Starrag, a manufacturer of high-precision machine tools, and True Analytics Manufacturing Solutions (TAMS) have entered a business agreement to include TAMS RevolutionCore software on Starrag machines. "As a result, Starrag North America customers, especially those that run expensive, complex parts and small lot sizes, will be able to understand every detail of the process, resulting in savings of time and money," said a spokesperson.
"The impressive part of TAMS is that its Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) product is designed around the idea of process monitoring, which is not the same as machine monitoring," said Udo Herbes, Starrag Managing Director in the U.S. "The difference is that traditional machine monitoring generalizes something very complex into simple metrics, such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and manufacturers can lose valuable details. Process monitoring embraces the complexity and gives the manufacturer very specific and incredibly detailed information on the best way to make improvements to overall productivity."
Starrag has already implemented the RevolutionCore software on several machines it has delivered to customers across North America.
"Process monitoring provides a manufacturer with a very clear roadmap on how to make improvements, whereas machine monitoring provides managers generalized metrics but very little insight into how to actually improve," said John Murphy, Chief Technology Officer at True Analytics, a company formed by manufacturers who became software design engineers in order to improve manufacturing efficiencies.
One of Starrag's customers realized a time savings of 36 hours on a single part being machined. The customer, which manufactures high complexity parts for the aerospace and defense markets, operates several Starrag computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Because this customer had selected the RevolutionCore for process monitoring, it was able to optimize this particular process in a measurable way that now saves tens of thousands of dollars each time they run this particular job. The core application has a feature that allows a manufacturer to use its IoT data to better tell a story and ultimately measure how successful the process improvement efforts are. The feature is called the Digital Thread because it enables a team to collaborate on a topic, access data from the system, other disparate data systems and finally, integrate data from all connected machines into a timeline of how the team went about solving an issue on the shop floor. It transforms tribal knowledge into company knowledge.
When the thread is done and the problem is solved, results can be measured by running a performance analysis on how that machine performed while running that specific process. The results are embedded in the timeline and can be drilled into every detail required from the thread.
Complete System Integration
RevolutionCore software interfaces are comprehensive and are designed around a specific plan on how the manufacturer wants to enrich the machine data with data from other systems. That data, even from legacy systems, is accessible in a modern platform.
"For example, if a machine is running at 75% utilization and 55% efficiency it is important to know what that part is, the material, what the tool in the spindle is and how has that tool performed in the past on a similar part and similar material," said the spokesperson. "In a job shop that is running different parts every day, those are not always easy questions to answer without having to talk to the machinist, programmer and tooling engineer or go to three different software systems. True Analytics works with customers to determine what questions they need answered to better understand the process and develop interface solutions to make it easy to get that information."
For more information contact:
Starrag USA Inc.
Skyport Business Park
2379 Progress Drive
Hebron, KY 41048
859-534-5201
ussales@starrag.com
www.starrag.com
True Analytics Manufacturing Solutions (TAMS)
www.trueanalyticssolutions.com