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Memex Automation: Flexibility Improves Efficiency

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Originally published online by SBW!RE.  Link to full article here.

According to John Rattray, of Financial OEE leader, Memex Automation, “Flexibility improves efficiency…Being efficient while responsive to shifting customer demand requires an enterprise-wide manufacturing transformation: moving from Manufacturing-to-Forecast (MTF) to Build-to-Order (BTO) which can create a dramatic payoff. Greater flexibility means allocation for most efficient production across plants, shifts or suppliers, resulting in a faster response to changing conditions and improved overall plant utilization. Greater efficiency reduces Work in Process (WIP), labor, scrap and rework, saving both time and money.

Improving manufacturing efficiency is a pre-requisite to better profitability and corporate success. Enhancing manufacturing performance yields huge advantages – from cost reductions to a stronger competitive position – which can be passed on to shareholders or customers. The trick is to be highly efficient while improving quality, expanding product portfolio, and becoming more demand driven.”

“Success is increasingly tied to improving manufacturing performance, and improving it quickly. Manufacturers are increasing their focus on the bottom line. This scrutiny is leading to renewed attention on manufacturing, where the most significant assets (plant and equipment) and costs are. Manufacturers need to cut costs, increase cash flow and become more responsive to changing market conditions.”

Rattray insists there are rules that will drive profitability to the bottom line.

Culture of Continuous Improvement

Having an enterprise platform for manufacturing operations real-time Key Performance Metrics such as OEE provides global visibility, across your operations. These capabilities let you easily identify and replicate best practices across your global operations while instilling a culture of continuous improvement across production, warehouse, quality, maintenance and labor activities. Standardized best-practices reduce cycle and takt times across your operations, helping to ensure On Time Delivery (OTD). Global, real-time visibility that is actionable on a 24/7 basis enables immediate resolution to operational disruptions.

MEMEX - Real-Time visibility

OEE Dashboard Software Featured at CMTS by Memex Automation

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Published online by SBW!RE (link to original article online)

According to John Rattray of Memex Automation, “One of the important products we will feature this year is AxOEE. AxOEE allows information output to large (“Marquee”) displays. There is real-time, color-coded information about machine and Job status, Job Parts to Go, Job Hours to Go, Reason for stoppage, Operator help call, and more data which, can be transmitted to a Marquee via Ethernet, anywhere in the plant.” These benefits can be viewed at CMTS at Booth 1135 in Toronto starting October 17th.

AxOEE is a Manufacturing Productivity Tool for Real-Time Monitoring enabling Increased Productivity:

  • Cost Effective
  • Practical & Proven
  • Expandable
  • Plant-wide, enterprise enabled.
  • All machines – CNC, non-CNC, PLC, Presses, Injection Molding, etc.
  • AxOEE Machine Monitoring OEE Dashboard Software

Latest Release (October 2011), key features to be displayed at CMTS, booth 1135 include:

  • Job Queue – directly connected to any ERP package for scheduling work orders
  • Visual Job Board – for graphically displaying and manipulating jobs.
  • Active Status 2D Floor Plan – for a visual layout of the plant floor with current machine status, supporting most common imaging formats, including JPG, DXF, DWG, BMP, QIF, and TIF.
  • Report Writer significant enhancements – SAP Crystal using XML, with Extract, Transform and Load functionality.
  • Automated Report Scheduler – for sending out reports on a scheduled or real-time with rules basis.
  • Latest Software Development tools from Microsoft – Visual Studio 2010, DotNet version 4, Windows 7 compliant.
  • MS-SQL full database support running with Windows Server 2008.
  • New Look and Feel customization features – for doing specialized display skins and user interface.
  • Customization of Dashboard features – for making it fit to a customer’s specific requirements Multiple Language support.

Memex Automation Talks Benefits of Automated Approach

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Originally published online by SBW!RE.  Link to full article here.

Memex understands the need to be more competitive and get the maximum throughput with your machine assets in manufacturing. To be able to “visualize” how your machines are operating allows customers to react quickly to situations. Measuring what actually happens on the shop floor allows manufacturing and industry leaders to tune processes using lean manufacturing techniques. Apply the Theory of Constraints principle by monitoring and identifying a constraint. Improve operator productivity and satisfaction by helping them perform faster and reduce their data collection overhead using automatic and accurate tracking systems. OEE – Overall Equipment Effectiveness is the key performance indicator that drives this machine monitoring process.

“OEE is a Manufacturing Productivity Tool for Real-Time Monitoring enabling Increased Productivity,” according to John Rattray, of Memex Automation. “By monitoring assets such as tooling, raw materials, Work In Progress, computers, vehicles and any moveable assets, companies can know quickly, exactly, and securely where assets are located. Ultimately this is an automated approach because we measure the shop floor allowing our customers to manage the top floor.”

This automated approach provides the following:

  • Automated data collection from machine
  • Accurate and objective information
  • Not reliant on operator
  • Down Time Log – detailed to the second reporting all down time with reason codes
  • Historical data from analysis
  • Visibility of machine performance in real-time
  • Proactive alerts rather than reactive
  • Leading OEE Metrics, automatically
  • Minimize “Cultural Impact” on operations
  • 20% of cost of PLC based solutions
  • No need for Barcode scanning (optional)
  • Connect to any machine
  • Supports OPC standards
  • Supports MTConnect standards (serve data from machine to the consumer application)
  • Event monitoring
  • Send job/shift completion results automatically back to ERP/MES

Many sectors are represented in the Memex customer roster, including:

  • Aerospace – Boeing, Goodrich, Dowty, Parker Hannifin, Héroux Devtek
  • Automotive – GM, Ford, Magna, Eaton, Linamar
  • Industrial – Caterpillar, John Deere, Westinghouse, Vickers, Case, Sanmina
  • Government – National Research Council, Jet Propulsion Laboratories,
  • The Royal Canadian Mint
MEMEX - Industry 4.0

Universal Machine Interface compared to Programmable Logic Controllers

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Customers have asked how a Memex Ax9150 Universal Machine Interface (UMI) compares to a typical Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). In answering, we are faced with the same dilemma as the apple to a tennis ball. Both the UMI and PLC have digital inputs and outputs, but that is where the comparison ends. A PLC is only a hardware component, whereas the Memex Ax9150 UMI is a full system of hardware, firmware, software applications and configuration tools designed to connect to any machine. The Memex Ax9150 UMI is part of a comprehensive OEE production monitoring and control system that ties the Shop Floor to the Top Floor.

A PLC may have no operator interface and cannot be used with just any machine. In contrast, the UMI is specifically designed to connect with ALL machines. Although the UMI collects most data automatically so that operator input is not mandatory, such input is often used to further increase the system’s functionality, an option not easily accomplished without expensive custom services for a PLC.

Memex’s UMI-based comprehensive production monitoring system consists of the following components:
1) Ax9150 UMI with Ax2200 for Ethernet communications.
2) Mx2000 handheld HMI unit.
3) AxConfig software for logic ladder setup, configuration and communications traffic direction (driver).
4) Production OEE machine monitoring software.
5) AxERP interface to bi-directionally connect the shop floor to the top floor.
6) AxEmail alert system to catch small problems before they become big ones, and allow operators to problem-solve.
7) AxDNC for CNC part file transfer, including large amounts of memory stored at the machine with a file system.

To re-create the Memex Productivity system with just a PLC collecting digital I/O points is virtually impossible. Manufacturers would have to add an HMI plus advanced configuration and custom code development services. Moreover, the cost of developing a PLC-based system for use as an OEE shop floor interface historically has cost $15,000 – 20,000+ per machine and has required extensive, support services, and is most often a non starter for a company due to the overall cost of the project. Compare this reality with the $4,000 per machine cost (installed) of the UMI — it is now affordable.

– Automated data collection from machine
– Accurate and objective information
– Not reliant on operator
– Down Time Log – detailed to the second reporting all down time with reason codes
– Historical data from analysis
– Visibility of machine performance in real-time
– Proactive alerts rather than reactive
– Leading OEE Metrics, automatically
– Minimize “Cultural Impact” on operations
– 20% of cost of PLC based solutions
– No need for barcode scanning (optional)
– Connect to any machine
– Supports OPC standards
– Supports MTConnect standards (serve data from machine to the consumer application)
– Event monitoring
– Send job/shift completion results automatically back to ERP/MES

Memex continues its tradition of serving the discrete manufacturing sector, supplying component hardware, memory upgrades, and visionary shop floor communication technology. Memex products allow a manufacturer to realize the impact of OEE Profitability.

MEMEX - OEE Factory Automation

Watershed Thinking in our Industry – New Tooling is Only Marginal Improvement

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I had some most interesting customer feedback, as it is a watershed in what is going on in our industry – huge productivity gains will come from efficiency on the shop floor production processes, not just the machines themselves.

About 15 months ago, my partner and I presented to the corporate management team of an international machine tool manufacturing vendor – we had the ears of the top execs.  Moreover we had the connection with shop floor engineers in specific plants that wanted to install our OEE Productivity Monitoring systems – they needed our system.  Well nothing happened, and it dragged on – you know the story.

Yesterday I got a call from the main engineer (we had met at IMTS – 2008) the project was on!

He described the political layout, champions, etc., and mentioned the people we met 15 months ago, and pointed out that their corporate boss (CEO / VP MFG) was driving this project.  Yes, this is excellent sales work, sowing the seeds, planning, capital budgets, etc.

But most importantly, the engineer shared with me that over the last few years they have invested in the latest and greatest equipment, fastest this machine and that, better tooling, all kinds of things.  They had noticed that their productivity improvement from new equipment usage was initially in the 20% range and has steadily dropped down to the 2% range.  That means the marginal gain of using the latest and best equipment was really minimal.  So the question then was why – what was happening in their process that meant they could not get a high return on their new equipment.  Was it machine utilization, equipment, was it their processes?  Where could they spend their financial capital to get a maximum return?

They have come to realize now that their huge productivity gain would come from efficiency on the shop floor.

But first, they needed to measure what was going on – and this is where Memex comes in, as this is what we do, automatically at the machine.  This to me is huge – we understand it by being in the industry, and it is like the forest and trees syndrome, but to hear a customer quantify it with real return numbers was music to our ears.

I also believe the economic cycle is at work here, 2011 is the year manufacturers are spending, and it has taken until now to open up those projects.  I can tell you we are gearing up engineering in a big way – for all the right reasons.

We expect manufacturers to be more efficient, we are seeing it with our customers daily in real-time!