Item: ThingWorx
Rating: 10
Author: Nathaniel Smith

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ThingWorx as a means of industrial connection and control of model manufacturing systems for research into the implementation of industry 4.0 strategies and technologies in the modern factory. Primary functionalities used are the industrial connections established by Kepware, the data visualization and control achieved through ThingWorx mashups, and the data analysis functions that allow us to make our data valuable and usable. In our lab, ThingWorx controls and monitors six-axis robots and model manufacturing demonstrators which contain various robotic and motor actions, vision systems, and other sensors.

Pros and Cons

Facilitates industrial connections between equipment of different protocols.
Visualizes data in a quickly readable and valuable format with minimal coding.
Provides easily usable data analytics functionality that can feed back into the system.

Advanced functionality in control and data visualization often requires additional coding from the user.
Support and tutorials provided are often lacking in detail or are not readily transferable.
Mashup development works poorly on small monitors or laptops.

Most Important Features

Kepware industrial connectivity.
ThingWorx mashup data visualization.
ThingWorx data analytics functionalities.

Return on Investment

The use of ThingWorx as a near-complete, full-stack industry 4.0 solution has been at the forefront of recent and ongoing research.

Key Insights

Do you think ThingWorx delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ThingWorx's feature set?

Yes

Did ThingWorx live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of ThingWorx go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy ThingWorx again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

ThingWorx works particularly well in monitoring and controlling our smart manufacturing demonstrator, easily facilitating the connections needed, displaying the state of the machine and the data being gathered, and implementing data analytics and predictive operation control of the equipment.

Industrial Connectivity, Data Visualization and Analytics All-in-one suite

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with ThingWorx