PGS Software April 2020

PGS SOFTWARE

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

PGS Software: enabling Industry 4.0 with machine learning

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PGS Software: enabling industry 4.0 with machine learning

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P G S S O F T WA R E

PGS Software’s Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist and Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, discuss technology’s role in the manufacturing industry

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GS Software is a Poland-based softwarehouse with a team of 700 experts working in R&D centers in three major

Polish cities and in additional offices in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

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Meet the company’s two key players: Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, who leads the data science team and works on projects related to computer vision, IoT and edge computing, and Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, who has a particular interest in designing cloud solutions.

Currently, one of PGS Software’s areas of expertise is providing tailor-made IT solutions for the manufacturing industry to aid the transition to the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).

Mazur says: “We’re using advanced automation, Internet of Things (IoT), fast networking and AI in order to optimise production processes. What’s behind Industry 4.0 from a technical standpoint is a cyber-physical system where you collect complete data on the process and then optimise it in the digital realm. These improvements can

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P G S S O F T WA R E

“ Stay tuned there are a lot of interesting things coming out this year” — Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, PGS Software

then be applied back in the physical world. The goal might be energy efficiency to have more green production or improving the production timing, or whatever is a priority.” Mazur is clear that this is not purely a technological transition, but PGS Software’s work frees up companies to focus on that other side. “Industry 4.0 is also about the people, about augmented operators and other areas where you need to change not only the technicals behind your factory but the culture

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and the way of working”, he adds.

One of the main challenges of transitioning to the latest industrial revolution is simply getting visibility of what is occurring in the factory setting. Enter the digital twin. “A digital twin is just a visual replica of a physical object or process or product, and it’s usually updated in real time in order to match reality,” says Mazur. “This is, in my opinion, the best way to connect the physical world with the digital realm. Thanks to the fact that you can have digital twins at different levels, from a single sensor to a machine, you can make the whole production line one big digital twin composed of the

Introducing: Mesh Twin Learning @ Digital Twins 2019 in Frankfurt CLICK TO WATCH

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2:55

07 smaller levels. There’s a lot of freedom

is a combination of digital twins, IoT,

to emulate and use machine learning

machine learning and the cloud, which

algorithms to improve production.”

addresses the connectivity and flex-

PGS Software goes above and

ible automation problems that you

beyond the traditional conception of

usually have in such setups. What it

the digital twin, however, with its vision

allows in reality is doing micro-step

of Mesh Twin Learning (MTL). “Mesh

optimisation. This stems from the

Twin Learning is a concept that I and

Taguchi methods from the late fifties —

Lukasz designed together,” Mazur

well known in the manufacturing world

says. “We had a customer in Germany

— where you can, by changing a pro-

who was asking us to help to improve

cess with a very slight step, observe

production efficiency. We started to

the results and see if changing a

think about how to combine what we

single parameter, like a temperature

were working on into one concept and

on a baking furnace, is moving you

implementation. Mesh Twin Learning

in the right direction or not. You can w w w.pgs - sof t . com

P G S S O F T WA R E

see whether the trend is going in the right direction and, thanks to machine learning, you can run these distributed experiments across many devices, production lines or even factories.”

PGS Software’s approach also overcomes some of the problems inherent to digital twins. “Normally, when you have a production line and digital twins you are sending the data from the machine to the cloud, but this means you have to deal with latency issues and is also a security risk. However, 08

in the MTL concept we are using something called local, small machine learning models which can then be exported from devices and imported into the cloud, meaning you are only sharing a model of the data.”

Achieving such projects would be impossible without the use of the cloud, which serves as a great enabler for PGS Software’s endeavours; as Panusz emphasises: “About 98% of our projects, not only in manufacturing but overall, are done with one of the cloud providers. In the context of MTL, let’s choose one example like Amazon Web Services. We use edge devices and AWS Greengrass

2005

Year founded

2,835

Successfully completed projects

650+

Professionals

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E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Maciej Mazur Chief Data Scientist - As Chief Data Scientist at PGS Software, Maciej is the technical lead of the data team and implements ML-based solutions for clients around the globe. In his 10 years of IT-experience, he’s worked for major players like Nokia and HPE, developing complex optimisation algorithms even before the term Data Science was coined. w w w.pgs - sof t . com

P G S S O F T WA R E

to build up the digital twins. We also

have the processing power to achieve

use Amazon’s SageMaker Neo, which

solutions on that scale.” Aside from

allows us to train models which are

its work with Amazon, PGS Software

optimised for edge devices. We also

is also a Microsoft Gold partner and

use the cloud to build a device shadow

a certified Google Cloud partner.

farm, which is basically a set of digital

“Besides the cloud, we also partner

twins which allows us to simulate the

with several hardware providers,” says

whole production process. We also

Mazur. “Balluff, for example, provides

use the analytics and machine learning

IoT sensors and devices, and together,

engines which are available in the cloud.

we provide an end-to-end solution.”

From my perspective, the cloud is the

Alongside the technological con-

only thing that makes what we do

cerns, PGS Software professes a

possible — otherwise you just wouldn’t

keen attention to cultural matters.

10 E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE

Łukasz Panusz Chief Solutions Architect - Łukasz Panusz is Chief Solutions Architect at PGS Software. A passionate technical leader with over 15 years of experience from various business sectors and regions. Over the years strongly involved in numerous enterprise-grade solutions in different roles.

Supporting organizations with digital transformations by evaluation of the culture, technical solutions, product design, and strategic planning. Techie focused on delivering cutting-edge solutions using Cloud, modern technologies and DevOps culture of work. Currently concentrated on emerging technologies, and ways of connecting them into bigger wider distributed solutions

Introducing: Mesh Twin Learning CLICK TO WATCH

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2:22

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“ The cloud is the only thing that makes what we do possible” — Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, PGS Software

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P G S S O F T WA R E

O U R THREE P RI N CI P LES 1. We will understand your needs Addressing your business requirements is our top priority and we go to great lengths to better understand them. This careful preparation makes our software well-targeted, future-proof and cost-effective. For us, your project is a new, intriguing story awaiting to be written in the right programming language, regardless of whether you are a big international enterprise or an independent entrepreneur.

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2. We know our job We will not pretend to know more about your industry than you do. What we will do is embrace your ideas and creativity while we tap into our experience in programming, testing, graphic design, business analysis, and effective project management. We are not here to sell you technology or infrastructure that you do not really need. We aim to enhance your business in the most efficient possible way.

3. We build great teams We recruit passionate professionals from Poland’s best engineering institutes. Java, PHP, .NET, mobile, and beyond — there are no technologies hiding under our radar. Our diverse talents coupled with in-depth business experience, exceptional infrastructure, and three modern development centres are what makes us the winning team..

Through following the Agile software development practices and Scrum methodology, we make sure that everyone involved in bringing a project to life is on the same page, at each step of the way.

“We have a unique program we call Upscale,” Panusz says. “We motivate our employees to constantly develop themselves via the program, which means we identify specialists in our team that are authorities in a technology to become mentors. They then prepare programmes to help others to become proficient. Currently, 20% of the company is participating in one or more of those programs, developing new competencies as well as mentoring others.” The company also benefits from its location in Poland in terms of recruiting, with three famous academic facilities located nearby, such as the Wrocław University of Science

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P G S S O F T WA R E

“ Industry 4.0 is also about the people” — Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, PGS Software 14

and Technology — first in the country to offer a Master’s in Data Science.

As for the future, PGS Software is keen for its work to benefit the wider community. “We are constantly growing as a data science department,” says Panusz. “We want to make our locations a central place of knowledge and experience to educate the other people in the data science community. We also try to provide leadership content and research papers. We are trying to share what we are doing and make our research public.” In pursuit of this objective, PGS Software is active in many different channels, as Mazur explains. “We would encourage everyone to follow us on social media to find the articles we put on our blog. This year we’re also starting a podcast and we have two ebooks on the way. So stay tuned — there are a lot of interesting things coming out this year.”

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PGS SOFTWARE (HQ) UL . SUCHA 3 50-086 WROC Ł AW POL AND T +48 7 1 79 82 692

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