December 2, 2021
Inventory Tracking Using Kepware’s IoT Gateway
Industrial connectivity continues to expand, creating new ways for manufacturers to enhance safety, productivity, and cost control.
EOSYS completed an inventory tracking web application for a major automotive manufacturer using IoT technology to eliminate manual labor, reduce safety exposure, and provide accurate, real-time work-in-process (WIP) inventory data.
The Problem
WIP inventory data is needed for operations planning and performance management.
The manufacturer relied on a manual data collection process that required operators to perform physical counts. In some cases, operators entered machine areas that required safety LOTO procedures.
Data collection consumed four hours per day at an annual labor cost of approximately $20,000. Manual counting meant real-time data was unavailable. Collected data was stored in Excel spreadsheets with limited accessibility.
Human error occasionally created data quality concerns.
The Solution
EOSYS created an automated inventory tracking web application that enables team members to view real-time inventory reports from any browser on any device.
The system uses Kepware’s IoT Gateway advanced plug-in for KEPServerEX®, which includes a built-in REST server that delivers Rockwell Automation PLC tag values over HTTP.
The website compiles this data into custom reports that can be grouped, filtered, pivoted, and exported to Excel.
This eliminated safety exposure, data inconsistencies, and labor hours associated with manual counts.
The project required expertise in material tracking, Rockwell Automation PLCs, control panel design and fabrication, OPC, Kepware IoT Gateway, MES data collection and analytics, and HTML5 web application development.
EOSYS provides tiered automotive manufacturers with services including panel fabrication, industrial controls integration, MES, cybersecurity, and process control networking.
