Elgi Equipments reveals Industry 4.0 initiative for manufacturing plants

Elgi Equipment, which manufactures and supplies compressors to automotive OEMs and suppliers for their manufacturing facilities, has launched ‘Air Alert’, an Industry 4.0 initiative. Air Alert is a SIM card- based communication system that will track multiple parameters within a compressor such as operating temperature, pressure, the volume of air delivered and energy efficiency.  

According to the company, it will monitor the data and provide insights to customers on service, opportunities for energy efficiency, and air consumption best practices. This data will be used for quality improvements and product development. Air Alert will be a free-of-cost standard offering to all Elgi screw air compressor customers.

After conducting pilot projects with a few customers, the company aims to retrofit this solution to its compressor over the next year. By end-2017, it is targeting to have 500 Air Alert devices for its screw compressor range.

With Air Alert, Elgi is looking to elevate its customer service, eliminating service delays and compressor failures, which can result in expensive downtime for  customers. Air Alert will also provide meaningful field data for its engineers to address quality concerns in real time and integrate relevant changes into the company’s product development process.

Speaking about the product, Anvar Jay Varadaraj, head of marketing and corporate communications, Elgi Equipments said, “The showcase of our Air Alert system is a significant step in our efforts to be more customer-centric and data-driven as we seek to provide the most efficient compressed air solutions.  Gathering data is easy but analysing it and providing meaningful insights to customers will set us apart. As a quality and innovation-centric organization, Air Alert will play a key role in our product development processes.”

“The system will provide objective data on our products’ performance in the field, making it a valuable tool for our quality and product development processes.  We aim to have the 500 Air Alert-equipped machines by the end of the calendar year 2017”, he added.

Also read: How Elgi keeps automotive factories in India humming

Elgi eyes global leadership in air compressors