Manufacturing Intelligence: Powered by Industry 4.0

Manufacturing leaders today are having an increasingly difficult time choosing software that meets their ever-growing needs. Traditionally, manufacturing operations would use an ERP/MRP system that was designed for their facility, and fill in gaps with Microsoft Access, Excel, or paper. These systems require a lot of maintenance, manual data entry, and usually a team of consultants to implement. ERP systems have attempted to solve these problems, only to add complexity to...

If I've learned anything from the recent return to in-person events, it's that nothing can match the energy and depth of insight gained from face-to-face interactions. At EASTEC, I spent three days speaking with local manufacturers, suppliers, and customers, and it is clear that the urgency to embrace shop floor digitalization has arrived. Over the course of the pandemic, manufacturers have navigated volatile market conditions leading most to realize that adoption of...

The expense of tooling combined with scrapping defective parts makes extending tool life an important objective for metal cutting companies. Traditional machining relied on settings determined experimentally to determine the life of a machine tool. Operators could log part counts until a tool failed or began developing out of spec parts. The average of these part counts could be used to establish a threshold for the life of the tool. Alternatively, they could use the machine...

Companies have realized the benefits of information technology for many years. And with the arrival of the Industrial Internet of Things (II0T) technology, a new revolution of digitization of production is underway. But as both these technologies continue to mature, IT/OT convergence is becoming a reality and promises to deliver a more significant combined benefit for IIoT adoption than either could alone. What is the Definition of Information Technology (IT)? IT systems...

In CNC machining, the reality is that metal meeting metal results in tool wear. Metal cutting, grinding, drilling, boring, and other tasks are all part of machining. And as these activities are all “metal-on-metal,” at some point, something must give. This "give" comes in the form of tool wear, where regular operation means that tools will lose surface, sharpness, and temper over time. If equipment and processes are monitored and optimized, this wear is gradual and...

Over the last decade, digital transformation has accelerated among all industries. This revolution of new technologies has altered traditional manufacturing and the business landscape across the globe and is poised to accelerate even more. As recently as 2018, manufacturing companies transformed digitally accounted for $13.5 trillion of global GDP. But it is estimated that by 2023, this number will have risen to encompass $53.3 trillion of global GDP. In this article, we...

Manually managing and tracking production is beginning to become a habit of the past. Manufacturers are switching to a new approach of executing workflows, communicating, record-keeping, and scheduling; one that is driven by digital technology: Paperless Manufacturing. This technology consists primarily of advanced cloud-based software, AI, machine learning algorithms, and advanced analytics that make paper-based systems obsolete. Acting as paperless manufacturing software,...

Knowing how to solve production issues quickly and efficiently is a skill all manufacturing managers should possess. Though there are many strategies that exist to identify and fix problems, the starting point for eliminating the most severe shop floor issues is having an infrastructure in place to support the automated collection and standardization of production data. With accurate, real-time data, managers can identify what problems are occurring, the root cause of the...

Quality is perhaps best understood and enforced in high precision component industries such as aerospace and defense, as well as medical device manufacturing. With that said, all manufacturers take into consideration defects, rework, scrap, and their associated costs. On the forefront of quality metrics, First Pass Yield is a helpful KPI to monitor as it answers a key question for managers: How effective are we at manufacturing quality parts? What is First Pass Yield? First...

What is Machine Operator Efficiency? Machine Operator Efficiency, or MOE, measures the performance of industrial machinery operators. Represented in the form of a percentage, it takes into consideration time, parts created, and part quality to effectively measure shop floor employee performance. Shop floor supervisors and plant managers can use MOE to evaluate the performance of their employees, just as they would use Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to evaluate...