Manufacturing Data System - Go Paperless
Increase Output, Reduce Downtime, Improve Quality, Cut Costs, Maximise Profits - Under One Year Payback Typical
Accurate real time manufacturing data is crucial to maximising production efficiency, improving shopfloor management and manufacturing cost reduction.
Improving Quality through Process Improvement
Maximise Quality, Reduce Waste - Get the Most out of your Process
With energy costs rising, getting the most out of your production process is becoming more important than ever before. By tracking quality rates and having targeted data on the issues you have with it, you can start to make changes to reduce the amount of scrapped or reworked product.
Time and Attendance Tracking - Who is in?
Who is in? is optional PlantRun functionality that allows for tracking of users and visitors on a work site. It records arrival and departure times for each person. This data is stored in a database and the data can be used to generate lists of people currently on site, categorised as Operators, Engineers, Other Staff, and Visitors.
CNC Machine Production Monitoring System
A CNC machine production monitoring system is a type of production monitoring system that is used to track the progress of products as they are machined in a CNC machine. This type of system can be used in a variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, and medical.
Minimising Unexpected Downtime with Machine Monitoring
Manufacturing operations are crucial components of many industries, including automotive, aerospace and consumer goods. However, unexpected downtime can disrupt production, resulting in significant financial losses, decreased product quality, missed delivery deadlines, and increased maintenance and repair expenses. To combat these issues, companies must focus on minimising unexpected downtime through proactive maintenance and monitoring.
In this article, we'll explore what unexpected downtime is, the costs associated with it, real-world examples of its impact, strategies for combating it, the benefits of using machine monitoring systems like PlantRun, and how PlantRun can help companies achieve their goals.
Bottling Line Production Monitoring System
Bottling line production monitoring systems are used to track the progress of bottles through the bottling process, identify potential problems, and ensure that bottles are filled to the correct level and sealed properly. PlantRun's bottling line production monitoring system can be used to monitor a variety of bottles, including glass bottles, plastic bottles, and metal bottles.
Six Big Losses in OEE
Usage Based Maintenance in Manufacturing
Usage based maintenance is a maintenance strategy that involves scheduling maintenance based on the actual usage of equipment rather than on a predetermined schedule. This approach can provide a number of benefits in manufacturing environments, including:
Unlock your Hidden Factory
Do you feel like you need to expand your factory to make improvements?
Without accurate information from a real time system like PlantRun, there could be plenty of ‘hidden’ capacity in your existing setup.
OEE Systems
Live OEE - no more paper form filling
Many of the worlds leading manufacturers have turned to OEE - Overall Equipment Effectiveness - as a key performance indicator in the pursuit of maximum production efficiency and operational excellence. Yet for many OEE has failed to deliver the promised benefits. Why?..
PlantRun - The Automatic Way to Monitor and Reduce Setup
When you're looking to improve your manufacturing process, reducing setup time is a key factor.
With PlantRun, you can automatically monitor and reduce your setup time, making the process quicker and easier than ever before. PlantRun is a software package that helps you eliminate paperwork and improve communication between operators, making the changeover process smoother and more efficient
Machine Operator Efficiency (MOE)
Achieve Paperless Manufacturing in 6 Steps
Going paperless can be postponed but it cannot be put off indefinitely as your competitors are responding to the same market conditions.
The sooner you start the sooner you will reap the many benefits.
Removing Paperwork & Paperless Manufacturing
Thermal Imaging and Thermography
OEE: Controlling and improving reliability, productivity and yield quality
Conveyor Monitoring System
Throughput of items or weight, speed and runtime only requires connection to a suitable sensor, which may already be pre-fitted to the conveyor. With the addition of an operator interface further information can be captured such as specific product or load type, batch ID, reasons for downtime, scrap etc.
Manufacturing Production Checklist Automation
Manufacturing Batch Traceability
When manufacturing respirators a number of materials are fed into the process. To ensure compliance with the relevant standards it is necessary to have a process where input material batch numbers can be linked with output product.
The system replaces manual collection of input material batch numbers on to paper records. The requirement for paperless data capture was highlighted during the introduction of SAP on site.
Manufacturing KPI Reporting
Having easy access to accurate manufacturing key performance indicators is vital to effective management and production efficiency. Manufacturing KPI reporting is a major benefit of a PlantRun real-time manufacturing information system. The KPI data that is collected and stored by PlantRun can generate management reports or be displayed on manufacturing dashboards.
Machine Downtime Reduction
Reducing equipment or machine down time has an instant beneficial effect on manufacturing operational availability and output. However, without accurate information on the true amount and causes of unplanned downtime it can be difficult to identify how it can be reduced.
How to improve OEE
OEE highlights the “major losses” in the manufacturing process for focused improvement. It can then be used to measure the effect of efforts or initiatives introduced to reduce the major losses and thereby tap “hidden capacity”.
Improved Shopfloor Management
PlantRun systems continuously collect data from all monitored machines. This information is then presented on a PC display as a 'shop floor overview', which provides an instant picture of the condition of every machine. Similarly large format overhead displays can provide relevant KPI information in production areas.
Improving Operator Efficiency
- Minimise extended breaks, late starts, early finishes
- Reduce overtime, shifts, manning levels
- Increase competition and motivation
Measuring and improving operator efficiency of machines and equipment on the shopfloor can have a dramatic effect on manufacturing productivity and output.
Product Rationalization - Identifying Unprofitable Products
Few manufacturers would admit to manufacturing unprofitable products even if they knew it. However, if you are manufacturing a range of products chances are that one or more could be unprofitable, unless you can accurately quantify the on costs of making each product line.
Managing Manufacturing Bottlenecks
A manufacturing bottleneck is a constraint or choke point that limits production output. Many manufacturing operations suffer from bottlenecks caused by one or more machines and the bottleneck may change depending upon the actual product being manufactured. Identifying and managing manufacturing bottlenecks can have a major impact on output and profits.
Manufacturing Time Management
Are your machines stopped when they should be running?
Save 15 to 30 minutes per shift per operator? That’s what 41% of current users report*
Poor time keeping, operators starting late, taking extra time during breaks, finishing early and taking longer to restart a machine than they should is a typical scenario in many manufacturing companies.
Visual Factory Management
Visual factory management is as it suggests the use of visual cues or aids to enable improved management of factories and manufacturing production areas.
PlantRun enables visual factory management in several ways including;
Downtime Cause Analysis
PlantRun is a real-time asset utilisation system and provides sophisticated collection, reporting and analysis of downtime – which is a major cause of lost manufacturing production.
Measuring Maintenance Effectiveness or Performance
PlantRun can provide highly accurate maintenance KPI’s in real-time for improved maintenance effectiveness or performance.
Quick Changeover and Setup Reduction
Quick Changeover, also referred to as Setup Reduction aims to minimise non-value added activities during production changeover and the setup processes, enabling faster, more efficient change from one product to another.
Automatic Job Costing
The manufacturing cost per unit or production cost per unit is often a crucial metric and can vary greatly from one production run to another depending upon the input cost variables. An example would be when extra staffing is used to ensure rapid throughput at times of high demand.
OEE - Overall Equipment Effectiveness
Since its original development in Japan in the 1970’s OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness has become a widely used metric for measuring manufacturing efficiency. OEE is the main tool of the Total Productive Maintenance improvement program and is used to reduce or eliminate the “Six Big Losses” that limit production.
Short Interval Control
Short Interval Control (SIC) is a powerful method for improving production efficiency by focusing attention on major losses and forecasting risks over short time spans.
OEE Data Collection
PlantRun systems automate manufacturing OEE data collection, reporting and analysis eliminating the problems and costs associated with collecting and processing OEE data manually.
Production Line Monitoring System
Production Monitoring System
Cost effective, expandable and futureproof
Having accurate information at production level is crucial to drive manufacturing efficiency and lean and continuous improvement initiatives. PlantRun provides cost effective real-time production monitoring to enable you to;
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Optimise the use of current capacity
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Reduce production costs
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Reduce inventory
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Increase visibility across departments
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Improve customer response time
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Payback typically less than 12 months
Mobile BI for manufacturing - SmartView
SmartView gives you mobile business intelligence allowing you to remotely access your manufacturing operational kpi data directly from any mobile device.
Acting as a mobile dashboard SmartView displays real time metrics directly from your PlantRun system allowing you to view the critical information you need for the smooth running of your business, whenever, wherever.
Shop Floor Data Collection System
Increase Output, Reduce Downtime, Improve Quality, Cut Costs, Maximise Profits - Under One Year Payback Typical
In the world of manufacturing, the pursuit of efficiency is never-ending. Production managers and manufacturing companies face an ongoing battle against bottlenecks, downtime, and the constant pressure to enhance productivity.
Meet PlantRun – the transformative Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC) system, designed to elevate your productivity, reduce downtime, enhance product quality, cut costs, and elevate your profits. And the best part? You could see a return on your investment in under a year!
How manufacturers can thrive in the recession
Coping with a global recession is difficult for many manufacturing companies. Reduced demand and struggling global markets means that manufacturers are looking to slash costs, do more with less and simply survive. Most businesses use the apparently logical approach of reductions to staff, budgets, travel, using cheaper suppliers, in fact anything that cuts costs immediately.
However, all this does is starve the core infrastructure of the business to the point where it cannot function effectively. The result is that as the market recovers, these companies will continue to struggle and get left behind.
Recession? Three good reasons to order PlantRun in a downturn
In challenging financial times we all stop and think twice before spending funds and we want to make certain that any investment made really has an impact.
Production Planning and Scheduling
PlantRun is not a planning and scheduling system but aids production planning and scheduling as each new production run or batch is identified by a unique user defined batch reference. The information for that run or batch, including start and end times and all relevant monitored parameters, can then be stored in the system database against that unique batch reference.
Manufacturing Knowledge Management
PlantRun has specialised facilities that enable manufacturing knowledge management through its use as a central knowledge base and as a manufacturing expert system.
Andon System
Problem, breakdown or stoppage? Call for assistance at the push of a button.
With PlantRun this alert can be made by pressing a button on the operator interface at the asset or may be activated automatically when a system alarm is triggered.
Production Counter System
Machine Downtime Systems
Reducing machine downtime has an instant beneficial effect on manufacturing production efficiency and output. However, without accurate information on the real amount and the causes of downtime it can sometimes be a difficult to see how machine downtime can be reduced.
Manufacturing Notification System
The primary aim is to provide faster response to and minimise production issues and losses.
Machine Speed Optimisation
Firstly, it is possible to accurately monitor speeds against target levels for each machine and alert when they are performing out of range. In particular small variations in machine speed often go unnoticed by operators whereas a monitoring system can immediately alert the need for corrective action to be taken.
Manufacturing Barcode Systems
With a barcoding system you can easily obtain information that would be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise. Faster access to information enables better management, better decision-making allowing you to gain advantages over the competition.
Machine Monitoring Systems
PlantRun is a highly effective and adaptable machine monitoring system. Although designed for automating manufacturing production data collection PlantRun can also be used for capturing any other required parameters or for specialised applications.
Machine monitoring is a broad term that means different things to different people. We have over 30 years expertise in applying software solutions to machine monitoring applications and we will be pleased to discuss your requirement whatever it is.
