Production monitoring through IoT Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards 2024

The project started in 2022 at a large Paper and Pulp company in Brazil, with the objective of monitoring the production of a Tissue paper plant. Although the lines already featured interconnected monitoring, there was no evidence of all line downtimes and the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) level.

To address this issue, Zurich partnered with PackIoT, a startup responsible for creating a software that produces real-time result analysis in the industry, and developed a joint solution to support companies in reducing downtime risks and improving productivity and efficiency in their production lines.

The technology developed by the startup and set up at the Suzano plant is a cloud-based plug-and-play production software, which works interconnected with the equipment in the plant – essentially, an Internet-of-Things solution. Through data collection, the automated real-time production control through a structured dashboard enables greater time savings, reducing production downtime risks, and facilitating the operators’ work.

Based on the collected data, Zurich and PackIoT worked on a series of deeper analyses to manage the operation with direct impact on the productivity and increased efficiency. Analyses were performed by line, shift, product, among other segmentations. That allowed the company to gain 100% visibility of downtimes (and their causes), and consequently, predictability in the production time, which assisted in the decision-making, in setting preventive maintenance, and meeting deadlines.

Given the success of the project, the developed solution became a service in Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS), the insurance company’s set of solutions aimed at qualified risk management focused on prevention, which companies can buy with policies or separately. Companies in different industries can perform a detailed analysis of their operations to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and risks.