Machine Data for Smart Manufacturing

Manufacturing data is the foundation to achieve ROI from IIoT and continuous improvement programs.

Capturing asset data isn’t always plug-and-play.

A lot of companies have machine data gaps that create significant lag times to access, analyze, and act on core operations performance and business processes.  Without full access to data from manufacturing equipment, shop floor operators and management teams can’t determine where they can impact on quality, scrap, and downtime.

However, getting data isn’t as simple as plugging an Ethernet cable into the machine.  Machine connectivity is defined by the type of connection that is supported by the machine builder.  If your organization is missing data from even a few machines, it’s probably not getting full ROI from the manufacturing operations management (MOM) or ERP systems.

  • Most factories have a broad mix of newer and legacy manufacturing equipment, and few organizations know how to get all the data out of every machine on the shop floor
  • A majority of machine buyers aren’t aware that machine data isn’t standard or easily accessible on new capital equipment — some machine makers even charge a lot of dollars to get access to machine data
  • While IT groups are usually eager to help get data out of machines, their teams aren’t always familiar with every cabinet and every protocol on every machine
  • Maintenance engineers are machine experts, not data protocol or architecture experts; they usually struggle to get machine data quickly and in a cost-effective manner

TRUSTED BY

Bemis Manufacturing Company

Bush’s Best

Lakeside Foods

MACLEAN FOGG
Pratt & Whitney Raytheon Technologies Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Shiloh Industries

Capture Machine Data to Fuel Systems, Performance, and Programs

  • Experts in machine and data protocols serving >20 manufacturing industries
  • Capture any kind of data from any data source
Data Sources Data Types
  • Network or wireless devices (OPC, IP, Bluetooth, SPP protocols)
  • Intelligent machines (PLC, CNC, CMM, robots, test stands, vision system, optical comparators)
  • Local serial devices (micrometers, calipers, scales, tensile testers, hardness testers, keyboards, and other gauges via USB or RS232)
  • Business systems (ERP, MES, LIMS, APC, HMI, SCADA, others)
  • Existing data (ODBC databases, Microsoft Excel, structured text files)
  • Quality measurements (weight, dimensions, functional tests)
  • Process parameters (machine performance, environment)
  • Attributes (visual inspections, defects)
  • Traceability (tags, lot number, shift, machine)

We’ve seen every kind of machine and we get the data every time.

The Toward Zero Machine Connectivity Audit is a proven methodology to document each asset’s “connectability,” (e.g., machine connectivity).  It’s a critical foundational backbone for shop floor and manufacturing system projects and implementation so your team can create a dependable, achievable, and realistic project plan that includes every asset that is in-scope.  Your machine connectivity expert will work with you to:

  • Examine and document each asset’s “connectability,” (e.g., machine connectivity)
  • Categorize machines into two groups (native connectivity such as FANUC FOCUS, MTConnect, Euromap 63, OPC, or OPC UA; or legacy equipment that require IIoT hardware or gateway device such as a PLC)
  • Assess current connection state
  • Capture all relevant machine information (location, serial number, brass tag info, controller, IP address, and many others)

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What can your company do with all its machine data?

Wires in Data Cabinet

More ROI from your manufacturing execution system

MOM/MES makes it possible to measure performance, which is core to a CI program.

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More accurate  OEE

The right OEE solution helps your team find root causes and solve problems.

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Continuous improvement

Data and analytics are the backbone of effective CI and the ability to drive overall corporate performance.

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