• From 2025, the solution will be deployed and tested at the site of Prolann, which specialises in machining aeronautical parts.
• If a fault occurs in a machine tool, it provides a real-time alert to on-site operators so that they can intervene in the right place at the right time.
The rise of artificial intelligence, 5G and the Internet of Things is driving the convergence of (Information Technology and Operational Technology) within the industrial and logistics sector. This underlying trend brings industrial and computerised information systems closer to a common goal, as explained by Stefan Wendt, Head of the Augmented Enterprise — Operational eXperience project at Orange: “It’s about making production smarter. That’s where we are right now: meeting the challenges of digitalised production companies by developing emerging solutions based on identified needs.”
Our customers rarely need to acquire a particular technological building block. They buy value.
Augmented enterprise or innovating for industrial production chains
With the financial support of BPI France as part of the France 2030 initiative, Orange has used its expertise to carve out a position in the augmented enterprise sector. As the first use case, Orange OpenTech is showcasing instant fault detection: “One of the first needs we identified and wanted to address is business continuity on production lines. To do this, we have to improve fault detection. If a machine in a plant stops working, it can significantly impact and slow down the entire production chain. The number of parts that need to be produced in a given period of time is not met, and the parts cannot be stored or delivered on time to the customer.”
First on-site deployment in early 2025
Developed for the French company Prolann, which specialises in machining aeronautical parts, this solution instantly flags if a piece of equipment has stopped working. It combines several technologies for an end-to-end solution:
- A connected object in the form of a camera installed on a machine tool at the plant.
- This camera is connected to a private 5G Core network provided by Orange and hosted on network equipment (“ ”) within the plant that has been supplied by Ekinops.
- Installation involves adding artificial intelligence provided by the French startup DeepHawk.
Production machine at Prolann: operational and producing a part.
Photo showing the camera installed in the production machine at Prolann. The camera features a suitable housing (waterproof, robust) and a wiper for cleaning the lens from oil splashes.
Guillaume Hapulat, Head of Operational eXperience at Orange, explained: “Our customers rarely need to acquire a particular technological building block. They buy value, which in this case means a solution that will help them operationally. We are therefore positioning ourselves not only in 5G or on the cloud, but with an end-to-end solution that will facilitate their transformation. Our different building blocks and partners must work together and be made available to customers in the most robust and simple way possible.”
In concrete terms, if a machine subject to this ongoing monitoring stops working, the operator is alerted immediately, saving valuable time. The on-board AI will use its training to identify the exact reason for the stoppage. This expertise could eventually be rolled out to several machine tools at multiple industrial sites, which would limit the time and productivity losses brought about by a fault that has not been detected in time.
Having been acknowledged in the Gartner Magic Quadrant as a major player in the 4G and 5G MPN (Mobile Private Network) segment, Orange’s augmented enterprise innovations are being recognised.
Guillaume Hapulat
Yvan Picaud
Stefan Wendt
