On August 25, 2017, Combis Ltd., together with its partners – FER and ASR Group, received non-refundable EU funds for the project ‘Improving the efficiency of the manufacturing industry through research and development of innovative ICT services for increasing energy efficiency – ComEnergy.
The project was approved by European Regional Development Fund and it is focused on research, development and innovations in the sector of information and communication technology within manufacturing industry.
Basic project information
Project title: ‘Improving the efficiency of the manufacturing industry through research and development of innovative ICT services for increasing energy efficiency – ComEnergy’.
Short description of the project: This project aims to develop significantly improved existing services and new service modules to address the issue of collecting, analyzing and planning energy consumption in production and other parameters that can contribute to the optimization of energy consumption in the manufacturing industry.
Project goals:
Total project value: HRK 14.720.143,86
Amount of EU support: HRK 7.333.330,51
Project implementation period: August 25th, 2017 – August 24th, 2020
The introduction of automation in manufacturing has increased the amount of data that is generated in manufacturing organizations. The manufacturing industry is a major consumer of energy. Electricity energy is consumed the most, as well as significant amounts of gas, water and other energy sources, depending on the manufacturing organization needs.
Today, various influences such as climate changes and the reduction of non-renewable energy sources, raising awareness about the need for environmental protection, and the demands of states and relevant institutions to reduce energy consumption, impose the need to find solutions for more efficient use of energy in production.
Production organizations around the world have recognized this challenge as an opportunity to improve their business. Especially today, rapid technological development and digital transformation enable more efficient planning, monitoring and control of the production process. These transformations, which resulted from spotting earlier deviations and/or failures, ultimately result in a reduction of production costs and increase in market competitiveness.
However, the challenge remains – how to extract only the necessary data from the pile needed by management? How to extract the right data at the right time to show the actual state of the entire production process? Combis has a simple answer to this question!
Business Intelligence system for management of energy in production provides:
continuous insight into the actual situation and precise information to help in the decision making process of key business decisions, rather than just relying on assumptions;
cost reduction enables control of energy consumption in real time and recognition of areas for savings;
optimization of energy consumption by adopting an energy consumption strategy based on dynamic price changes (move high consumption of energy to low cost tariff periods) and production plan;
reduce risk and errors by monitoring and analysing reports in real time, which enable timely response through appropriate actions in the production process, from accurately predicted energy consumption costs to the recognition of anomalies during the industrial process;
graphical displays of data and processes with the aim to quickly identify any deviations.
By monitoring energy consumption through all parts of the production process in real time, production costs and environmental impact can be significantly reduced, while production capacity of existing production resources increased. Moreover, it enables you to come closer to the ISO 50001 standard implementation. Solution can be integrated with other business systems such as ERP / SAP system, billing system, management system in the production (MES, SCADA, HMI, PLC …) and others. Combis’ expert solution is customizable to the business needs of each customer.
ComEnergy collects consumption data of one, several or all energy sources (water, electricity, gas, steam, air) from measurement devices, and can also collect data on raw materials, product types, temperatures, pressures, flows, rates etc. It is characterized by large data throughput and scalability. ComEnergy supports a number of protocols for connecting to measuring devices (mBus, OPC, Modbus, TCP / IP, Profinet, Profibus, Ethenet / IP, SNMP…). It also enables collecting datafrom various sources (databases, Excel…) which allows various preparations of measuring signals with aim to obtain comparable data, considering time and value, throughout the manufacturing process.
Display of analyzed data and results is enabled through a series of predefined reports and/or reports tailored to customer requirements. During report creation, Combis’ experts take into account user access rights and user roles. Predefined reports show a summary of energy consumption by groups, ie. measurement locations, and are created automatically on a daily, weekly and/or monthly basis, in standard formats (Excel, PDF, CSV…). In the event of exceptional and unforeseen situations or problems in production, the system sends notification in real time through defined communication channels (e-mail, phone, SMS…). The user defines cases for sending notifications.
Marija Stojčević (Supervisory Board Member – Combis Ltd.)
Roman Malarić (Supervisory Board Member – FER)
Robert Rac (Supervisory Board Member – ASR Group Ltd.)
Nikola Skendrović (Project Manager – Combis Ltd.)
Tamara Rožić (Digital media expert – Combis Ltd.)
