OPC Day Finland 2024 - 20 Years of Standardized Manufacturing Data Exchange

OPC Day Finland 2024 was hosted at Microsoft Finland in Espoo by the Finnish Society of Automation. This year was special because we celebrated the 20th OPC Day Finland event! Logically, the event’s main theme was 20 Years of Standardized Manufacturing Data Exchange.

Among the numerous presentations, we heard about the beginning times of OPC Days. It is safe to say that spirits were high throughout the day. In addition to the precious memories, the presented topics covered OPC UA Cloud to pharmaceutical uses and beyond – the space!

As an OPC UA community, we are finally moving towards unifying technologies and prioritizing real-life use cases and end users. We are proud to have been able to sponsor this event, and we’re looking forward to OPC Day Finland 2025. Once again, a big thank you to the Finnish Society of Automation for arranging the event!

A photo collage of OPC Day Finland 2024.

Presentations

In case you missed the event or want to refresh your memory of the presentations, the Finnish Society of Automation has kindly added the recordings of each presentation to a playlist on their YouTube channel. You can also find the presentation files on their website.

Don’t have time to dive into the presentation videos right now? No worries; below, you can find short descriptions of each presentation.

Opening Presentation

by Jouni Aro, Finnish Society of Automation

To celebrate the 20th OPC Day, Jouni’s opening words contained some history from way back in 2005 and how this event has evolved over the years. The event promises practical industry use cases and insightful talks from various sponsors.

Welcome to Microsoft

by Tero Savioja, Microsoft

Tero welcomed us all to the event as well before yielding the floor to Erich.

Keynote 1: OPC UA at Microsoft

by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft

This keynote explored Microsoft’s strategy for advancing industrial connectivity through OPC UA, emphasizing open-source platforms, standards, and data models. It highlighted contributions like the OPC UA Cloud Library, Azure IoT Edge, and unified namespace tools, showcasing efforts to enhance interoperability, security, and scalability in industrial environments.

Erich Barnstedt presenting at OPC Day Finland 2024.

Keynote 2: OPC UA Cloud Initiative

by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft

This keynote explored the integration of OPC UA with cloud environments, highlighting interoperability challenges and solutions. The focus was on enabling secure, scalable data flows between industrial systems and cloud platforms, aligning with IoT and digital transformation strategies.

Keynote: How Danone Scales Digital Transformation with a Real-Time Eco-System

by Zynn Webster, Danone

This presentation highlighted a custom platform for creating standardized OPC UA models tailored to specific business cases, avoiding vendor lock-in. A unified namespace and consistent data hierarchies bridge factories and IT systems, improving real-time monitoring, event aggregation, and decision-making. Human engagement remains pivotal for success. During his presentation, Zynn mentioned that Danone uses our Forge as part of the new solution.

Keynote: OPC UA/MTP Use Cases from the Pharmaceutical Industry

by Eugene D. Tung, Merck

This keynote illustrated how Merck leverages OPC UA and MTP standards to enhance modular automation and system integration. Key benefits included flexibility in batch processes, improved scalability, and faster time-to-market, addressing the pharmaceutical industry’s stringent regulatory and operational demands.

20 years of OPC UA Standardization

by Matthias Damm, Unified Automation

This talk celebrated 20 years of OPC UA standardization, highlighting its evolution from industrial communication to a global interoperability framework. Key milestones included adoption across industries, advances in security, and integration with modern technologies like the cloud while addressing future standardization and adoption challenges.

Matthias is highly qualified to talk about the history of OPC UA development and the 20 years of OPC Day Finland because he has been a part of them both from the very beginning. He also showed us pictures to prove it.

OPC UA for Industrial Joining Technologies (IJT)

by Mohit Agarwal, Atlas Copco

This presentation showcased the development of OPC UA standards for industrial joining technologies (IJT). It highlighted Atlas Copco’s role in defining universal data models for tightening, gluing, riveting, and fastening processes, focusing on interoperability, traceability, and future-proofing. Practical use cases included asset management, condition monitoring, and result reporting, underlining OPC UA’s value in harmonizing manufacturing operations.

To our delight, Mohit showed us a real-life demo for a tightening tool use case where the torques of the tool were tracked. In the below picture, you can see the demo on the left and a close-up of the device on the right.

Mohat Agarwal showcasing a tightening tool demo at OPC Day Finland 2024.

Benefits and Challenges of OPC UA Information Modeling in Practice

by Pyry Grönholm, Prosys OPC

This session explored the real-world benefits and challenges of implementing OPC UA information models, focusing on their role in standardizing data, improving system interoperability, and enhancing scalability. It also discussed common obstacles, such as complexity in modeling, integration hurdles, and the importance of stakeholder collaboration.

Digital Twin Implementation With FMI For Automation System

by Mika Karaila, Valmet

This presentation showcased the use of FMI standards to create digital twins for automation systems. It detailed the development of a proof-of-concept prototype, enabling real-time communication between simulation models and automation systems. Key benefits included system optimization, predictive testing, and training simulators for improved operational efficiency.

OPC UA in Space – a Success Story

by Matthias Damm, Unified Automation

This talk highlighted the successful use of OPC UA in aerospace, enabling data exchange between ground control and space experiments. It demonstrated how OPC UA PubSub improved real-time telemetry, data aggregation, and remote monitoring, reducing preparation time and enhancing experiment efficiency even in zero-gravity environments.

Efficient plant engineering with TwinCAT MTP

by Tuure Takala, Beckhoff Automation Oy

This presentation showcased TwinCAT MTP, Beckhoff’s solution for modular plant engineering. It emphasized efficiency gains through standardized module descriptions and automated PLC and HMI template generation, enabling faster integration, maintenance, and modular system scalability, especially for batch production and flexible process adjustments.

How AWS is Helping the Industry to Get Insights to Production Data with OPC UA

by Jura Berg, Amazon Web Services

This presentation outlined how AWS services like IoT Greengrass, IoT SiteWise, and machine learning tools leverage OPC UA to enable seamless data integration, real-time insights, and predictive maintenance. Practical examples highlighted AWS’s role in improving industrial operations through scalable, cloud-based data processing and analysis.

Utilizing on-site information models in cloud data platforms

by Jukka Pirinen, Brightly Works

This talk showcased how on-site OPC UA information models can be leveraged in cloud environments to streamline data management and analytics workflows. It emphasized contextualizing data through modeling, improving scalability, data quality, and governance while addressing integration challenges and fostering efficient industrial operations.

Transforming Manufacturing with Industrial DataOps: Driving Efficiency, Quality, and Innovation

by Sakari Aulanko, Novotek

This presentation emphasized how Industrial DataOps bridges IT and OT, enabling real-time data insights, improving efficiency, and fostering innovation. By unifying data sources and modeling workflows, manufacturers can reduce integration costs, empower teams, and optimize scalable, data-driven operations for evolving industrial needs.

End of the Day

by Jouni Aro

The closing speech praised collaboration, and called for further cloud innovation within OPC UA. Jouni also underlined the importance of end-user involvement and open dialogue for advancing industrial interoperability and efficiency.

OPC Day Finland 2024 Speakers: Mika Karaila, Zynn Webster, Mohit Agarwal, Matthias Damm, Tuure Takala, Jouni Aro, Jukka Pirinen, Pyry Grönholm, Jura Berg

Author Info

Headshot of Kaisa Hirvola

Kaisa Hirvola

Marketing & Media, Prosys OPC

Email: kaisa.hirvola@prosysopc.com

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