• Name: Onnera Group (Fagor Industrial)
• Sector: Equipment for the hospitality and laundry sector
• Number of employees: Over 20,000
• Location: 150 countries
Fagor Industrial is a Spanish company based in the Basque Country founded in 1960, an international leader in the manufacture of equipment for the hospitality, collective catering, and laundry sectors. The company has a vast team that directs all its efforts to create quality products focused on professionals.
The challenge faced by the UDS Enterprise and Lanmedia teams is part of the “Project for the Digitalization of the Workplace” from Onnera Group, Fagor Industrial’s parent company, and in particular focuses on facilitating the use of manufacturing management software in the production plant.
The relationship between Fagor and Virtual Cable, the UDS Enterprise developer, began due to the need for a reliable infrastructure to digitize the entire assembly process of electrical appliances and equipment. “We were looking for an easy to maintain VDI solution that also allows flexibility in the exchange of equipment in the event of screen breaks, a situation that is common in a productive environment,” explains Xabier Ormaetxea, Technician Responsible for Innovation at Fagor Industrial.
On the other hand, amid a pandemic, the system had to adapt to a future vision that contemplates the possibility of extending the solution to office workstations and allowing remote working to avoid taking PCs home, guaranteeing safe and reliable remote access.
The process of introducing new software in a company and learning and managing it always involves a certain level of work and dedication, even more so in an industrial environment. In this specific case, a pilot was carried out in collaboration with the company Lanmedia, a Gold Partner of UDS Enterprise. “A person from Lanmedia was with us explaining the operation of the infrastructure and the function of the tool,” says Xabier.
After this pilot, it was found that UDS Enterprise could solve the challenge of digitizing factory lines. But, what were the reasons for opting for this particular solution? According to Xabier Ormaetxea: “We chose UDS Enterprise over other solutions due to its flexibility, cost, speed of installation and the security of access from any device. In addition, the possibilities of making it work quickly on thin clients based on Raspberry Pi made the solution a perfect fit for the Onnera Group.”
UDS ENTERPRISE IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS
So far, the project has consisted of implementing a complete, secure, scalable, and fast VDI system, which provides access to production software from the factory workstation. This system comprises 25 devices on two washing machines and cooking equipment assembly lines, which provide all the necessary information personalized to the operator in charge of assembling the machine.
Aitor Martín, CTO of Lanmedia, explains that “deploying UDS Enterprise in an Industrial environment has been a challenge for us. However, thanks to the Onnera and Lanmedia teams, we have made it a success with guarantees that it will last over time.” When asked about the installation process, he comments the following: “We deployed the UDS Enterprise solution in record time. First, we installed light workstations based on Raspberry Pi with Linux operating system. Then, through a simple web browser, we give access to a virtual environment based on VMware that allows the production management software to run smoothly, resulting in greater agility, simplicity, security and a significant costs reduction.”
After a brief adaptation period, the solution went live, allowing quick monitor changes without the need for the complicated setup that takes production time from the factory. From Fagor, they are relieved with this change, which has allowed them to put an end to a frequent concern at the factory, “the monitor at the assembly station can be changed in less than 5 minutes“.
The system allows Fagor employees to obtain personalized and constantly updated information, helping each operator through digital instructions. Thanks to this effective information management, product quality defects are being reduced. The short-term objective is for the system to expand to the entire factory, providing all kinds of individualized information in different formats (text, notices, images, video) and carrying out real-time monitoring of each machine, position, and person.
In short, the digitization of production workplaces integrating UDS Enterprise has led to:
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Increase production performance avoiding failures and downtime caused by hardware.
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Adopt technology that allows agile implementation of new solutions that provide benefits to the company.
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Have a scalable solution with continuity over time.
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Reduce maintenance and management costs of workstations.
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Increase security of access to production data.
VDI INFRASTRUCTURE
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Broker: UDS Enterprise
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Hypervisor: VMware vSphere
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Connection protocols: RDP and HTML5
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Authenticator: IP
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VDI OS: Linux (Ubuntu)
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Access devices: Raspberry Pi
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