Kirovsky Zavod and NVision Group launch automated production control system

The companies have announced the successful launch of an industrial production monitoring and control system, developed as part of a strategic partnership to increase automation and improve production efficiency using IT.
 
In November 2018, MTS, NVision Group, and Kirovsky Zavod signed an agreement to collaborate on an automated production monitoring and control system using an industrial communication platform designed to improve the efficiency of the plant’s machinery and equipment.
 
The system was trialled at the V.V. Vorovsky United Drilling Equipment Plants and the Kirov Energomash Plant (both part of the Kirovsky Zavod group). It enables real-time collection of equipment status information from sensors installed on the equipment. To enable plant staff to interact with each other, in addition to standard messenger functionality, the system has a built-in platform that allows employees to communicate with devices using chat bots to implement specific production business processes. The platform offers a standard web interface and a mobile app. The statistics obtained help to cut downtime, reduce accidents, and improve the efficiency of logistics and other production processes.
 
The next step will be to improve the platform and utilize it in the enterprise’s other systems: enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution system (MES), production data management (PDM), etc. There are also plans to continue developing smart bots and to introduce analytical processing of the data received, including using neural networks.
All this will enable a single product to be prepared for the B2B market that combines a monitoring system, an ERP system, and an industrial communication platform.
 
“The equipment monitoring and control system has been successfully tested and rolled out at Kirovsky Zavod’s central production site. The system is flexible and easy to operate, which allows it to be deployed in almost any production facility within a few days. It is also easy to scale and adapt to different needs. We expect that this new solution will reduce the cost of operating machines and equipment by at least a third. Our immediate plans are to bring the development to market as an independent commercial product. I have no doubt that Sistema’s extensive industry expertise and MTS’s understanding of how to develop and promote IT solutions, as well as Kirovsky Zavod’s leadership in modern mechanical engineering technologies, will help us in this,” said NVision Group President Sergei Gavrenkov.
 
“The industrial communication platform has the potential to become the main means of communication in the corporate and industrial sectors of the economy. This would enable workers ‘on the ground’ to be included in a single digitalization process, which will be the foundation for productivity growth, increased efficiency, and risk reduction in production processes. The next step will be the ability to digitize the workflow of production staff. We are still working on this, but the industrial communication platform is a step in the right direction,” said Viktor Vernikovsky, IT Director at Kirovsky Zavod.
 
As the strategic partner, Kirovsky Zavod helped to define the concept for the system and create an experimental platform for testing and commissioning industry solutions. NVision Group, a subsidiary of MTS, is the system integrator that is designing and developing the solution. As the project’s technology partner and a leader in the Russian corporate communications market, MTS will be involved in scaling up the solution for the country's business market.