Case Study Philips | ATLANTIS Engineering

Case Study

The successful faults prediction in Philips

About Philips C.L.

Philips Consumer Lifestyle is a leader in the global market for mass-produced electric shavers, occupying over 50% of the €1 billion market share. The Philips Consumer Lifestyle site in Drachten the Netherlands, is one of Philips’ biggest development and production centres in Europe. On this site, employees from all over the world collaborate enthusiastically on the development of products that improve people’s lives, such as rotary shavers, lady shaves, beard trimmers, and hair clippers.

Along this path, Philips Consumer Lifestyle’s collaboration with ATLANTIS Engineering highlighted the quality of the Sibyl platform.

The project of the innovative Sibyl platform contributed to the adoption of modern Industry 4.0 technologies and strategic transition to predictive models for Philips C.L., as well as the efficient use of the critical production equipment in its factory.

Addressing challenges

The need

Sibyl's journey at Philips starts by its implementation at the electric shaver manufacturing plant. It was prompted by Philips' aim to fundamentally address breakdowns and quality problems in the presses of the metal cold forming line before occurrence.

Choosing Sensors

After the project team's analyses, the selected prediction models relied on acoustic signals (ultrasound). The whole sampling procedure of the high-density signals has been achieved by placing seven (7) sensors on the head of each press. It is worth noting that thousands of point measurements are selected from each stroke of the press.

First indications

In a short time, Sibyl's models began to perceive with great clarity the "pulse" of the machines and give their first predictions. The successful results in identifying different failure modes and quality problems strengthened the acceptance of the production staff to adopt it in their daily work routine.

Results

Robotic Arms

The impressive results led the robotics unit to adopt Sibyl as well, incorporating the approximately 270 robotic arms primarily for an assembly operations role. The technologically advanced equipment of this department provided from the first moment all the necessary measurements required by the models, without requiring the installation of additional sensors.

User Interface

In the second phase of the project, particular emphasis was given to the User Interface (UI), where in close cooperation with the factory staff, appropriate screens were configured for both the engineers and the machine operators. Through a friendly, fully graphical environment, every user can directly monitor the operating status of their equipment and take the appropriate actions.

Joint Working Group

It is worth mentioning that a critical point of added value for the successful implementation of Sibyl was the joint working group between Philips’ engineers and Atlantis Engineering’ data scientists. The high-end project is reflecting the quality of the executives and teamwork, while Atlantis’ frequent and organized on-site meetings allowed rapid interpretation of outcomes and fast training of Sibyl’s models. Finally, the transfer of know-how by DataLab laboratory of the Informatics department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) was valuable for the project.

Testimonial

The Sibyl platform facilitates the prediction of failures in both our cold forming production lines as well as our industrial robots throughout the plant. The dashboards and notification service help to act swiftly, prevent costly fatal failures and minimize downtime.

Martin Blenkers Maintenance and Production Engineering Manager - Philips Drachten