Manufacturing Intelligence: Powered by Industry 4.0

Using Shop Floor Control to Manage with Confidence Intelligent shop floor management is a basic premise of modern management approaches. It’s proven that optimally functioning shop floor operations have a direct, positive impact on management’s ability to ensure the business meets its production targets and that no delays impact delivery commitments. It also fosters the establishment of regular, timely, and seamless communication between an organization’s senior C-suite and...

MachineMetrics was started back in 2015 to transform the manufacturing industry with real-time data from machines. Before starting to build the product, we had interviewed about 100 small to mid-sized manufacturers, and concluded the following: Executives thought that their machine utilization rate was 60-70%, but it seemed like the actual rate was lower (later we discovered that the industry average is under 30%) ERP systems were used to track production, but data has to be...

MachineMetrics Announces $20M Series B Funding Round Industrial Data Startup Ushers in New Era of Autonomous Machining for Manufacturers BOSTON—MachineMetrics, an industrial data startup that elevates manufacturing performance through autonomous machining, announced today it has raised $20 million in Series B financing. The company will use the funding to scale its platform globally and democratize access to the machine insights that power manufacturing operations....

In the age of Industry 4.0, where every business is seeking to gain a competitive edge, it’s never been more critical for manufacturers to deliver high-quality products, on time. Production bottlenecks and delays, spiraling production and maintenance costs, and extended machine downtime simply can’t be tolerated. That’s why today’s forward-looking manufacturers are pioneering new ways to drive efficiencies by using the latest resource monitoring systems. Indeed, resource...

Manufacturers are in a constant state of improvement, but increasing efficiency and reducing lead times has brought much attention to the amount of time machines are not in production. Companies often underestimate the cost and amount of downtime they experience, despite the fact that it greatly affects the capacity of an entire shop. The following will explore strategies and solutions to track, categorize, expose, and ultimately reduce machine downtime to ensure...

One of the biggest problems manufacturers face is downtime. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that most manufacturers are unaware of what is causing the downtime across their plant. Fortunately, connected technology and Cloud computing platforms have have the ability to connect, collect, and analyze data and generate automatic user-friendly reports. With machine monitoring, manufacturers are able to see the amount, impact, and causes of machine downtime in order to...

As the employees closest to production, operators have deep visibility into the shop floor. On the other hand, other stakeholders including shop floor managers and manufacturing engineers sometimes struggle with visibility into the status of production, how a team is performing against production goals, and how efficiently your equipment and resources are being used. Fortunately, connected devices provide data, analytics, reports, and communication tools to shine a light on...

Most companies place a high value on the ability to increase production capacity. And it’s especially valuable to do so if added equipment costs can be avoided. After all, the nature of manufacturing is to produce goods, and modern operations are only getting more efficient at doing so. In this article, we will be exploring exactly what production capacity is and strategies you can use for finding hidden capacity within your shop. What is Production Capacity? Production...

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...