Smarter, Stronger, Together: Top Three Takeaways from Colfax Webinar

One of the world's leading manufacturers of smart connected products, Colfax, is using an integrated industrial IoT solution to deliver more value to customers. In a recent webinar, representatives from Colfax, along with PTC and Microsoft, discussed how a cloud-based IIoT solution helped them achieve digital transformation - these are the top three takeaways.

1. Innovative partners allow Colfax to improve what they do best

ESAB, a smaller division of Colfax, produces world-renowned welding and cutting equipment and consumables for customers in industries like construction, oil and gas, automotive, and others. ESAB wanted to improve traceability, documentation, and asset management for customers across various geographies by gaining better visibility into the usage and performance of their smart, connected welding and cutting equipment. Trying to do this on their own involved building the entire IoT stack and technology infrastructure, something they were ill-equipped to do as a discrete manufacturing business.

Working with innovative partners that specialize in the applications and infrastructure needed to deliver global IoT solutionsenabled ESAB to improve its ability to serve customers. With a joint solution of ThingWorx and Microsoft Azure IoT, ESAB's business teams were able to focus squarely on adding value to their product offerings, instead of on endless technology debates that were hampering productivity.

2. The value of products as a service

The skills gap in manufacturing makes it difficult for businesses to provide the routine maintenance and service that industrial equipment regularly needs. Smart, connected products have reshaped the value that discrete manufacturers like Colfax can deliver to customers through IIoT data that helps them to predict and avoid equipment downtime.

The product as a service business model ensures that assets like cutting and welding equipment are programmed and ready for frequent use, so customers can be more productive. Industrial IoT data provides the base line of information that equipment-owners need to make better fact-based decisions,improving customer experienceas a result.

3. Importance of data security

One of the top concerns around smart, connected products is data security. A main reason forColfax choosing the integrated solution of ThingWorx and Azurewas that their customers want products with guaranteed security measures to safeguard their data.

Azure IoT's per-device security credentials and access control provide the highest level of enhanced security, privacy, compliance, and threat mitigation practices available. This allows Colfax to communicate bidirectionally with any device and manage machines in the real world on a global scale.

Watch the on-demand webinar

To learn more about how the powerful partnership of PTC and Microsoft is helping Colfax deliver more value to customers, watch theon-demand webinar here.

Tags:

• Industrial Internet of Things

About the Author

Greg Kaminsky

Greg is an avid blogger interested in industrial innovation, technology, and the intersection between the two. As a Content Marketing Specialist for PTC, Greg is excited about how things like virtual and augmented reality, the internet of things, and predictive analytics are shaping the future of manufacturing.