The Vision: A Smarter, More Transparent Manufacturing Floor
Ansell Lanka Textile Pvt Ltd, a global manufacturer of high-performance protective gloves, operates thousands of sewing and knitting machines at their Sri Lankan facilities. While the company is known for its world-class quality and production capacity, their management team identified a key limitation in their operations: a lack of real-time machine-level visibility.
They had a vision—to transform their manufacturing floor into a data-first, intelligent production system, where machine health, operator performance, and production metrics could be monitored live and acted upon instantly. But achieving that vision required going beyond spreadsheets, legacy machine counters, and fragmented manual reports.
The Challenge: Disconnected Machines and Delayed Decisions
The problem was clear and pressing:
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- Machines often failed without early warning, causing unexpected downtime.
- Operators had no reliable way to log issues or track performance in real-time.
- Faults weren’t centrally recorded or analyzed, leading to repetitive breakdowns.
- Management lacked a single source of truth to guide production or maintenance decisions.
- Their existing machinery lacked digital communication capabilities—modernizing meant starting from the ground up.
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Why THINGSNODE?
Ansell turned to THINGSNODE not just for a monitoring solution, but for a technology partner capable of transforming their operational backbone.
What made THINGSNODE the right choice?
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- A vendor-agnostic IoT platform with proven success in industrial environments
- Customized hardware and dashboards tailored to Ansell’s unique production setup
- Deep experience in manufacturing automation and AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things)
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The Solution: Converting Old Machines into Intelligent Assets
Working closely with Ansell’s production and engineering teams, THINGSNODE deployed a custom Machine Monitoring System (MMS) that brought intelligence, visibility, and control to every corner of the factory floor.
Key Solution Components:
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- Custom IoT hardware designed for legacy knitting and sewing machines
- Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and secure MQTTS data transmission to Self-hosted ThingsBoard
- Real-time dashboards for multiple user roles—Operators, Engineers, Admins, and Executives
- Mobile-ready access, so machine data was available from anywhere on site
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Visual Highlights
The Experience: Real-Time Data at Every Level
THINGSNODE implemented a series of role-based dashboards to deliver actionable insights to every stakeholder:
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- Overview Dashboard: Snapshot of total production, OEE, MTBF, downtime, and reject rate
- Machine Dashboard: Drill-down views per machine showing performance, cycle counts, and faults
- Daily Direction Setting Dashboard (DDS): Helps supervisors align daily goals with performance trends
- Engineering & Mechanics Dashboards: Real-time alerts, QR-code issue logging, and downtime tracking
- Management Dashboard: Factory-wide KPIs, export-ready reports, and visual trend analysis
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The Impact: A Data-Driven Production Culture
With THINGSNODE’s solution live across the facility, Ansell Lanka has seen measurable improvements:
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- Reduced machine downtime by catching issues early
- Higher operator productivity through transparent performance tracking
- Informed maintenance decisions using machine-level analytics
- Enhanced operational efficiency by aligning machine data with production workflows
- Data-driven decisions at every level of the organization
- Scalable infrastructure that’s ready for expansion across additional plants
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Looking Ahead: Scaling the Smart Factory
Ansell’s journey with THINGSNODE is ongoing. With the MMS system in place, they are now exploring further enhancements—like predictive maintenance, automated quality checks, and deeper integration with ERP systems.
This transformation is not just about saving downtime—it’s about building resilient, intelligent, and sustainable manufacturing for the future.
Start Your Smart Manufacturing Journey
If your factory is still relying on guesswork, disconnected systems, or manual reports, it’s time to upgrade. THINGSNODE can help you unlock real-time insights, maximize efficiency, and future-proof your operations.