HB-Betoniteollisuus

Maintenance service for industrial environments gave piece of mind

The production plant of HB-Betoniteollisuus in Jyväskylä delivers every day dozens of truck loads of ready mixed concrete to work sites in Central Finland. In order that production runs well, information systems must also perform reliably. In fact, the entire process from production to invoicing is controlled by information systems: the mixing ratio of raw materials, quantities produced, production times, etc.

A great number of various devices are connected to the process: a server, workstations, weighing equipment, moisture sensors, concrete mixer operation control, flow meters and different printers. If one of these devices fails, it can lead to a production break and, in the worst case, to remarkable financial losses. The aim was to minimise this risk.

We wrestled with problems related to our information system of quite long standing, since people who knew it had changed. Protacon started the work by reviewing our entire IT environment. The best thing now is the piece of mind, as we all know that there is someone to turn to, where necessary.

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Previously, the IT environments were connected to the same network, which involved data security risks

Previously, the IT environments of HB-Betoniteollisuus for the office and production were connected to the same network, managed from a normal workstation. Such an arrangement involves a great many risks related to data security and reliability.

“Actually, the whole idea originated from problems we faced with a printer. Our previous IT supplier delivered us a new printer, but it could not be made to work. At this point, we thought it would be a good idea to go through our entire IT environment and bring it up to date”, says Jani Ojala, who is responsible for the concrete mixing plant of HB-Betoniteollisuus in Jyväskylä.

At this point, we thought it would be a good idea to go through our entire IT environment.

"The commissioning was surprisingly fast and unobserved"

“Operational reliability is the most critical area for us”, Ojala states. “Its foundation must be such that production cannot be interrupted. We wrestled with problems related to our information system of quite long standing, since people who knew it had changed, and we did not have sufficient competence in potential fault situations. No support was available anywhere.”

A system was desired that would guarantee arrival of a competent person on site very promptly to deal with a possible fault situation.

“Protacon started the work by reviewing our entire IT environment. Then they created a plan for the overall development, which we then started to carry out together. The commissioning was surprisingly fast and unobserved. We had thought that much more work would be needed on site, but the major part had been completed in advance at Protacon. As the result, we received a renewed IT environment, mainly also with new equipment to guarantee reliability. At the same time, the office and production networks were separated.”

“The best thing now is the piece of mind, as we all know that there is someone to turn to, where necessary. Work gets done and the systems operate flawlessly and we need give it no further thought. We can concentrate on manufacturing concrete, which is just as it should be”, Ojala says with delight.