Manufacturing Intelligence: Powered by Industry 4.0

What Is Industry 4.0? The concept of Industry 4.0 is reaching—it covers technologies like industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the cloud, edge computing, and digital twins as well as other defining concepts such as machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). The foundation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is automation. All of the systems that collect and communicate data are there to serve the purpose of making industrial and manufacturing...

What Is Machine Maintenance? Machine maintenance is the process of performing upkeep on machinery to ensure continued working order. It can include maintenance that occurs as part of a regular routine or prior to any sort of break or damage—things like cleaning surfaces, lubricating gears, and checking for wear and tear on parts like belts. It can also involve monitoring equipment for any signs of potential trouble ahead, such as a change in vibrational patterns or an...

Accurate job standards can make or break the operational and financial success of a manufacturer. Lack of real-time validation methods for setup and cycle times lead to poor forecasting and the impact is felt throughout the organization. In this article, we discuss how manufacturers can use MachineMetrics to easily verify job standards against real performance data and how honing job standards can help you price your parts better and schedule jobs more accurately. Why is...

Cloud-based technologies are connecting plants, people, and machine data in ways like never before. Given today’s fast-paced and highly-distributed industrial environments, along with the criticality of optimized maintenance management, operations and maintenance teams in the manufacturing industry experience substantial competitive advantages with cloud-based technologies. Traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems do not provide quick and remote access to the...

Using Machine Data to Drive Factory Floor Optimization Automated manufacturing equipment (CNC machines if you will), and the people who operate this equipment, are the beating heart of any manufacturing operation and represent one of the largest capital expenses for manufacturers. These machines are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and produce more data than that of any other industry, yet this data is not being captured or analyzed to improve efficiency despite all of...

Resolving Machine Downtimes Faster Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to produce more good parts, and one of the biggest barriers to this is machine downtime events. With MachineMetrics, you can resolve both alarms and downtimes faster to reduce overall unplanned downtime and increase operator productivity. In this guide, we will be sharing a variety of ways that MachineMetrics can enable your team to quickly resolve these issues to ensure machines are running as...

Big data and manufacturing go hand in hand, because so much of what goes on in a manufacturing business is measurable and able to be optimized. Data streams are increasing in size, relevance, and number as manufacturers flock to the powerful capabilities, predictions, and insights data can unlock for their businesses. But the true value of data can only be accessed if manufacturers can successfully develop a culture and deploy an infrastructure that supports the automated...

The Adoption of Big Data Analytics in Manufacturing The term “big data” refers to increasingly complex, massive data stores that can’t be effectively processed using traditional methods. In manufacturing, big data can refer to information collected from a variety of sources including machine sensor data, quality assurance information, data from suppliers, production output, maintenance, financial information, and basically any other measurable process that goes into modern...

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing is roaring back to life and with it comes a renewed focus on Digital Transformation initiatives. The industry stands on the doorstep of its much anticipated renaissance, and it’s clear that manufacturing leaders need to not only embrace but to accelerate innovation while managing critical processes like increasing capacity while maintaining product quality. Effective collaboration will be key to doing both well; but it’s...

One of the greatest struggles for any manufacturer is knowing what is actually happening on the shop floor. To overcome this struggle manufacturers are using OEE Software to collect the critical data that gives department heads, supervisors, and operators real-time information about shop-floor activities, enabling them to make faster, more confident production decisions. If the objective of implementing a production monitoring software is to understand current performance,...