SMART MANUFACTURING


“We’re thinking of how do we get a representation of


the product that’s out there and link it to better perfor- mance for our customers,” Biller said. By automatically monitoring the


additive manufacturing; and more, according to MTConnect Strategic Roadmap to Promote Advanced Manufacturing.


product via sensors connected to it, and creating a digital thread that spans its entire life cycle, GE can assess the item’s performance and recommend service based on the feedback it gets. Feedback from the sensors can also be relayed to product designers and engineers so that flaws can be designed or engineered out of the next generation of a product.


“MONITORING EACH MACHINE WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO CONNECT ALL MACHINES FOR A UNIFIED VIEW OF PLANT PRODUCTIVITY WON’T ALLOW COMPANIES TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE MARKET.”


Speaking the same language One factor facilitating the move to smart manufacturing


is the establishment of MTConnect, an open-source, royalty- free, read-only standard that al- lows for the organized retrieval of process information from numeri- cally controlled machine tools. Created by the Association


for Manufacturing Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Georgia Insti- tute of Technology, the first ver- sion of MTConnect was released in 2008. “A huge enabling factor for


this desired connectivity, and the productivity it enables, is the communication standard of choice for manufacturing,” said David McPhail, CEO of Memex Inc. (Burlington, ON, Canada). “MTConnect enables manufactur- ing equipment to provide data in a single structured XML format rather than an obstructive array of proprietary formats.” MTConnect version 1.3 was re-


leased late in 2014, and updates are planned through Version 1.6. Future updates are to include enhanced security and metrology; adding new modes of manufacturing, including wire and laser jet cutting; electrical discharge machining;


16


“This is a big, big deal because without it you are given a book with words you have never heard and no easy way to figure out what those words mean,” said Dave Edstrom, Memex’s chief technology officer and previous president and board chairman of the MTConnect Institute. Once the data is collected, manufacturers need to


analyze it if they’re going to achieve the greater efficiency and be able to react more quickly to trends and defects, as Hu describes. A variety of software companies now, such as Memex, 5ME, GE, Itamco, TechSolve, Forcam, now offer software that uses MTConnect to collect data and then provides analysis to optimize manufacturing production. McPhail offers an example to il-


lustrate the value of MTConnect. When one of McPhail’s clients,


Ford is working to reduce injuries on its assembly lines, in part by using “full- body motion capture” technology, the company said. That technology involves placing more than 50 motion-capture markers on an assembly line worker’s arms, back, legs and torso. The sensors record more than 5000 data points on human muscle strength and weakness, joint strain and body imbalance.


aerospace and defense contrac- tor Rose Integration (Carleton Place, ON, Canada), started using Memex’s Merlin software on 20% of its machines to produce daily reports on overall efficiency, non- conforming events and downtime, it revealed 40% lower production and efficiency rates on the night shift, compared with the day shift. The plant manager’s hypothesis


that unsupervised workers at night were less motivated to improve output was confirmed when he saw a 20% increase in efficiency within a week of implementing the software, and further gains to 25% overall equipment effectiveness when all of its machines were connected.


Spring 2016


Photo courtesy of Ford Motor


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