Case study

Automotive PROFINET Alarms Solved Remotely

An automotive manufacturer contacted HMS after recurring network alarms appeared in its SCADA system. Although the alarms had not yet caused production downtime or network failures, the customer wanted to understand the root cause before the issue could develop into a more serious operational problem.

The challenge

The customer had already taken several corrective actions. PROFINET cables had been replaced and the switch manufacturer had been involved in the investigation, but the alarms continued to appear. With no clear indication of a hardware failure or communication dropout, the next step was to gain deeper visibility into the actual network behavior. The customer had also invested several days and more than 20.000 Euro in remote services from other providers, but the issue remained unresolved.

Remote service approach

Anybus Atlas2 Plus was installed in the network to capture and log the relevant alarms. This made the diagnostic information immediately available for remote analysis, allowing HMS to review the network data without sending an engineer on-site.

Root cause

By comparing the captured alarm data with the TIA Portal project, the root cause was identified within 1 hour. During a recent drive replacement, PROFINET cables had been connected to the wrong ports. As a result, the physical cabling no longer matched the configured PROFINET topology.

Solution and result

After the customer corrected the cabling, the alarms disappeared. The issue was resolved remotely, without the need for an HMS engineer to visit the site. This helped the customer restore confidence in the network, avoid further troubleshooting costs, and reduce the risk of future production downtime.

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