Harnessing data-driven manufacturing

Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Vicenza, Italy, Askoll Group manufactures and markets electric motors that are up to 50% more energy-efficient than conventional designs. Serving a wide range of use cases including household appliances, heating systems, and urban mobility, Askoll Group consists of 11 companies operating in Italy, Brazil, China, Mexico, Romania, and Slovakia.

Askoll Group creates electric motors that are smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient than many other designs on the market today. Initially developed for use in aquariums, the company’s technology is now at the heart of washers produced by well-known white goods brands and a new generation of mobility products such as motorized scooters and e-bikes.

To engineer and build these ultra-compact motors depends on intricate manufacturing processes. On the factory floor, Askoll Group harnesses programmable logic controllers to monitor each stage of the workflow. Using images from cameras attached to the production line, the company’s custom-developed software analyzes components for defects and allows employees to verify that each product meets its rigorous quality standards.

“Our production lines run day and night, which means high availability
is crucial for our digital systems on the factory floor,” explains Moreno Panetto, IT Systems Manager at Askoll Group. “Our previous IT environment was based on legacy PCs running an older operating system, and had begun to suffer from reliability issues and software vulnerabilities. As well as increasing the risk of downtime, the machines offered limited performance, which reduced our ability to enhance our monitoring processes—for example, by adding higher-resolution cameras.”