SOFTWARE UPDATE News About Digital Manufacturing Tools and Software
Pete Tecos
Executive Vice President 5ME LLC
EFFICIENCY SOFTWARE FOR ANY MACHINE, ANY CONTROL
Smart Manufacturing: What’s new with plant-floor
manufacturing software? Tecos: There is demand for scalable, configurable, and
comprehensive plant-floor monitoring software that pro- vides meaningful data to drive sustainable productivity improvements. The latest version of our Freedom eLOG software suite includes a Dashboards module that lets users create a per- sonalized view of machine tool performance data pertinent to their job function. It can be set up to monitor a single machine, a value stream, or a mix of various machines on the shop floor. The inclusion of legacy equipment is another issue, as shops that appreciate the impact of plant-floor moni- toring look to bring more and more assets under the monitoring umbrella to optimize efficiency. The Freedom Digital Interface (FDI) enables legacy machines, and even manual equipment to be interfaced with Freedom eLOG. The FDI is also MTConnect Compliant. SM: How critical is it for manufacturers to employ
MTConnect-capable software to track OEE and other manufacturing metrics on the shop floor? Tecos: It is an absolute necessity for those shops look-
ing to build highly productive, profitable, and sustainable businesses. Leveraging MTConnect enables manufacturers to collect data from critical assets and through software platforms, such as Freedom eLOG, transform that data into actionable information that will identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, as well as streamline processes. SM: What new data collection and analysis solutions are
available from your company? Tecos: In addition to configurable Dashboards, our
Freedom eLOG software now includes the e$CORE fea- ture, which monetizes machine tool performance based on the six span-time categories as defined by the Asso- ciation for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). It provides full transparency into manufacturing gains
or losses in terms of dollars, putting the amount of money being saved or wasted in the plant at manage- ment’s fingertips.
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The software includes three types of reports—burden, monetary and summary—which can be customized by users based on an assigned hourly value for each ma- chine. Users assign the percentage weights based on the AMT category (plant shut-down, scheduled downtime, delay time, repair time, not-in-cycle process time and in-cycle time), and the e$CORE value is calculated by summing the daily values in each category. We are also developing solutions that penetrate our clients’ manufacturing processes horizontally as well as vertically to include Maintenance, In-Process Validation/ SPC, Work Orders & Routings, Maintenance, and integra- tion to upstream business systems. SM: How difficult is it to deploy these monitoring solu- tions, and what’s the payoff for users?
THE SOFTWARE INCLUDES THREE TYPES OF REPORTS— BURDEN, MONETARY AND SUMMARY—THAT CAN BE CUSTOMIZED BY USERS BASED ON AN ASSIGNED HOURLY VALUE FOR EACH MACHINE.
Tecos: Deployment is actually one of the strengths, and
key differentiators, of Freedom eLOG. Because it does not require changes to ladder logic or part programs and is web-based, with off-the-shelf software that is accessible on any browser or mobile device, it has consistently achieved high velocity deployment. It is minimally invasive to our customers’ production, with little to no downtime, and is brand, asset, and process agnostic. It is also configurable and scalable, and integrates seam-
lessly with ERP, MES, maintenance, and quality systems. Customers consistently see a full return on investment in a few months after implementing Freedom eLOG. SM: How are some key customers deploying this tech-
nology to improve productivity? Tecos: We have a large-equipment OEM customer that implemented Freedom eLOG, and it helped them reduce delay times and setup times to such an extent that it re- sulted in nearly a 50% In-Cycle time improvement. That implementation translated to a productivity in- crease worth $6 million.
Spring 2016
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