Plymovent Control Pro

Plymovent Control Pro

Industrial Equipment Maintenance Management through IoT Solutions

Project Summary

The Control Pro project delivered an intelligent, centralized Internet of Things (IoT) platform called ControlPro Connect for Plymovent’s industrial air extraction and filtration systems. The goal was to transform expensive, traditionally static air purification equipment into connected assets, providing real-time visibility, remote control, and data-driven insights. This comprehensive, multi-year project (spanning approximately 2.5 to 3 years) focused on increasing operational efficiency, creating a competitive advantage in sales, enhancing post-sales service, and establishing a foundation for a new subscription-based revenue model. The platform moved beyond simple monitoring by integrating location-based visualization, sophisticated scheduling, and secure remote maintenance capabilities.

Challenge visualization

About Plymovent

Plymovent is a major global manufacturer of air purification devices, operating as one of the largest companies the developers have worked with, maintaining offices and branches across several European countries. Their core business is producing industrial-grade air extraction and filtration equipment designed primarily for factory settings, such as those found in automotive manufacturing (including working with prestigious brands). Plymovent’s product line is extensive, featuring over 30 types of devices, ranging from massive, sophisticated units to smaller, automated systems. Facing market pressures, Plymovent sought an innovative, digitally-focused solution to enhance their service offerings and maintain a competitive edge.

Challenges

Plymovent and its customers faced several complex challenges relating to operational management, maintenance, and system valuation:

  • Operational Inefficiency and Energy Waste: Extraction systems often ran continuously, sometimes during non-working periods (like holidays), unnecessarily wasting energy and resources. Factory managers lacked remote control, forcing personnel to manually switch off dozens of devices one-by-one, a task often forgotten. Systems were also prone to overexertion, leading to damage.
  • Reactive and Costly Maintenance: Businesses often lacked the in-house expertise to troubleshoot extraction device failures, leading to reliance on expensive, time-consuming external assistance. Without accurate data and predictive maintenance plans, systems failed unexpectedly, resulting in expensive downtime and lost productivity.
  • Poor System Visibility and User Experience: Customers had difficulty connecting device performance to concrete results; they knew they needed the systems, but lacked proof of how effectively the expensive units (some costing 100,000 Euros) were cleaning the air. Furthermore, users could not easily locate or identify specific devices within a large factory, as they were only labeled by generic IDs.
  • Supply Chain and Service Gaps: Since Plymovent relied heavily on partners and wholesalers for sales, the company lost direct visibility into the end-user environment. This lack of connection resulted in delayed identification of maintenance needs (e.g., dirty sensors or overdue filter changes), diminishing post-sales service quality.

Air Quality Risk: Failing to change filters on time or using substandard filters negatively impacted indoor air quality, posing risks to employee health and product quality.

Challenge visualization

Solution

The solution was the development and deployment of ControlPro Connect, a sophisticated, internet-enabled monitoring and control platform built upon the installation of the ControlPro operating system onto the physical filter systems. The platform addressed core business challenges by providing advanced functionality and detailed data transparency:

  • Advanced IoT and Data Visualization: ControlPro Connect acts as a “bodyguard” for filter systems by tracking usage and identifying potential disruptions in real time. It offers real-time monitoring of eleven pollutants and climate factors. Data is visualized using attractive interfaces, including five filterable graphs (covering energy consumption, running hours, filter cleaning, pressure, and fan frequency), which provide historical data to enable trend recognition and predictive modeling ("guess less, know more").
  • Location-Based Management (Complexity Feature): To solve the issue of device identification and location, users can upload their factory floorplan. They can then drag-and-drop the extraction systems onto the map, allowing devices to be visualized based on their location, displaying status updates, alerts, and notifications. This system allowed for a sophisticated visual display, including using animations where the motor's GIF speed correlated with the actual fan frequency.
  • Automated and Remote Control: The platform provides complete remote control capabilities. Users can modify system operation using highly flexible scheduling tools, including weekly, overtime, and holiday timers, ensuring systems operate only when necessary to reduce resource loss. Systems can also be grouped and assigned to specific operational zones.
  • Predictive Maintenance Framework: The platform automatically generates alerts and reminders for scheduled maintenance and arising issues, providing full information on the real-time functionality of all factory extraction systems. This data empowers users and service providers to create reliable maintenance plans and prevent unplanned downtime.

Secure Remote Support (Advanced Feature): A critical and complex feature was implemented to allow authorized Plymovent service staff to remotely access user panels for monitoring and making configuration adjustments (e.g., changing fan speed). This required a strict security protocol: the customer had to actively request and approve the access using a unique code, and a visible timer was displayed on the user's screen throughout the session, allowing the user to cancel the access at

Outcome and Result:

The Control Pro platform yielded significant strategic and operational improvements, fundamentally changing how Plymovent’s extraction systems are managed and valued:

  • Huge Energy Savings: By letting customers perfectly match filter activity to their factory's schedule, the system helped factories achieve up to a 40% saving in energy costs.
  • Enhanced Post-Sales Service and Revenue: By automatically monitoring sensor data (e.g., dirty sensors, required filter changes), the system generated automated alarms for the customer, the partner, and the main Plymovent office. This visibility allowed Plymovent to initiate contact proactively, resulting in a much more efficient and optimized after-sales service. The platform also provided the necessary infrastructure to support a new subscription-based recurring revenue model.
  • Cost and Time Savings: Real-time visibility allowed Plymovent to quickly find and fix potential issues before they escalated, saving both time and money. The automated scheduling drastically reduced the energy and resource consumption associated with unnecessary operation.
  • Competitive Sales Advantage: The visually engaging interface helped the sales team demonstrate the substantial value of the equipment by showing precisely how much contamination was being removed and calculating energy savings. This digital differentiation helped set Plymovent apart from competitors who only provided the physical equipment without an integrated interface.
  • Process Automation and Reliability: ControlPro Connect created a valuable competitive differentiator for Plymovent by automating the tracking, controlling, and monitoring of their equipment, resulting in improved process efficiency and system reliability.