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… Read more »
Imagine driving a car where the dashboard reports yesterday’s speed and distance covered. It sounds bizarre yet that’s how many Operations and Production Managers run their factories. They know output and OEE numbers for the previous day, but that’s of little help in maximizing performance today. What they need are manufacturing dashboards displaying real-time, actionable… Read more »
In DataXchange two commonly used reports and charts are the Equipment Status Summary and the Target Utilization. The Equipment Status Summary shows the statuses that have occurred over the period of time selected, while the Target Utilization shows the utilization percent relative to a target. A common question is whether or not the percent of… Read more »
What is machine downtime? What is downtime manufacturing? Machine downtime in the manufacturing world is simply any time that the machine is not producing. Though full utilization would be ideal, some downtime is not only acceptable but necessary. Common downtime reasons include planned downtime, maintenance or set up. What is a downtime report? A downtime… Read more »
In our latest update we have expanded Expressions to allow group building; structured in an organized hierarchy. What is an expression? What can it measure? An expression is a set of parameters that define what and how data will be collected, parsed and received from the shop floor to DataXchange. The following are just a… Read more »
In the past calculating utilization for stations such as paint booths or powder coating lines that use overhead conveyors wasn’t very accurate. A rudimentary method was simply to monitor whether the conveyor was moving. However, this did not consider multiple factors including whether any parts were actually present on the conveyor. An improvement was to… Read more »
Enterprise Resource Planning solutions or ERP is a system to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, purchasing, planning, scheduling, and much more. ERP is not new to business or manufacturing. What is innovative is that we integrate the data from ERP systems with machine monitoring extending ERP data to the shop floor, as well as… Read more »
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… Read more »
IIoT, or the Industrial Internet of Things is a very common phrase in this Industry 4.0 world. First, let’s look at the definition of the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is simply devices connected to the Internet that have the ability to send or exchange data. The reason for the popularity of IoT… Read more »
it’s time for Machine Monitoring Software In most manufacturing facilities today convincing management that the company should invest in machine monitoring isn’t an issue. However, if you find yourself in such an environment there are many convincing reasons for management to adopt Industry 4.0 technology such as machine monitoring. Visibility to be able to… Read more »
