The long-anticipated International Manufacturing Technology Show, IMTS, has unfortunately been cancelled due to Covid-19. The announcement came last week. The cancellation, while predictable, was still a huge disappointment for us. We will not be able to engage in person with current and future customers, which we always look forward to. The show always brings together the best and brightest in...

CNC machines cut away metal and make money, but they can’t do that if they’re not running. How do you know if they’re running? Managing By Walking About is one approach, machine monitoring is a better one. Machine monitoring shows how production equipment is being utilized at any moment in time. That knowledge can help reduce costs, improve profit...

Using visual and auditory cues an experienced Manufacturing Manager can often sense when a factory is running well. Silence means no production. No workers present, no production. It’s an informal, and highly subjective, form of machine monitoring with “data” obtained through “Managing By Walking About” (MBWA.) The practice has much to recommend it, but it’s not sufficient for maximizing output and...

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a great metric and can provide a lot of value, but OEE has shortcomings and limitations that can be addressed by a modern monitoring system. OEE shouldn’t be avoided but diving directly into OEE is not always the best solution to maximize value from a shop floor machine monitoring system.  Let’s use a performance issue as...

There’s an old axiom that before you can improve something you need to measure it. In manufacturing there are many metrics that can be tracked. One of the most popular metrics is Overall Equipment Effectiveness, (OEE). Accurate and timely OEE information aids decision-making when managers are faced with rapidly changing circumstances on the factory floor, but only when the factory...