Says Hans-Josef Hoß from the company’s board: “We’ve created an end-to-end solution that is tailored specifically to our needs. It will enable us to accelerate the automation of our production operations and make our processes much more efficient. We are now taking the digital transformation to the core areas of our business: our production shops, our machinery and equipment, and our materials. Our customers will feel the benefit – and so will we.”
Thanks to toii, all machines can communicate with each other and, due to predictive maintenance, the platform is also supposed to forecast the necessity of machine services in the future.
Toii makes it possible to connect bandsaws and bending machines, mobile objects like cranes and forklifts, and even complex production facilities such as slitting and cut to length lines, and sophisticated processing solutions through milling machines and laser systems digitally in line with the Industrial Internet of Things. The digital platform allows the machines to share data and communicate with one another and with IT systems.
With around 480 locations in over 40 countries, the Materials Services business area specialises in materials distribution, logistics and services, the provision of technical services, as well as services for industrial plants and steel mills.
In addition to rolled steel, stainless steel, tubes and pipes, non-ferrous metals, specialty materials and plastics, Materials Services also offers services from processing and logistics to warehouse and inventory management through to supply chain and project management.
The name chosen by the business area for its solution is a double play on words - it spells IIoT backwards, the abbreviation for ‘Industrial Internet of Things’ - and it is pronounced like the word ‘toy’, an indication of how the new platform makes linking heterogeneous machines to existing IT structures “child’s play”. Toii was developed completely in-house by company software engineering experts and tailored to the specific requirements of Materials Services.
