Shop-floor data collection in Predator Software gives users productivity and cost data on machine cycle times, part production, and other key metrics.
Image courtesy Predator Software.
engineers know where their shop floor is weak, but knowing the cumulative effect to champion change is where we can help. In addition, it can provide the metrics to gauge the ROI or success after the conclu- sion of the lean initiative.”
Manufacturing Data at Your Fingertips A fairly recent trend in data monitoring is customers looking for mobile data solutions, said Greg Mer- curio, president, Shop Floor Automations Inc. (SFA; La Mesa, CA), a distributor of Predator Software and other shop-floor data collection solutions. Shop Floor Automations also has partnered with Scytec Consult- ing Inc. (Greenwood, CO), a custom manufacturing software developer offering a hosted machine tool data collection and process control system. The Scytec DataXchange system includes a configurable Real-Time Viewer dashboard for viewing of shop-floor data with automatic updating. “We’ve looked at certain solutions that don’t meet all of our customers’ needs, and we fill in where the software lacks,” Mercurio said of SFA’s add-on software plug-ins developed for applications like Predator MDC and other packages. “One of the big- gest things now is smartphones and Androids. “Mostly we are more machine-centric, more concerned about what’s happening on the machine,”
SS20
he said, “and so we have the capabilities of tapping into the machine and saying ‘What are you currently doing? Is the machine currently cycling? Is it currently not running because of a certain reason? Is it down because of coolant leaks, or maybe it’s down because of preventive maintenance. Maybe there’s a quality problem or a programming problem as well. From a data-management side, we can actually collect and report real-time what’s happening with the machine, and this can be displayed on some kind of dashboard or on a Web interface.” Costs for shop-floor data collection systems, which
can be anywhere from $3000–$5000 per machine, can be a barrier to manufacturers implementing the systems, Mercurio said, and as an alternative, SFA has been of- fering the Scytec-hosted machine data collection. The Scytec DataXchange can offer machine monitoring for as little as $45 a month, with no large upfront costs or long- term commitments, with the cloud-based data viewable anywhere from an Internet connection. “Over the years, there’s always been a large amount of hurdles that shops say they have in implementing shop-floor data collection,” said Josh Davids, Scytec Consulting president. “A lot of people want data col- lection and they’re very hesitant. For a lot of smaller companies, and even larger operations, installing database servers and other requirements are daunting.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132