"Mazak continues its steadfast advancement toward the complete digitization of all its manufacturing operations with the recent transformation of its Oguchi, Japan, facility into another Mazak iSMART Factory," said a company spokesperson. "The Oguchi plant now joins Mazak's iSMART Factory in Florence, KY, as the first two in the company's plan to eventually designate all 10 of its manufacturing operations as Mazak iSMART Factories."
"As a dynamic, ongoing and limitless concept, the next-generation iSMART Factory represents Mazak's all-encompassing manufacturing vision and global branding initiative," said the spokesperson. "These next-generation factories use advanced manufacturing cells and systems together with full digital integration to achieve free-flow data sharing in terms of process control and operation monitoring."
In the Mazak iSMART Factory, the MTConnect open communications protocol works with process support software and provides connectivity and the capability to monitor then harvest data from all the different production floor machines, cells, devices and processes.
"There is little doubt in the industry that MTConnect will soon be the standard worldwide and the foundation of tomorrow's digitized manufacturing operations," said Brian Papke, Chairman of Mazak. "At Mazak, we have experienced double-digit increases in productivity and machine utilization in each facility immediately after the implementation of digital process monitoring through MTConnect and our SmartBox technology."
For the Oguchi Mazak iSMART Factory, the MTConnect open protocol allows the plant to use its own in-house cyber monitoring software. This software then works in conjunction with Mazak's Smooth Monitoring software so the plant can monitor operations and optimize production efficiency.
Mazak will make further announcements concerning factory digitization at EMO Hanover 2017 show September 18-23 in Hanover, Germany.
For more information contact:
Tasha Riddell
Mazak Corporation
P.O. Box 970
Florence, KY 41022-0970
859-342-1700
triddell@mazakcorp.com
www.mazakusa.com