The industry currently has a high level of operational complexity that hinders efficiency gains. Manufacturing technology, for the most part, has not advanced at the same pace as consumer and business systems. And labor cost reduction is no longer a differentiating factor. Therefore, it is necessary and fundamental to improve the performance and business models of existing companies and to be more agile in keeping up with emerging technologies.
New market demands, regulations, competition, and other factors create a challenging and uncertain environment. Therefore, companies need flexibility and ease of use to remain competitive.
Traditional systems responsible for management and monitoring lack an architecture that allows for rapid and dynamic changes, let alone the ability to anticipate and notify failure events in a predictive and proactive manner.
Another important aspect is connectivity with a variety of equipment. To achieve operational efficiency, it is necessary to converge all readings from any existing subsystem into a single application, providing a global view of the operation.
This last point consequently brings connectivity with various types of protocols. An IIoT solution cannot be limited to a select number of protocols, much less to groups of protocols that are most commonly used today. It is necessary to connect legacy equipment and systems, ensuring interoperability and convergence to a single platform with the past, present, and future.
When Above-Net began developing Bridgemeter in 2014, it recognized this market desire and requirement and built a solid, modular, layered architecture that allows for complete interoperability of equipment.
In addition to connectivity options and transmission methods (Cellular, LoRa, NB-IoT, WiFi…), the platform now offers more than 140 types of protocols that allow the Plug and Play concept to be applied to any equipment or sensor, even legacy systems. With such flexibility, it is possible to undergo a gradual digital transformation process with costs adjusted to the client's investment reality.
Once the information is collected, all data is stored in a structured way, allowing for horizontal integration with various other market tools for specific data analysis.
Another difficulty identified by Above-Net in 2014 was the ability to anticipate failures and communicate them to users of events in such extensive equipment parks. The current control center model is impractical and inefficient because it disperses attention to events that function correctly 90% of the time. The challenge is to avoid losing or failing to transmit critical information as quickly as possible to the team responsible for any change in any reading, regardless of the size of the monitored infrastructure.
Bridgemeter uses modern real-time notification techniques that ensure proactive information delivery. In other words, even if the operator is on a coffee break or their control center panel can't accommodate any more equipment, the system automatically identifies the problem and notifies everyone involved with an action plan.
In fact, Bridgemeter customers experience substantial time savings in service compared to the same process before using the solution. In these cases, maintenance teams can act even before the call center receives a call or the control center detects the issue. This results in operational savings, time savings, and a direct increase in customer satisfaction.
This notification process is triggered by an automated task manager that tracks the progress step-by-step until the situation is resolved. The team has access to an online document repository integrated into the system for consulting manuals, blueprints, certifications, images, or any other document that is important for verifying and completing the task. This provides further cost savings through practicality, centralized information, and increased efficiency in the execution of maintenance services.
Another important point in the product's design was the understanding that Bridgemeter is not a competitor to SCADA systems, but rather a component that adds flexibility and intelligence to remote monitoring. Bridgemeter can operate independently or in conjunction with already installed SCADA systems. In the latter option, it also solves several connection problems found in the market, including the need for multiple PLC connections or multiple SCADA systems. Once again, flexibility and intelligence combined for increased efficiency.
As an example, using Bridgemeter, Above-Net integrates various equipment and stations of a large sanitation company, enabling remote control and telemetry, as well as reliable communication with the client's SCADA system. Above-Net was the only company able to overcome barriers of fragility and lack of standardization in local communication, delivering a reliable, highly available, and cost-effective solution.
Above-Net also understood from the outset that an IIoT platform is only one component of a digital transformation process and, therefore, it needs to interoperate with other systems, ensuring information continuity for the completion of a 100% digital process. Therefore, Bridgemeter offers a range of communication options with ERP and management systems, whether through APIs or other forms of integration.
Another important factor has always been usability. Traditional monitoring systems have numerous menus, complicated operation, and a learning curve that requires constant training and a specialized programming team. In the medium and long term, this becomes unsustainable because it is an activity outside the company's core business, which does not have specialized programming personnel or ventures to create a solution on its own. As a result, the change process is extremely bureaucratic and expensive.
Bridgemeter's intuitive interface offers instant configuration of monitoring diagrams, alarms, and smart rules according to the user's scope, allowing for immediate updates to triggers and decision support actions. Greater flexibility and agility for increased efficiency.
Finally, Bridgemeter also contributes by minimizing investments, as it is offered in flexible packages such as SaaS (solution as a service) without development costs or license acquisition, and can include all connectivity equipment, its updates and maintenance.
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