"To help shops take advantage of every opportunity to grow with the medical field, Shop Floor Automations (SFA) suggests manufacturers ponder the following four questions and ask why they are important to their operations," said an SFA spokesperson.
What is your utilization rate? Many shops are looking to improve overall equipment efficiency (OEE). "However, SFA has discovered that most shops run between 30 to 50% utilization," said the spokesperson. "Using machine monitoring with solutions such as Predator MDC helps to tackle this issue. Being able to see when a machine is experiencing downtime provides valuable insight to production managers. Having a realistic look at utilization and ways to improve overall OEE is a great asset on the shop floor."
Did you know that evaluating more than downtime helps with productivity? "When people think of machine monitoring, they think it is only to see when machines are down or running," said the spokesperson. "On the contrary, being able to monitor different sets of data, such as set-up time, cycle time, idle time and feed hold or optional stop will help evaluate an entire manufacturing process. Where can processes be improved? Having the data available to share with others gives a competitive edge during end-of-shift meetings."
Is my machine able to use machine monitoring? "Some manufacturers automatically assume that because they have legacy equipment or do not have CNC machines means they cannot take advantage of Industry 4.0 and the benefits of it," said the spokesperson. "This is not the case. Older machines can be updated with hardware solutions, such as a Predator MDC Adapter, to help capture this valuable data. Many different types of machines can be connected, such as grinders, assembly equipment, lasers, deburring stations and much more. While this data may be limited when connecting to older equipment, any machine can be interfaced to the system."
Did you want to adopt lights-out manufacturing? "Without machine monitoring, it will be difficult to get started," said the spokesperson. "In order to benefit from IIoT, the user needs to ensure that machines can run without humans at the helm. The first step in getting lights-out manufacturing started is to work with machinists to evaluate glitches that need to be eliminated in the machining process. Having the added insight that machine data collection provides is invaluable so that machines can eventually be set up to run 24/7. Keeping this remote monitoring system in place also helps to know where things go wrong in the process when machines are left alone. Notification of issues via text messages and emails will help improve 24/7 machine processes."
For more information contact:
Greg Mercurio, President
Shop Floor Automations, Inc.
5360 Jackson Drive, Suite #202
La Mesa, CA 91942
877-611-5825 / 619-461-4000
info@ShopFloorAutomations.com
www.shopfloorautomations.com