In 2017, thyssenkrupp Materials Services began to digitally connect its machinery network, using their self-developed IIoT platform toii. Now that the product has successfully proven its value, thyssenkrupp plans to make the potential of digital networking available to other industrial companies in the future. “From the beginning, we built toii not as a project, but as a product,” says Axel Berger, Head of Digital Transformation at Materials Services. “toii has a modular structure, so it is highly scalable and suitable for use by other companies dealing with the challenges of Industry 4.0”
More than 30 thyssenkrupp locations are now working with toii – including companies from Materials Services, Components Technology and Steel Europe. Nearly 300 machines have been integrated into the system, including numerous slitting and cut-to-length lines, slitting lines for steel slabs, packaging lines, band saws, measuring systems and high-bay warehouses. In addition, there are numerous cranes, forklifts, wheel loaders and other vehicles in the network. In total, toii encompasses thousands of “Things” from the individual machine control panels to sensors to the manual measuring devices. The advantages are reflected in concrete figures. For example, a single plant in the production of slit strip and sheet can expect an increase in annual production of up to 10,000 tons. In other areas, production line downtimes have been reduced by up to 10%.
Although Materials Services developed toii especially for its own requirements, the platform can be easily integrated into the processes of other companies. “Now that we have brought digital change to our facilities, the next step is to offer toii to our customers and other industrial companies,” said Klaus Keysberg, CEO of Materials Services.
