoring, troubleshooting, diagnostics and maintenance.

“Proactive service means enhanced reliability and higher productivity,” says Jean-Christophe Alt, project manager at ABB robotics division in France. “If we have precise and reliable information about what’s going on with a robot, our customers will benefit from less downtime and higher productivity.”

ABB relies on Control Center to monitor connections to its customers’ industrial robots for potential problems. “As soon as conditions change, we know about it, and we can act on it,” says Alt.

“We can also anticipate problems by constantly analyzing the information that we receive from the devices. We’ve developed a set of predictive KPIs, which we share with our customers to help them decide if their equipment requires maintenance. It helps us provide excellent service to our customers, and helps companies reduce production losses, which can be extremely costly.”

Ensuring real-time service reliability and precise control at the device level ​ 

The greatest benefit of the Jasper platform for ABB is the ability to manage and automate its connected devices on a global scale while maintaining the company’s high service reliability and increasing demand for services.

“Before Jasper, we were reacting when customers would call us, and it was difficult to get information to understand precisely what was happening at the device level,” explains Alt. “With Jasper automation, we have real-time monitoring data across our remote devices and can automate responses before incidents occur.”

Jasper automation helps ABB control costs by avoiding unforeseen data consumption ​ 

Before using Jasper, ABB had to dispatch technicians to remote sites to perform diagnosis. Today, ABB’s robotics team manages thousands of connected devices through Control Center. A small operations team at ABB can create automatic responses based on customers’ robots’ status, such as changing rate plans, deactivating or reinstating devices, or performing remote diagnostics.

“We’re monitoring for overages to help customers with global operations avoid the high cost of over-consumption,” says Alt. “The real-time information we receive in Control Center allows us to pinpoint the exact robot and precise issue that requires immediate attention.”

ABB Robotics uses the Jasper platform worldwide. Other business units within the company are also investigating the possibility of working with Jasper to manage their connected devices.