Jakob F. and Darius-Nicolae Z. have recently been awarded for creating “Smart Data Surveillance”, their notable project on Digital Factory software and Blockchain authentication. While the combination of these two technologies might seem strange at first thought, when brought together they create a powerful solution that can make corporate audits a breeze to go through. In the event of an incident or malfunction, this solution can also become a big lifesaver when trying to validate the state of a machine at a specific time, for insurance or warranty purposes.
Leveraging Blockchain technology alongside Digital Factory software allows for the creation of indisputable proof of the status and integrity of manufacturing processes at production lines at any moment in time, and this is exactly what Jacob and Darius-Nicolae aimed for with their innovative project.
To do this, these talented students used CB Digital Factory and CB Blockchain Seal (now known as Truth Enforcer) by Connecting Software. Keep reading to learn how this all came to life!
Meeting Industry 4.0 and Blockchain Authentication
CB Digital Factory is our Digital Factory software which can bring Industry 4.0 to any shop floor. It automates the collection of machine and sensor data, allowing for its extraction and visualization on any software from the past 40 years. It acts as a connector between OPC-UA servers and your preferred software, whether this is a CRM, ERP, DMS, or any back-office system that suits your business needs. CB Digital Factory can get your factory data virtually anywhere! To know more about our impressive middleware, feel free to read this guide on Industry 4.0.
As for Truth Enforcer, we created this solution for those looking to make the most out of blockchain’s elevated security level, without having to break heads over its complexity. Due to the robust security features, timestamping capabilities, and transparency it provides, blockchain technology is among the best ways to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the information stored in digital documents. One of the reasons for this is the creation of hashes, or unique reference numbers, whenever a file is sealed with blockchain. These hashes change when files are modified, thus, verifying the hash will tell you if your document is authentic or if it has been tampered with. Blockchain authentication is extremely useful, for example, to ensure compliance with privacy regulations in the healthcare industry.
Jakob and Darius-Nicolae, students from HTL Wolfsberg, harnessed the power of these solutions to enter the innovation@school contest, competing against students from technical schools across Austria. The first step was to join our team to receive guidance, before returning home to continue developing the project there. Filipa Nóbrega, the head of our Madeiran development team, supervised and established the aims, timeline, and the outcomes needed to plan a successful project.
Smart Data Surveillance
Over the span of 5 months, Jakob and Darius-Nicolae focused on building the system that would bridge our Digital Factory and Blockchain authentication software. As such, to create Smart Data Surveillance, they adhered to the following set of system requirements:
- Read data from the sensor(s) using the CB Digital Factory connector.
- Generate a word or PDF document with the collected data that should then be stored in Microsoft SharePoint using the CB SharePoint Connector.
- Seal documents in SharePoint using the CB Blockchain Seal for SharePoint service, now known as Truth Enforcer for SharePoint.
The diagram below illustrates the system workflow:
To simulate a real-life scenario through a testing environment, external data is obtained from a Raspberry Pi computer equipped with sensors to measure data. In this structure, an OPC-UA server is also running, which is connected to the sensors of the computer, and CB Digital Factory then links to this OPC-UA server to collect the data generated from the sensors.
Once the information is processed, a SharePoint list with the sensor readings at specific points in time is automatically generated. Here is an example of this:
The Power of Digital Factory Software + Blockchain Authentication
The product of leveraging both these technologies can serve as an asset for production lines operating across all types of industries. Creations like the Smart Data Surveillance project support the:
- Digitalization of factories.
- Creation of tamper-proof status reports of the production line.
- Ability to monitor the performance, availability, and overall health of devices, and to act upon any arising problems that are detected.
- Level of transparency needed for external and internal audits.
To show how this can be applied to a real-world context, let’s dive into some realistic scenarios where the presentation of a blockchain-sealed status report can become crucial:
- Proving effective vaccine storage in the pharmaceutical and medical industry.
- Investigating workplace incidents where there is suspicion of machine malfunction as the potential cause.
- Facilitating both external and internal audits by offering verifiable and transparent data.
- Addressing environmental violations by measuring emissions through sensor-based monitoring and using blockchain technology to seal the data.
As such, systems like Smart Data Surveillance significantly contribute towards enhancing safety across factories, and many other types of workplaces. And since we are on the topic of instating a healthy factory environment, it is important to address the 6S Lean Principles framework, of which Safety is one of the key components.
6S Principles of Lean
The 6S Lean Principles framework is an approach that optimizes workplace organization, efficiency, and safety. As the name indicates, there are six components to it:
- Sort – Defends decluttering the work area of all unnecessary items to improve the ability of quickly finding what is needed.
- Set in Order – Involves assigning dedicated locations for all items, promoting easy accessibility to them.
- Shine – Cleaning the work area to create a work environment that is free of injuries and incidents.
- Standardize – Implementing standard procedures for how different processes are handled at the workplace, ensuring all staff carry out operations in a uniform manner.
- Sustain – Ability to keep up with the improvements achieved in the previous 4 components, building an environment that embraces continuous development.
- Safety – Being a big catalyst for many Lean initiatives, it focuses on the overall safety of the premises. This includes managing and identifying workplace hazards, as well as ensuring compliance with safety regulations, and the integrity of the data generated from the internal processes of the workplace.
By leveraging Industry 4.0 with Blockchain, the Smart Data Surveillance project is in itself a Lean initiative, bringing the Safety aspect of the framework onto any shop floor. Identifying hazards before they become critical and setting preventive controls to keep workers safe during work operations, while ensuring the work environment meets the required safety standards for both employees and consumers reinforces the goals of the 6S Lean Principles framework. For all these reasons, we believe systems like Jakob and Darius-Nicolae's creation are the future for shop floors across the world, being the ultimate solution for factories looking to confidently prove the authenticity of their data, and the correct operation of the production areas.
Check Out the Award Ceremony!
As part of the innovation@school contest, Jakob F. and Darius-Nicolae Z. presented the Smart Data Surveillance project in front of a jury. Thanks to the hard work and dedication put into developing the system that combines our Digital Factory and Blockchain authentication software, they made it to the top 10 out of 43 contenders and took a prize home! We are incredibly proud of their achievement, and we are glad to have been part of it. Congratulations to Jakob and Darius-Nicolae! 👏
Here are some pictures of the award ceremony, in which you can see our Austrian interns holding their well-deserved prize. In addition, you can also check out their two-minute presentation on YouTube to see them shining on stage!
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About the Author
By Diogo Gouveia
“After completing my studies in the United Kingdom, I joined the Marketing team at Connecting Software to create content on software integration and a variety of other IT topics. If you have any observations or suggestions, please reach out."