At Loop Technologies, we were beginning to ask ourselves questions about how we might improve our workplace.
We looked at our lab area particularly, and asked ourselves what can we measure and what do we need to have in place to collect data? In a facility like ours, where we deal with electronics every day, temperature monitoring of critical equipment was the obvious place to start.
Our Technical Solutions Manager began to investigate possible solutions using IoT. He brought temperature and humidity sensors together with a wireless embedded computer module to collect data and send it to the cloud. The team then devised the ways and means to store and display the data, including on a mobile app to enable accurate and timely decisions to be made, as well as provide alerts and alarms.
With 24/7 monitoring of the lab environment in place, and the peace of that came with it, we next turned our attention to other critical business systems, starting with monitoring the availability of our online portal for spares ordering.
We developed a system to continually monitor this and if it went offline to provide alerts through the IoT platform.
From there we added a monitor for our critical EDI interface that a number of our key customers rely on for interfacing with us. This was a useful addition and was easily added to the platform.
The overall IoT solution that evolved turned out to be incredibly useful for Loop and we soon found ourselves asking where else could we apply this thinking and technology.
The COGNETEX platform is the chassis. We then add the extras to the chassis to get the system to measure whatever it is that needs to be measured. Loop’s design engineers, design and manufacture the interface hardware to connect the sensors to the platform. From there our software developers build the apps and reports, extending the abilities of the Internet of Things.
All-in-all the COGNETEX platform is a way for companies to benefit from the Internet of Things and the decision-making power it enables. Limited only by our imagination, the team at Loop and COGNETEX are excited by the possibilities and projects we are working on.