DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Aizon Introduces a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Predictive Maintenance Solution

Aizon | January 25, 2022

On January 24, Aizon announced the introduction of its new asset tracking tool for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Aizon Asset Health is built on Aizon's GxP-compliant AI SaaS Platform. It performs intelligent historical maintenance analysis, continuously monitors the condition of critical assets in real-time, identifies potential problems, and provides actionable maintenance recommendations to keep equipment operating at peak performance. This data-driven approach to maintenance lowers maintenance costs, minimizes unexpected downtime, and maximizes product output, thus maximizing the potential of Smart Pharma Manufacturing.

Maintaining manufacturing equipment in good operating order may be costly and inefficient. A schedule-based approach to maintenance frequently results in the wasteful repair or replacement of equipment that is still operating in acceptable conditions or the catastrophic failure of equipment owing to undiscovered faults. This might result in production interruptions, product rejection, and a longer time to market, and product compromise. That is, guaranteeing that any operation is executed correctly the first time and every time. Combining sophisticated analytics and multivariate analysis with artificial intelligence, the Aizon Asset Health program improves unexpected downtime reduction beyond today's industry standard, eventually lowering maintenance costs while increasing asset dependability and performance.

"Pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotech companies are under tremendous pressure to maximize their return on investment and to reduce unplanned downtime. However, the traditional schedule-based maintenance approach tends to fall short in terms of gaining control of downtime and the high costs associated with replacing equipment in an effort to achieve better performance, Our Asset Health application enables our customers to harness the power of their equipment and environmental data to slash maintenance costs, optimize equipment performance, enhance product output, and improve product quality."

-John Vitalie, CEO, Aizon

Monitoring Intelligent, Real-Time Assets Across Equipment and Facilities
The Aizon Asset Health application enables pharmaceutical and biotech organizations to employ predictive analytics to monitor their assets' health and receive advanced warnings on their problems based on the solution's prescriptive and conditional data-driven insights. These actionable insights enable operators and maintenance teams to respond and intervene in real-time, ensuring the continued operation of manufacturing lines. In addition, asset Health is a cloud-native application that can be expanded across various sites and regions and maintains a history and condition of every piece of equipment.

This enables pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations to assure total asset integrity, maintain ideal facility conditions (such as temperature, humidity, and vibration), forecast the projected life of equipment, and track the energy utilized by an asset and its CO2 emissions. Furthermore, this vital information is aggregated on a single dashboard tailored to meet every firm's particular asset care requirements.


"Demands for pharmaceutical manufacturing have never been higher. The Aizon Asset Health application helps manufacturers prevent unplanned downtime and maximize product quality and yield Aizon Asset Health taps into real-time sensor data, consolidates it, and leverages AI to generate alarms and/or actionable insights to optimize asset performance. It’s a game changer for the industry. "

-Andy Alasso, SVP Product, Aizon.

Spotlight

50 years of robotics expertise and leading technology made in Japan meets automation innovation made in Germany. With their new CL line and a variety of payloads and reaches, Kawasaki Robotics provides an entirely new and agile approach to collaborative robotics – powered by the partnership with Neura Robotics.

Spotlight

50 years of robotics expertise and leading technology made in Japan meets automation innovation made in Germany. With their new CL line and a variety of payloads and reaches, Kawasaki Robotics provides an entirely new and agile approach to collaborative robotics – powered by the partnership with Neura Robotics.

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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Exro Announces Strategic Partnership with Top Three Global Motor Manufacturer, Wolong Electric Group

Prnewswire | April 18, 2023

Exro Technologies Inc. (TSX: EXRO) (OTCQB: EXROF) (the "Company" or "Exro"), a leading clean technology company that has developed new generation power control electronics that expand the capabilities of electric motors and batteries, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a strategic partnership ("the partnership") with Wolong Electric Group Ltd ("Wolong"), world-renowned automation solution supplier and one of world's top three motor manufactures for industrial and automotive applications. The partnership aligns directly with Exro's targeted go-to-market strategy for its patented Coil Driver™ inverter technology ("Coil Driver™"), partnering with leading global tier-1 automotive suppliers that accelerate and amplify Exro's market presence. "We are excited to welcome Wolong as a strategic motor partner," said Exro CEO Sue Ozdemir. "Having previously been a part of the Wolong family, I have first-hand perspective on the world-class motor manufacturing capabilities that allow Exro the opportunity to scale into multiple large customer platforms. The partnership is yet another validation of Exro's patented core technology and we are leveraging the platforms of some of the largest automotive supply companies in the world to bring our technology to market." Partnering with Wolong Electric – Top Three Global Motor Manufacturer Wolong Electric Group is a world-famous industrial automation solution supplier and one of world's top three motor manufacturers. Founded in 1984, the business covers more than 100 countries and regions around the world and ownership of a family of brands including ATB Group, Brook Crompton, GE Industrial Motors, and others. Wolong's EV motor division was established in 2011, concentrating on R&D, manufacturing, and sales of electric vehicle motors. Over the last decade, the division has grown to a leader in new energy vehicle drive systems covering passenger cars, utility vehicles, sport utility vehicles, commercial vehicles, and light passenger vehicles. Since 2015, Wolong has maintained a greater than 10% market share of electric vehicle motors supported by one of the world's most advanced intelligent manufacturing factories in the motor industry with an annual production capacity of 500,000 units. Target key customers for the partnership's motor-inverter powertrain solutions include Mercedes-Benz, Geely Automotive, ZF (which established a joint venture with Wolong in 2020), and others. Strategic Partnership Agreement Framework The strategic partnership is intended to leverage Exro's Coil Driver™ technology and Wolong's design, manufacturing, and supply capabilities to develop next-generation electric vehicle ("EV") powertrain solutions for electric commercial vehicles and off-highway applications in the Americas, with the future possibility of licencing the Exro inverter to Wolong for use in Asia. The relationship between the parties has developed under NDA over a period of many months. Under phase one of the agreement, Exro will test motors provided by Wolong and develop a complete motor-inverter system offering for light, medium, heavy duty and off highway applications. Dynamometer testing of the system is anticipated to be completed by the end of Q4 2023. Following successful completion of automotive dynamometer testing, the parties shall transition to phase two of the agreement which will outline volume targets, sales and marketing plans, price and production targets, and compensation models. Exro's Value Proposition to Wolong Exro designs, develops, and manufactures advanced power electronics controls for electric vehicles. The power controller inside every electric vehicle is called an inverter, which is essentially the brain between the battery and the electric motor. An electric motor is only as smart as the controller telling it how to behave. While advancements in components (ex. SiC) have improved inverter technology over the years, the core technology behind the standard 3-phase inverter inside of every electric vehicle today has remained unchanged – until now. Exro's patented Coil Driver™ takes the prior-art physics of coil-switching and provides the ability to control an electric motor at the individual coil level through the power electronics. This coil-level control provides the ability to switch motor profiles in real-time to deliver two separate speed-torque profiles from the same motor, effectively acting like an electronic gear to expand the operating range of the motor. This functionality is not offered by any other inverter on the market today. While the Coil Driver™ performs the same functions as every standard 3-phase inverter, the Coil Driver™ allows electric vehicle OEM suppliers like Wolong the ability to offer its customers significant flexibility in design while providing differentiated vehicle performance: Increased torque and power output. The Coil Driver™ increases powertrain performance by up to 50%. For electric commercial trucks and buses, this translates to improved gradeability, better performance on steep routes, and expansion of routes a vehicle is capable of travelling. Improved efficiency. The Coil Driver™ delivers increased performance without sacrificing range. Improved efficiency translates into range of the vehicle, extending routes and lowering overall spend on charging. System cost reduction. Implementation of Exro's technology can lower the vehicle powertrain cost by up to 20% by optimizing the system to reduce weight and complexity: reducing (or eliminating) components such as multiple motors, mechanical gearboxes, battery size, etc. AC fast-charging. Native to Exro's high-voltage Coil Driver™ products is an ability to AC fast-charge, eliminating the need for an on-board charger (currently a standard component in all electric vehicles). The ability to fast charge using AC instead of DC power leads to potential cost savings of up to 90% on infrastructure. ABOUT EXRO TECHNOLOGIES INC. Exro Technologies Inc. is a leading clean technology company that has developed new generation power control electronics that change how the world optimizes energy by expanding the capabilities of electric motors and batteries. The company's innovative technologies serve to bridge the performance-cost gap in e-mobility (Coil Driver™) and stationary energy storage (Cell Driver™), and act to accelerate adoption towards a circular electrified economy by delivering more with less – minimum energy for maximum results. ABOUT WOLONG Wolong Electric Group Co. Ltd is a world-famous industrial automation solution supplier and one of world's top three motor manufactures. Founded in 1984, the business covers more than 100 countries and regions around the world. Wolong strives to become number one in e-motor industry.

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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Utilidata Announces Michigan-based Manufacturing Partnership with Brooks Utility Products and Opening of Innovation Lab

Globenewswire | April 28, 2023

Utilidata, an industry leading grid-edge technology company, announced today a manufacturing partnership with Michigan-based Brooks Utility Products, a manufacturer of electric metering related products for over 150 years, to establish domestic manufacturing for its NVIDIA-powered smart grid chips in the heartland of the United States. Utilidata is also opening its innovation lab where research and development for its smart grid chips will take place. The partnership with Michigan-based Brooks Utility Products, will bring the product to full commercialization in 2023 with assembly, testing, and use of their meter socket adapter. Commercial-scale production will begin this spring to meet utility customer demand. Current utility customers utilizing Utilidata’s smart grid chips include Portland General Electric and Lake Placid Municipal Power. “Brooks is excited to work with Utilidata to bring new technology and innovation to the electric utility market,” said Robert Kiessling, Brooks Utility Products national marketing manager. “The grid needs technologies like the smart grid chip to become cleaner, more resilient, and decentralized. Coupling Utilidata’s innovative platform and smart chip technology with Brooks’ focus on safe and reliable products provides the optimal solution for a dynamically changing electrical grid.” Utilidata’s innovation lab is located in the Northern Brewery building in Ann Arbor, and serves as the company’s center of excellence for rapid prototyping and design. The facility is intended to build upon the company’s work with Ann Arbor-based Endectra, a University of Michigan spinout that prototyped the first several generations of the smart grid chip product. Utilidata will harness the talent from the University of Michigan and other local institutions as it begins to recruit for several immediate high-tech engineering jobs at its lab in Ann Arbor. “One of the biggest challenges electric utilities face is managing the rapid adoption of electric transportation, so there is no better place to be innovating than in Michigan at the intersection of the electric transportation, manufacturing, and clean energy industries,” said Josh Brumberger, Utilidata CEO. “The State of Michigan’s recent investments in technology innovation and workforce development combined with the research and talent of the University of Michigan and other local institutions made Ann Arbor a clear choice.” Utilidata’s smart grid chip is a distributed artificial intelligence (AI) platform that enhances resiliency of the electric grid, integrates distributed energy resources (DERs) — including solar, storage, and electric vehicles (EVs) — and accelerates the transition to a decarbonized grid. The platform, which is powered by NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI technology, collects and analyzes large amounts of granular data at the edge of the grid to provide utility distribution companies with enhanced visibility to seamlessly integrate more clean energy while also reducing power outages and enabling quicker storm recovery. About Brooks Utility Products Brooks Utility Products innovates, manufactures and supplies complete lines of metering related products for the utility industry. Brooks Utility Products, is the consolidated brand of E.J. Brooks Company, Meter Devices Co., and Ekstrom Industries. The company traces its beginnings to the founding of E.J. Brooks Company in 1873 as a lead toy manufacturer that quickly evolved into a lead wire seal manufacturer serving to secure the growing railcar and electric meter security markets. In addition to its 140 year history in meter seals and revenue protection Brooks has nearly 100 years of experience in producing test switches, enclosures, adapters, and utility test equipment through its Meter Devices and Ekstrom Industries brands. About Utilidata Utilidata is a technology company bringing distributed artificial intelligence (AI) to the edge of the electric grid to accelerate decarbonization and better serve utility customers. The company’s smart grid chip, powered by NVIDIA, is the utility industry’s first scalable distributed AI solution, and provides an open, scalable and future-proof platform for grid operations. For more information, visit utilidata.com.

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ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, PROCUREMENT & SUPPLY CHAIN

Optoro and Locus Robotics Deliver High-Volume Reverse Logistics Solution

Optoro | March 13, 2023

Optoro, the market leader in retail returns and reverse logistics technology, and Locus Robotics, another leading player in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for distribution centers and fulfillment warehouses, have recently entered into a partnership to deliver an automated software and robotics solution for handling high volumes of retail ecommerce returns. The leading robotics automation system of Locus allows seamless up and down scaling in response to fluctuations in demand, enabling operators to speed up returns processing, minimize restocking issues, and reduce personnel expenses. The Locus system offers high-volume, round-the-clock operations in both single-level and multi-level mezzanine settings, and it automates a huge amount of e-commerce. Growing e-commerce inevitably leads to a rise in returns as customers increase their purchases. In 2022, US retail sales brought in $816 billion, and e-commerce sales brought in $212 billion. Both of these numbers were up more than 100% from 2019. Reverse logistics encompasses a wide range of functions, including returns management, warehousing, sales, logistics, finance, recycling management, disposal of end-of-life products and environmental compliance, as products are returned, refurbished, repaired and recycled. Amena Ali, Chief Executive Officer at Optoro, remarked, “Partnering with Locus enables us to deliver a proven robotics automation solution that is well positioned to meet the high throughput demands of today’s return centers.” She further added, “Together, we can help retailers move inventory faster and more efficiently through the supply chain, cut costs, minimize their environmental impact, and improve the customer experience.” (Source – GlobeNewswire) Al Dekin, Chief Revenue Officer at Locus Robotics, stated, "Returns and reverse logistics have historically been high-volume, high-cost functions that are typically quite complicated. We believe our partnership with Optoro will provide 3PLs, retailers, warehouse operators, and others a repeatable, efficient, and proven solution.” (Source – GlobeNewswire) About Optoro Founded in 2010, and headquartered in Washington, Optoro is the leader in returns technology for retailers and brands. With the help of data science, it automates decisions in real-time to make the returns process better for customers, businesses, and the environment. It connects a simple online returns portal to the warehouse's processing and resale software, offering robust solutions to improve results at every step of the returns process. Major retailers and brands like American Eagle, Best Buy, Staples, and IKEA rely on Optoro's technology to turn returns into a strategic advantage and facilitate sustainability efforts throughout the supply chain.

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