Industry 4.0 is changing the way manufacturing industry operates. Increasingly more manufacturers are leveraging advanced technologies such as robotics and automation systems to improve productivity and efficiency. As a result, human–machine interfaces (HMIs) are becoming more important in their role in the digital connectedness of humans and machines. However, using the wrong HMI can lengthen development times and increase implementation costs.

Fire alarm systems are essential in providing an early warning in the event of fire. They help to save lives and protect property whilst also fulfilling the needs of insurance companies and government departments.Fire alarm systems typically consist of several inter-linked components, such as smoke detectors, heat detector, carbon monoxide, manual call points, sounders, alarm and buzzer. The fire alarm system should give immediate information in order to prevent the fire spread and protect live and property.To get maximum protection a shoe manufacturer in Indonesia opted for a new fire alarm system to monitor 13 production sites spread over 160 hectars. Although the company had an existing fire alarm system, it could not be monitored remotely.It was essential that the new system would be able to be monitored from a central control room. It needed to be able to connect to the existing smoke detector and manual call point. Information should be easily collected and passed on to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. Furthermore, the system should have several features such as alarm management, auto reporting, being connected to many client computers without additional cost, and run 24/7 without fails. The company also needed a system which could be implemented without changing the architecture of the existing fire alarm system.

As PV power plants continue to increase, centralized management and information integration become thorny problems.Enterprise PV systems mainly supply power for their own needs and may sell excess power to the power company whereas Photovoltaic (PV) power plants specialize in solar energy collection and then feeding the energy into the grid.To transmit the data of the PV systems wired or wireless networks can be used. However, wireless networks have the advantage of flexibility and are the best choice for those who want quick deployment.Taking into account the requirements of wider coverage and long-distance transmission, the existing fiber-optic networks had many shortcomings ie high cost, complicated wiring and long construction period, and it may also have been necessary to excavate walls, drill holes, embed wires, or even destroy the original building structure. After evaluation, the Juli Group decided to adopt an easy installation and easy expansion wireless network system for early completion of this project.

APAX-5045 modules provide excellent flexibility by offering both digital input and output channels. DI channels can accept 2-wiring inputs from a DC voltage source, to determine the state of limits, standard switches or proximity switches, and DO channels can generate discrete signal to external devices and change its output value to control the external devices.

APAX-5017 modules offer analog input channels for voltage and current signal measurement. Users can configure each channel with different input type and measurement range.

APAX-5620KW is a RISC-based Controller with an Intel XScale PXA270 CP. It also features two CAN bus interfaces, which support CANOpen stack (DS301 & 302), and two RS-485 ports allowing it to connect to remote I/O devices as well as being able to support up to 32 APAX I/O modules. The APAX-5620KW supports Microsoft Visual Studio, and .Net programming language, thereby allowing PC-based users to easily develop their own applications. It is also compatible with IEC-61131-3 based Multiprog KW languages, which allow users to download change functions and time deterministic support. With these great features, the APAX-5620 is an excellent cost-effective solution for a wide range of applications, such as steel production monitoring, spinning & weaving machinery, factory automation, and tunnels & freeways.

Advantech Webaccess, as the core of Advantech's IoT solution, provides users with a cross-platform, cross-browser data access experience and a user interface based on HTML5 technology. With Webaccess, users can build an information management platform and improve the effectiveness of vertical markets' development and management.Advantech WebAccess provides an HTML5 based Dashboard as the next generation of WebAccess HMI. System integrators can use Dashboard Editor to create the customized information page by using analysis charts and diagrams which are called widgets. After the dashboard screens have been created, end user can view the data by Dashboard Viewer with any browser for a seamless viewing experience across PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones.

To fulfill the ever-changing specialized demands of various industrial applications, Advantech designed an intelligent self-management agent with software control functions and standalone hardware design: iManager, a built-in solution chip, is a perfect solution that provides a standardized API, integrating several unique platform consolidating functions needed by embedded system integrators to help improve consistency, lighten the development effort and speed-up a product’s time-to-market.

The flexible and expandable architecture of the WISE-PaaS platform allows for seamless integration between a diversity of cloud solutions and equipment by applying 150+ RESTful APIs, web services, and MQTT messaging protocol. These APIs allow the programmer to make function calls in order to access system features without worrying about the underlying source code or understanding how the internal hardware works. Customers can choose from a variety of solution-ready sets, simply purchase a standard set to create a completely unique object, or choose to combine standard and theme-based packages to fully customize an IoT solution that suits their individual requirements and working conditions.

ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies. Their solutions improve the efficiency, productivity and quality of their customers’ operations while minimizing environmental impact.

Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe. With their positioning along the electrification value chain, Siemens has the knowhow that extends from power generation to power transmission, power distribution and smart grid to the efficient application of electrical energy.Featured Subsidiaries/ Business Units:- Digital Factory- Siemens Technology to Business (TTB)

Schneider Electric is a leading global manufacturer of equipment for electrical power distribution and for industrial control and automation. The company helps power generators distribute electricity; designs automation systems for the automobile and water treatment industries; builds electric networks and utility management systems for energy, water treatment, oil and gas, and marine applications; and manages electric power in residential, industrial, and commercial buildings.Year founded: 1836Revenue: $26.0 billion (2014)EPA: SUFeatured Subsidiaries/ Business Units:- Avantis- Wonderware