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With improved factory data collection, manufacturers can get a more accurate view of manufacturing processes
Process improvement encompasses a wide range of tools, techniques and strategies. When properly deployed, shop-floor data collection and monitoring systems can help factory-floor managers leverage key data metrics including overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and total effective equipment performance (TEEP) that measure machine uptime and pinpoint bottlenecks or other problems in order to improve machining performance.
OEE metrics quantify factors including machine availability and operating time, part production performance, and quality. With OEE, manufacturers get the latest information on machine availability against planned uptimes, performance against target values, and quality data for comparing good versus scrapped parts.
Monitoring the Shop Floor
Without shop-floor monitoring systems, manufacturers cannot effectively employ OEE metrics and lean manufacturing, said Dave Edstrom, president and chairman, MTConnect Institute (McLean, VA). At the MTConnect conference last April, the new MTConnect Challenge was presented, aiming to spur development of advanced manufacturing intelligence applications using the MTConnect standard. Edstrom said shop-floor monitoring is a must for both OEE and lean. "I think a lot of people are kidding themselves, because if you don't have the data, you can't be doing OEE or lean," Edstrom said.
MTConnect is an open-source, royalty-free protocol for sharing machine data using the XML and HTTP standards which Edstrom said allows manufacturers to easily get data from machines, including older legacy equipment, through MTConnect agents and adapters. The read-only protocol has gained many converts, with major machine builders, controls developers and manufacturing software companies supporting it to more seamlessly share manufacturing equipment data. The protocol now supports the ISO 13999 standard for specifications for tooling data, which simplifies sharing of standardized tooling information between manufacturing companies.
"The myth among machine tool builders is that it doesn't benefit them, but when you talk to them, they're differentiating themselves by being open, and it's saving these machine tool builders direct money," Edstrom said. Most builders supporting MTConnect have included agents and adapters for the protocol with newer machines for free, he added, or charge for a nominal fee on adapters for older legacy equipment.
To date, shop-floor monitoring hasn't really taken off in the machine tool industry, with estimates that only 4% of shops monitor machines, though...