Google Cloud: Use data flow in the production hall with low-code tools

Google has announced two new services for its cloud wallet. The Manufacturing Data Engine and Manufacturing Link are designed for industrial use in the production hall. They have to collect data from production and make it analysable.

The full digitization of industrial production is mainly due to a lack of evaluation of machine data – at least that’s what Google thinks in the blog post announcing the two new tools.

Two factors are responsible for the low data usage: lack of access to contextual operational data and a lack of skills in using data science and AI tools among employees. Google now wants to fill these gaps with its manufacturing and connectivity data engine. The new services take a low to no code approach and should also be usable by untrained staff.

Manufacturing Data Engine – Data Engine Room

The Manufacturing Data Engine is a cloud tool for processing, contextualizing, and storing production data. The platform is said to be able to collect a “wide range of data types” from “any type of device” via an edge-to-cloud connection.

The platform must normalize the collected data, enrich it with context information, and store it in a “factory-optimized” data lake. Dashboards and analysis tools are also available, including an AI-based predictive maintenance tool to forecast the maintenance of used machines.

Manufacturing Connect – Low code connection between edge and cloud

Manufacturing Connect is a state-of-the-art platform for use in a factory context and was developed by Google in collaboration with industrial IoT company Litmus Automation. It should be possible to connect to “almost all production systems” via a library that can handle more than 250 machine protocols. The edge platform acts as a link to the data engine and translates device data for human users. Since it also supports containerized workloads, integrated analysis features can also be evaluated at the edge and thus on premises.

It is not yet known when the two IoT production tools will be available. However, Google announced that it wants to present it to the public for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2022 fair from May 30 to June 2.