Prevas customer magazine, Tech Trends no 2, 2017

TECHNICAL NEWS AND TRENDS FROM PREVAS

#2 2017

editorial

case

case

Smart products and smart factories.

Secure key box opens for huge market.

Höganäs Bjuf invests in automated plant.

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SAVE THE DATE SEPTEMBER 21 ST PRODUCTIVITY DAY DIGITALIZATION HOW CAN IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Digitalization blazes the trail for development of smart products. Page 4

HUMAN CARE LIFTING UP TO THE CLOUD

PREVAS / TECH TRENDS

SMART PRODUCTS AND SMART FACTORIES DIGITALIZATION affects people in many different ways, and

not only concerns products and production systems, but also many professions and societal functions.

EDITORIAL Talk these days is often of smart products and smart factories, where digitalization has become a prerequisite.

For Prevas, with our history and core expertise rooted in products and production systems – factories – it is a natural next step in development.

Development is now accelerating at the same rate as advances are made in computer performance and connection capabilities.

The technology and ever-decreasing prices are behind the change, and development continues to gain momentum. Understanding new technology is entirely decisive and it is here, with its strong technical background, that Prevas has the advantage.

We fully understand the challenges our customers are facing and provide wellgrounded recommendations on how new technology can improve existing operations.

Our job is to help customers in adopting new technology in small steps so that they can execute, both organically and financially. At the same time, it is important that they address these questions so as not to fall behind.

AI, artificial intelligence, was big even back in the 90s but died out because the computers were not up to the task. Although the conditions have changed for largescale data collection, analysis and advanced algorithms, the ideas are not new.

Prevas has always worked with industrial processes. We see patterns and opportunities for optimizing everything from preventive maintenance to a production line that was improperly configured with bottlenecks as a result. It can be a matter of balancing for better flows or traceability in the production of pharmaceuticals or food and beverage, where it is essential to know exactly what has happened with a product throughout a process. We can now create all such systems thanks to being connected and processing large volumes of data.

Prevas’ industrial experience and knowledge are also beneficial in other areas. One example is mHealth and life science, where the technology enables, for example, more healthcare to be provided in patients’ homes, with monitoring and test analyses via the Internet.

It is all about finding the right level and developing optimal technical solutions in close collaboration with our customers. This makes it easier for them to accomplish their goals and shortens time to market, an increasingly important factor in global competition. The true challenge is in transforming digitalization into tangible customer benefits.

HOW CAN DIGITALIZATION MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Our customers understand their industries and markets, and Prevas, the technology and applications. The concept for success is not just about selling expert hi-tech knowledge, because it is only when we really work together that we can deliver K-G R A MSTRÖM those truly impressive results! × CEO Prevas AB

2 / Innovation for Growth

MEET US ECS 2017 IN STOCKHOLM Prevas is a gold

sponsor at Embedded Conference Scandinavia 7-8th November held at Kistamässan. Meet leading Swedish and international companies that show the latest technology in embedded systems.

MAINTENANCE DAY IN OSLO On 24-25th October

we invite you to meet several of our customers who will talk about their experience with Prevas and Infor EAM.

THE SMART DIGITAL FACTORY The edig collaborative project is intended to increase the rate of industrial digitalization and strengthen digitalization expertise in Swedish industries. The project is financed by Vinnova, with the participation of Swerea/IVF, ABB, SKF, Gbg Tekn College, Prevas and others. For more info, see: https://youtu.be/4HgPk_Uw4Go

NEW PROCESS SOLUTION FOR CARLSBERG/RAMLÖSA Prevas is conducting a turnkey project for enhanced automated processing. This is a comprehensive undertaking that encompasses construction, process engineering, automation and installation. Our focus is on improving and expanding our customers’ processing facilities for increased productivity and quality.

MAINTENANCE - A UNIVERSAL QUESTION Act instead of react, look before you leap. With well-planned preventive maintenance, you can improve availability, increase productivity and lower maintenance costs. For more info, see Prevas’ short video about EAM: https://youtu.be/x1hRlRE7WOM

Innovation for Growth Prevas has approximately 600 employees and is the primary supplier and development partner for many leading companies in the energy, automotive, defense, life science, telecom and manufacturing industries.

www.prevas.com

TREND

SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION CONTEST INISSION INNOVATION AWARD 2017 – INTEREST AND ENTRIES AT ALLTIME HIGHS.

Three companies made it to this year’s finals with three very strong entries: Tendo AB with its robot-controlled clamping tool Tendo, H&E Solutions with its traffic safety system EVAM System and CombiQ with its machine monitoring system CombiQ ISN. All three innovations attained high scores in inventiveness, feasibility, market potential and newsworthiness.

H&E Solutions won the 2017 Inission Innovation Award and it was naturally a happy crew that received the award check for SEK 1,250,000 – SEK 250,000 in development services from Prevas and SEK 1,000,000 in manufacturing services from Inission.

- Very fun and welcome! We’ve never done anything this big before and it will definitely boost our operations,” says a smiling Alex Hedberg. “Right now we’re in a phase in which we require technical assistance from Prevas at the same time as our plans call for beginning production of units as early as 2018 for release to the market.

The winners from left to right, Mikael Erneberg, Florian Curinga and Alex Hedberg.

Photo: Inission AB.

This is the fifth year for the INISSION INNOVATION AWARD. The purpose of the competition is to help new entrepreneurs and ideas to grow and flourish but also to put the spotlight on the Swedish companies that manufacture electronic products. The competition will be held next year as well, so keep an eye on www.inission.com ×

Mackmyra.

INVITATION TO PRODUCTIVITY DAY For the fifth year running, we’ll be inviting you to a half-day event with inspirational presentations by your colleagues in the industry who will tell you about what they have been doing.

Meet people from leading industrial companies that all want to share their experiences, so that together, we can push productivity to new heights at the same time as you gain inspiration on how you can exploit the opportunities of digitalization.

Register today! www.prevas.se/produktivitetsdagen

Mingle photos from Productivity Day, September 20 at Stockholm’s World Trade Center. An event for Prevas’ customers and partners.

Our key note speaker for 2017 will be Klas Eklund.

NEXT

PRODUCTIVITY DAY SEP 21ST 2017 Innovation for Growth /

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CASE

CONNECTED MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES HEALTHCARE

FLIR Systems målsättning är att utveckla värmekameror och IR-teknologi som förbättrar och till och med räddar människors liv. Produkterna som används av företag och privatpersoner över hela världen tillverkas i Täby.

”The project has been valuable for us since it is based on an analog product that we’ve been able to enhance by adding a certain measure of digitalization”

Digitalization enables development of smart products, even in applications where the technology is relatively simple.

Göran Möllebo, global product manager at Human Care. Our new overhead lifts are the market’s most advanced.

In collaboration with Prevas, the Swedish company Human Care is developing cloud-connected lifting solutions that prevent occupational injuries and help healthcare providers plan their work.

Patients are traditionally lifted manually by two persons. A ceiling-mounted, motor-driven lift makes things easier for staff, preventing both occupational injuries and sick leaves. Only one person is needed for a lift, and additionally, patients are moved with greater safety, comfort and dignity.

Human Care is a Swedish company with main offices and product development in Stockholm. The company also has sales offices in the US, Canada, Holland and Australia. The company’s overhead lifts are used at assisted-living facilities, hospitals and in home environments for moving people with disabilities, such as from beds to wheelchairs or from wheelchairs to bathtubs.

– With the help of Prevas, we’ve created a future-safe technical platform and positioned ourselves as a player that’s leading development in the field, says

4 / Innovation for Growth

FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Human Care’s lift system consists of a ceiling-mounted aluminum rail and a motor-driven lift that can be run back and forth with a carrier device. Slings are available in various configurations depending on the size of the patient and type of movement. The company has been refining the system since the 1990s, and in recent years, Prevas has participated in this work. The fourth product generation is now being launched with

PREVAS / TECH TRENDS

Prevas having been responsible for all aspects of product development – project management, mechanics, electronics and software.

What’s new in Human Care’s new product generation? Besides design and mechanical improvements, the most important change is that the equipment is now software based – something that opens new opportunities.

– The overhead lifts employ new technology that provides greater flexibility in control and in monitoring use, says Thomas Schaumann, regional manager at Prevas.

CLOUD SERVICE CREATES ADDED VALUE

Just as in all other branches, products need to be connected to the cloud to provide additional customer benefits.

This even applies to applications in which the technology is relatively simple. By connecting the overhead lifts to a cloud service, information about product status and use can be stored and analyzed.

– This information is of substantial value to Human Care’s customers, says Mikael Wadlund, digitalization and IoT manager at Prevas, and responsible for

development of the cloud function. They can, for example, see how often a certain piece of equipment is used and at which times of day. Equipment maintenance also becomes proactive when service can be planned based on operational information and the collective ‘experience’ from all the supplier’s connected products.

Equipping a hospital ward or an assistedliving facility with overhead lifts entails a major investment in a technical system that replaces manual tasks. The capability to extract data about product use therefore represents considerable added value. The information can, for example, be used to facilitate scheduling or to conduct training if it turns out that use is decreasing.

– When we demonstrate our products at trade shows around the world, we put a strong focus on communicating the new values the software-based platform provides, says Göran Möllebo. This is a challenge in a traditional branch but we’re seeing major interest among buyers.

PREVAS, A PARTNER ON THE DIGITAL JOURNEY

Work with expanding product functio-

nality continues with enhancements to the software and user interface. Human Care’s customers will be placing new demands on the products and consequently help drive development forward, with Prevas playing an important role.

– The project has been especially valuable for us since it is based on an analog product that we’ve been able to enhance by adding a certain measure of digitalization, says Mikael Wadlund. We believe that many companies have diamonds in the rough in their product portfolios, but that they don’t know how to take the necessary steps to lift them to the next level. This is where Prevas can help out. ×

For more information contact:

Thomas Schaumann thomas.schaumann@ prevas.se +46 8 726 4055

REGIONAL MANAGER, PREVAS SWEDEN

Innovation for Growth /

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CASE

SO INGENIOUS - AND YET SO OBVIOUS! With a very short ramp-up time, the Danish tech start-up Swapsafe has utilized IoT solutions to develop a security classified box that enables self-service exchange of keys around the clock.

Any vacationer who has ever rented a cabin, apartment or car is aware of the problem with keys. Where do you pick them up? When do you have to arrive?

How long will you have to wait in line?

Each year, an estimated 50 million key exchanges are made, which until now has required an intermediary. The Danish start-up Swapsafe, with Prevas as its development partner, has now solved the problem of exchanging physical keys in a secure and innovative manner.

Prevas has developed the electronics and Swapsafe has developed the applications.

Since 2016, the entire Danish insurance

6 / Innovation for Growth

industry has implemented new rules for EU certification, which has placed new demands on IoT products. Prevas has considerable experience from this and has served in an advisory capacity in certification.

The key box is primarily intended for the rental branch, with Airbnb, cabin owners, vacation villages and car rental agencies. The synergies with other business activities entail enormous potential.

The box can be installed outdoors on building facades and opened with a code received via SMS text messaging. Electronic monitoring documents when and

by whom a key has been picked up.

Kasper Hessellund Hansen, Swapsafe CEO and founder, has to be considered an entrepreneur beyond the norm with his 18 years of experience from start-ups. ”The team and I have a background in software, which has enabled us to do a lot ourselves,” says Hansen. ”We have an ambitious vision.

The box is presently used for keys, but it’s actually only a bearer of a software application. With the departure point in the electronics platform and the software that starts the system, the box can in principle be used for many other commercial integration solutions in

PREVAS / TECH TRENDS

which the physical exchange of a product is necessary to conduct a business transaction.

As an alternative to setting up a team ourselves, we decided from the start to collaborate with a development partner skilled in product development and IoT solutions. The choice fell to Prevas.

We are partially financed with public funds for projects with an element of risk when it comes to business development.

With their experience and knowledge of the technical certifications that would be necessary for further development of the product, we felt secure with Prevas.

Working alone, we wouldn’t have managed such a short time-to-market.

Even if the process is long, it’s gone quickly – one year from production to prototype.

A major advantage with engaging a development partner is that we’ve been able to benefit from Prevas’ entire Nordic network of expertise. This is what has enabled us to achieve our goals within the given frameworks.”

Martin Bang Andersen, Project Manager at Prevas. “We have a methodology in which all approaches to problems have already been surveyed, which allows customers to quickly bypass many pitfalls,” says Andersen. “We are knowledgeable of all parts of the operating system and the challenges we may encounter.

Besides an extensive network of experts, we also have a freelance network that gives us access to a multitude of additional resources with expert skills in all fields.”

ABOUT THE BOX:

The master box consists of 12 drawers and measures 80 x 30 x 14 cm. An additional 16 boxes with 19 drawers each can be connected to the master box for a total of 316 rooms. To date, the box has been coded for English, German, Spanish, Danish and Icelandic. And it’s easy to add additional languages. The box complies with demands for color selection and regulations for the locations where it is installed.

FIVE EASY STEPS FOR KEY EXCHANGE: 1. You book the nearest box online or directly at the box.

2. You receive an SMS text message with the box number as well as a unique pin code, and place the key in the box.

3. The system then sends a new pin code to the person who is to pick up the key.

4. The person picking up the key enters the pin code on the box and the drawer opens.

5. You receive an SMS text message when the key has been picked up and the key exchange has been documented.

ABOUT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:

Prevas has developed an i.MX6-based CPU board utilizing the ESIP concept, which supports various wireless technologies such as WiFi and 3G to the Internet. Prevas has also developed the electronics for the locking mechanisms and the LVDS converter card for the display on the front of the product. It’s a custom solution based on Linux BSP, Prevas Industrial Linux (PIL). ×

For more information contact:

Søren Mathiasen soren.mathiasen@ prevas.dk +45 20 99 76 01

VICE PRESIDENT SALES PREVAS DENMARK

Innovation for Growth /

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Höganäs Bjuf invests in automated compound plant Höganäs Bjuf AB is Sweden’s only manufacturer of refractory products with a history dating back to the beginning of the 1800s. In 2015, the company made the strategic decision to develop a new generation of refractory compounds, and in September 2016, an entirely new plant was inaugurated in Bjuv.

– Until December of last year, we only produced refractory bricks, says Esko Sorsa, technical manager at Höganäs Bjuf.

We’re now gathering everything under one roof and offering 100 different products in refractory compounds, injection molding compounds, casting compounds and drywall compounds.

Refractory products are used in the manufacture of many basic materials, such as steel, aluminum, cement and glass. Other examples of application areas include waste incineration, district heating and the chemical industry, and many of the products are acid resistant. The products are in demand all over the world and Höganäs Bjuf delivers to more than 50 different countries. The company is a part of Borgestad Industries, which in turn is a part of the Norwegian Borgestad Group.

AUTOMATION PROVIDES HIGH AND CONSISTENT QUALITY

The new plant has a floor area of approximately 1000 square meters and is engineered to produce 30,000 tons of compounds each year. A high degree of automation and the absolute latest technology in mixing ensure high and consistent quality. Own production of refractory compounds also means that recipes can be tailored to meet each customer’s needs. There are currently more than 100 basic recipes stored in the production system.

The incoming raw materials can consist of clay, andalusite and silicon carbide.

– The production line is fully integrated with the business system, says Claes Karmefors, procurement manager at Höganäs Bjuf. We read bar codes on all the materials that go into production and this enables us to know when it’s time to order more. If we have problems with a product, we also know who delivered the raw material and can follow things up better than before.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION SYSTEM FROM PREVAS

Prevas received the assignment in June of 2015 to perform a situational analysis and a pre-study that would lead to a project plan for building the new plant. Work was led by Björn Magnusson at Prevas’ office in Malmö. The pre-study was well received and Prevas was entrusted with project management for construction and commissioning.

– A substantial challenge was in synchronizing machine deliveries and installations with other work at the construction site. We needed, for example, to cast a slab for a machine that weighs 80 tons and then make sure that it was delivered and installed before we could construct the walls and roof says Björn.

Besides the project management duties Björn was responsible for, Prevas has also delivered a new production system for the compound plant. This delivery has engaged a system developer and a delivery project manager at Prevas’ Malmö office, both with several years of experience from industrial IT. – I’m proud that we’ve done such a good job of creating the IT structure. When it comes to the degree of automation, it’s at the absolute leading edge. We’ve also met all our deadlines.

The date for inauguration was set a year and a half in advance and Höganäs Bjuf put a day counter on their website, putting a bit of healthy pressure on us to finish on time,” says Björn with a chuckle.

– You can see that Prevas is accustomed to working with automation, says Esko Sorsa. Their project manager is constantly pushing us forward and questioning all aspects of production.

How can we move forward and automate even more, how far can we take it? We’re very pleased with their work. ×

For more information contact:

Björn Magnusson bjorn.magnusson@ prevas.se +46 40 691 9528

SALES AND MANAGEMENT

8 INNOVATION FOR GROWTH

www.prevas.se