At a glance:
- ECOM Instruments presents overall mobile worker concept
- Entering the era of industry 4.0 with the support of an intelligent mobile device concept
- Mobile devices, accessories, digital products and services by a single source support industrial companies in the digitization process
Pepperl+Fuchs has invited customers, partners and prospects to its first Online Summit from July 20th to 24th 2020, to learn about the latest developments in the Pepperl+Fuchs world. On the second day of the conference, the Pepperl+Fuchs brand ECOM Instruments presented to an international audience its wide-ranging portfolio of solutions to support mobile users in industrial environments.
Several hundred visitors attended the presentations and panel session of the ECOM experts on this unique "Mobility Day". The discussion focused on the topic "mobility as a driver of digital transformation". According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers International, 81 percent of CEOs surveyed from various industry sectors see mobile technologies as one of the main drivers of digital transformation, closely followed by data mining, cyber security and IoT. The Pepperl+Fuchs brand ECOM Instruments, a manufacturer of devices for hazardous areas and provider of enterprise mobility solutions, recognized these topics early on as a technology leader and expanded its own product range accordingly.
The mobile worker as an opportunity for companies
In his keynote speech, Roolf Wessels, Managing Director at ECOM, already referred to the challenges of employees in the industry 4.0. The modern employee is increasingly working in an agile environment. This also includes the workplace. Access to all relevant information and data while working from home, out of the office, the factory or on the factory premises is necessary. A study shows that as early as 2025, 75 percent of people will only access the internet through mobile devices in their private environment. A trend that will certainly also have an impact on user behaviour at the workplace. "Mobile devices are no longer just communication tools – they are increasingly replacing the normal desktop PC. In addition to communication and information source, they also take over the task of data management," said Roolf Wessels.
In order to meet these diverse tasks and to support customers as an innovation driver, ECOM focuses on the further development of its portfolio consisting of mobile devices, accessories as well as digital products and services. Employees are supported and effectively secured by the offered products, while companies save time and resources thanks to an individually tailored mobile worker concept from a single source.
Safety for people and data
Jörg Hartleb, Chief Operating Officer at ECOM, introduced ECOM's product portfolio in his presentation. The core of the solution is and will remain the security of employees, especially the lone worker, and data. The shortage of skilled workers in recent years has led to an increase in the number of lone workers in all industries. "Covid-19 showed us and our customers that failures have to be compensated for quickly on a large scale, especially in socially relevant industries such as the energy sector," explained Jörg Hartleb.
ECOM customers are often international active companies in very different industries. This is another reason why every infrastructure differs in terms of processes and requirements. Nevertheless, the requirements for mobile working solutions can basically be divided into three areas: interoperability, compatibility and security. With its products, ECOM offers advantages that exactly meet these requirements, thus providing companies and employees with significant benefits in their daily work – especially in the areas of lone worker protection, push-to-talk, operations and asset management, augmented reality and maintenance.
Fast data transfer between employees with different expertise enables closer cooperation, which results, among other things, in better maintenance of the system. This not only reduces the workload of employees, but also reduces costs thanks to lower material and personnel costs. Implicit online and on-the-fly documentation also helps to significantly facilitate compliance with regulations.
From hardware supplier to innovation driver
In the closing panel discussion, which was attended by Roolf Wessels and Jörg Hartleb as well as Marco Kuhn, Technical Lead Digital Products & Services at ECOM, the participants went into more detail about the advantages of ECOM's end-to-end approach. Thanks to a modular concept, all products can be combined individually and according to the requirements of the respective company. There are also different options of digital products, from simple protection applications for lone workers such as eSENTINEL to the all-inclusive and evaluating enterprise solution. Different interfaces and a cloud concept allow the combination with different devices and other software solutions.
ECOM therefor breaks new ground for the mobile worker in oil and gas, chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, energy and environmental industries as well as in mining. Future-oriented innovations and holistic solutions in mobile computing and communication technologies help companies to increase their productivity, improve the quality of their data as well as accelerate and optimize decision-making. Mobile devices can be used to implement complex systems that make the daily work of mobile workers easier.
Finally, enterprise mobility supports new business models and processes within the industry 4.0 evolution. For this reason ECOM develops products and systems that interact seamlessly with each other to provide the best possible user experience.