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Moving Beyond OEE Limitations Arriving at Total Production Efficiency
For the past five years manufacturing plant managers and supervisors have adopted lean manufacturing principles, eliminated waste, and still seen total production efficiency elude them. Monitoring and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) solutions in the shop extracted little value because most "OEE monitoring" technology use tools that generate data, but none that help them make sense of it. OEE is an effective metric to give an overall sense of how effectively manufacturing equipment is performing; it is not particularly useful in improving shopfloor productivity.
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Small Manufacturers Grow by Opening the Door to Automation
Seventy-four percent of manufacturing and distribution professionals are considering automation for their operations according to a new report evaluating attitudes towards automation. From cost savings to improved efficiencies and accuracy automation investments for manufacturing and distribution facilities is on the rise.
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Automation for Retailer Expands Rapidly in 2013
The world's largest retail trade association, National Retail Federation (NRF) represents retailers of all types and sizes from the United States and more than forty-five countries abroad including department stores, specialty, apparel, discount, online, independent, grocery and chain restaurants, among others. Retailers operate more than 3.5 million U.S. establishments that support one in four U.S. jobs - 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.5 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation's economy. Keeping these retail employees safe is vital; learning the lesson from manufacturing and distribution essential. The lessons of ergonomics in plants and distribution centers are now growing rapidly at retail operations.
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Actionable Manufacturing Intelligence
Customer demands continue to escalate and competitors become more aggressive. As expressed in Darwinian Theory, manufacturing operational management has adapted to meet the competition, lay the foundations for continued performance improvement, and accomplished these simultaneous efforts to prevent extinction.
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Supplier Document Management at the Heart of Automation
Suppliers must be ranked. Which suppliers are best is a matter of profitability, efficiency, and risk management. Automation must include the ability to identify riskiest suppliers via a supplier scorecard. Using technologies to determine risk trends for key problems as well as comparing risks across alternate suppliers allows for lean best-practices among all manufacturing operations, especially food and beverage.
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Safety Solutions Drive Automation and Increased Sales
According to OSHA (Occupations Safety and Health Administration), Employees repeatedly move beverages from a delivery truck to a hand truck or stack. Product to be moved can be stacked to shoulder height and may need to be lowered to ground level. These lifting tasks pose an increased risk of pain and injury and should be considered hazardous unless appropriate solutions are implemented.
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Small Manufacturers Look to Justify Automation Technology ROI
Tight budgets, limited resources, and too few hours in the day plague most small manufacturers. Growth is uncomfortable and these small businesses need extra rigor when buying any software solution for the business. Ultimately the challenge is to determine if the benefits of new technology are greater than the cost. Most commonly this is done by calculating an ROI (Return on Investment). There are several ways to calculate this, but the most common and practical is calculating the payback period on the purchase price, which often includes software and training, or the software alone.
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Pinpointing the Real Source of Project Management Snafus
Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, noted, "It is always easier to talk about change than to make it."
"Success, itself, rests on effective project management, so it's hard to understand why more businesses don't do a better job of it," pondered Mark Woeppel, President and CEO of Pinnacle Strategies. Companies have a habit of dealing with the fallout of project management disasters after they happen, rather than identifying and implementing a workable solution before problems arise.
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Thin Margins Drive Warehouse Automation Solutions
High volume electronics and industrial parts distributors are facing thinner margins. Globally these companies and other warehouse distribution center operations are seeking automation solutions to offset razor-thin profits.
Premier Farnell serves 1.2 million customers worldwide as a marketer and distributor of electronic, electrical and industrial component products for maintenance, repair and operations. When escalating costs of business threatened margins on UK sales to Europe
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Future Trends in Control and Process Automation in the MET Industry
The Media, Entertainment and Telecom (MET) industry utilises control and process automation equipment and services mainly at amusement parks and theme parks. Control automation equipment such as motion and ride control systems, emergency shutdown systems, show/audio controls and continuous regulatory control are used in roller coasters, motion theatres, snow worlds etc. The growth of control and process automation in the MET industry is driven by three main factors which contribute to its future development, on which automation suppliers' mainly focus.
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The Overlooked Kaizen Event: Communications and Marketing
The best manufacturing organizations become catalysts for improvement. These roadmaps for change must go beyond the plant floor. Thinking beyond strict lean principles of continuous process improvement, requires a constant examination of all areas within the manufacturing operation.
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OEE and Utilization Pilot Programs Obsolete: Cloud Game Changer Introduced
Collecting data is one thing; making data useful is another. There is clearly value to having historical data, but having the data in a meaningful format as the activities are happening greatly increases the value of any data collection system. Josh Davids, President of Scytec was recently interviewed about the role of DataXchange, providing user configurable real-time viewer for feedback as the data is collected.
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Distribution 2012: Hand Truck Efficiency Drives Supply Chain Solutions
The North American distribution and logistics industry is valued at more than $300 billion and will experience even more growth in 2012. The value chain for the production, distribution, and sale of food, beverage and other merchandise indicate that production and warehouse facilities still handle products in bulk on pallets; pallets are moved using forklifts and pallet jacks.
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The Changing Requirements of Labor in U.S. Manufacturing
The next national election is exactly one year away. Regardless of political points of view or efforts to re-shore manufacturing to the United States, the role of manufacturing labor in this country has changed significantly during the past year. Keith Wisner is Operations Vice-President with ResourceMFG, a staffing firm which specifically provides manufacturing workers, reflected on these dramatic changes in a turbulent 2011 and looks ahead to an unpredictable 2012.
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The Obvious Benefit: Automated Lifting Hand Trucks
Automation might be, best measured by the reduced lifting required to perform a task. When heavy lifting is required, more personnel are often required for enhanced safety and pragmatic lifting requirements. A two-hundred pound piece of equipment may require two workers to perform the lifting, repairing, and moving task. When electric hand trucks do the lifting, the task can be performed by one person. These productivity cost-savings, are achieved through simple and effective automation.
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Vision-Guided Pallet Trucks Provide Big Savings
Seegrid CEO, Dr. Scott Friedman sees factories and warehouses dominated by robots. Unlike expensive AGV solutions requiring massive capitalization, Robotic Industrial Trucks offers operational flexibility, whether a single truck or multiple units, and according to Friedman, "These complete and scalable vision-guided systems result in maximum savings, optimal safety, and unparalleled productivity."
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Perkins Paper Finds QC Audit and Voice Picking Ideal
"Like other companies, we're always trying to improve service to our customers," noted Walter Harrigan, Senior Vice President of Perkins Paper. "So our main goal for voice automation was to reduce shorts and wrongs, which improves customer service and also reduces our costs. If you don't send the right item to a customer, you have to taxi it out to them, and that costs a lot, probably $50-$60 per error." At Perkins Paper, the number one priority is shipping the right product, on time, every time. This commitment to service
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The Reason for Hiring a Project Manager:Automation Solution Selection Objectivity
The cost of the wrong automation solution in material handling is often upwards of ten million dollars. Material handling professionals are selecting capital equipment with the intent of improving margins and customer satisfaction. Sales of automation and material handling equipment, is dramatically improving. MHIA (Material Handling Industry of America, the leading trade association for the material handling and logistics industry) reports a 22.4% growth in material handling equipment sales in 2010 with forecasted growth in 2011/12 sales increasing another 12%. With this type of increase in
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Top 5 Reasons Why ERP Implementations Fail
When listening to fears and concerns about ERP solutions, implementation is usually on the top of most lists. Yes, it can be daunting, but it is the cornerstone of the overall project. So why do implementations fail? Below is our countdown of the most common ERP implementation errors and how to avoid them.
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5 Cost Estimating Myths Busted
"Cost Estimating" manufactured parts for an RFQ is one day-to-day problem that confronts manufacturing shops around the globe, many of which feel like they just have to live with it.
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY! Jay debunks 5 myths surrounding cost estimating for manufacturing.
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One Microsoft Gold Partner Captures Automation Niche
The decision to use Microsoft is often lead by familiarity. Within the manufacturing sector, particularly those involved in Engineer-to-Order (ETO) manufacturing, there are special issues and challenges. Another ERP implementation is a vast over-simplification of what is required; the automation and process issues are complex.
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Why Make-to-Order Shops Must Go Paperless
Magdic Precision Tooling (MPT) is a nineteen-person tool and die shop in East McKeesport, PA. The company makes compaction dies for carbide cutting tools.
Die forms look like drills, end mills, and cutting inserts. Even this small shop recognized they had to go paperless.
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Smart On-Demand Integration
On-Demand Integration means automating business processes by linking enterprise programs, which have operated independently in the past, to provide comprehensive services to the business by increasing productivity and at the same time decreasing operational cost.
Despite the trend toward acquiring application portfolios from a single supplier or from a limited number of suppliers, few organizations are able to have all of their application portfolio requirements using a single source. Heterogeneous IT portfolios are norm and will stay like that.
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Material Handling Automation: Forklifts Impacting the Bottom-Line
Discrete manufacturers face increased global competition, market unpredictability, and demands to increase product quality while reducing production costs. These factors are forcing organizations to find ways to streamline operations and adopt lean manufacturing practices in order to become more efficient. One method in accomplishing this is the use of automated guided vehicles.
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Material Handling Automation From Stretch Wrapping Robots to AGV’s at ProMat 2011
Far beyond palletizing robots, the automation and storage handling challenges facing businesses always boils down to the desire to increase storage capabilities and production levels. The drive to improve operational efficiencies is part of lean manufacturing and distribution and operational efficiencies. The need for flexibility to accommodate changes in the production cycles along with the constant requirement to achieve higher safety standards drives the push for plant modernization.
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Engineering Automation Teams Look at Cloud Computing
The largest steel producer in South America needed to upgrade its automated systems; the challenge was to coordinate people, resources and technology responsible for producing nearly ten million metric tons of steel every year, at a value of over $1 billion dollars.
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97% Successful ERP Requires Industry Sector Expertise
According to the Standish Group, ERP implementations in midsized companies have a high degree of failure. Some ERP vendors have better success rates than others. It begs the question: Why? What are the qualities and characteristics of successful ERP technologies and implementations? The research was not rhetorical; could any ERP vendor point to a nearly perfect implementation record? If so, what is the secret to that success?
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The Common Automation Denominator: Cimquest INGEAR
Finding a commonality among seemingly disparate enterprises is not always easy. This journalist recently interviewed eight distinct companies about technology, efficiency, and automation trends. The numerator was different, the technology solution selected by each company, the denominator, was remarkably consistent.
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Plastic Liners Represent Leaner Automation
Any process that generates labor savings, food savings, operational savings, lower maintenance costs, and improves quality, defines the value, rationale, and denotation of automation. The two phrases, automation and plastic bags, may seem incongruous, or even a non-sequitor. It certainly is true that the typical definition of automation usually includes the control of equipment with advanced technology….involving electronic hardware. Others characterize automation as replacing human workers with machines. The rationale for automation, regardless of the implementation, is to increase productivity. Robotic solutions do not define automation.
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Why ISO 9001 is Still Relevant for Industrial Automation
When a standard becomes as ingrained in the business community as ISO 9001 has during the last two decades, it is important to take stock of its impact and importance. Otherwise, businesses would be striving for certification to the standard for all the wrong reasons. Instead of trying to implement the best possible quality management systems and processes, they would simply be trying for the certificate. Instead of working towards continual improvement, businesses would lose interest and enthusiasm the moment the certificate was in hand.
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Bottom-Line Profitability for Job Shops Found with Cost Estimating Software
Few job shop cost estimating solutions come fully loaded with a library of over 2,000 work centers and materials. Too often there is an attitude among some job shop owners that these technologies are simply too good to be true. Many of the world’s job shops need to identify part cost reduction opportunities throughout the product development lifecycle, leading to millions of dollars
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Musical Instrument Companies Automate Distribution Centers
Basic goals are the hallmark of any world-class manufacturer. State-of-the-art production facilities driven by the combined disciplines of Lean and Six Sigma put these three goals at the center of ISG’s process for musical instrument distribution centers as well as all manufacturing and distribution companies.
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Safety Management Systems Requires Automation and Integration
Intelex, a leading web-based Safety Management System, recently revealed the efficacy of enabling organizations to collect and track safety data in a central, organization-wide data portal that facilitates the streamlining of corporate policies, work flow, and reporting processes as well as regulatory compliance. According to Mark Jaine, President and CEO of Intelex, “Technology solutions must organize data into real-time reports that can be displayed on corporate dashboards, with the ability to drill-down into individual reports and scorecards for granular reporting details.
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Automating Infrastructure for Healthcare Organizations
The number one imperative of Healthcare providers is finding ways to reduce costs. Using solid and stable technology to improve business operations is the number one priority of Healthcare Software Vendors.
Providing the tools and infrastructure healthcare organizations need to transform the way information is recorded, tracked, and the method
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What is OPC in 2010? It is all about the Tag
The title of this article is an extremely valid question for all readers looking for data connectivity? What is OPC in 2010? OPC is still the connectivity standard for Process Control, for ADI, a part of FDI and FDT and STILL the connectivity standard for manufacturing, and PLCs. OPC is a Unified Architecture, and OPC is an Express Interface.
OPC is three letters that are a lot of things to a lot of different people, but what it really boils down to is moving data and the Tag. Yes the Tag. Everything in OPC revolves around the Tag.
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Small Manufacturing Operations Find Cost-Effective Inventory Tracking and Automation Technology Solutions
Whether on the plant floor or warehouse management, the ability to integrate order entry, shipping, purchasing, receiving, production and warehouse management, is critical in every phase of automation. Strong location tracking is also a huge time-saving element.
All the emphasis of OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) is great; the basic elimination of waste and errors in these other rudimentary, non-equipment functionality is equally critical to effective operations along with time tracking.
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Progressive Plants Look to On-Machine Probing
Measuring and quality control on the machine tool is gaining increasing importance in progressive manufacturing plants. Much of probe programming is related to accurately defining the probe purpose and objective. While this may sound like a basic statement, there is almost no end to what a relatively simple in-process probing can do. Fortunately, most probe manufacturers have developed a series of canned routines for common probing problems.
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Improving Bottom-Line Productivity : Reducing Manufacturing Workplace Stress
Given the bottom-line impact of stress on the plant floor to the executive suite, more manufacturers are implementing regular massage for workers as a measure to reduce the physical and mental effects of stress; the result is reducing burnout and stress related diseases, and increasing productivity.
Nearly three-fourths (74%) of manufacturing workers reported in a national survey that their job is very stressful. Stress is the leading cause of disability in the manufacturing workplace, costing employers billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and healthcare costs.
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Catching the Process Fieldbus : An Interview with James Powell
The world of industrial commutations appears as a multilayered, multidimensional, occasionally confusing mixture of fieldbuses, software packages, and media. James Powell did MORE with LESS in his book. If you are new to this field or simply don’t know where to start, and then this book is for you.
He shows in this book that when industrial communications is understood and then installed with forethought and care, network operations are both beneficial and painless. This book is designed to speak to the beginner, to take that interested newbie by the hand and guide them through the bus route to communication success. Book topic include all BUS operations, protocol details, physical layers and networks, network design basics, installation tips and suggestions, commissioning, maintenance, plant asset management and troubleshooting.
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Lean Enterprise Automation: Redefining Waste
Paul Rauseo, managing director at George S. May International, a small business management consulting firm, says 95% of their clients experience some form of inefficiency. While business owners are experts in their particular industry, the reality of the day-to-day operations often overwhelms them. Too often they get caught up in the short-term details and lose sight of the big picture…the real role of a business owner. Manufacturing executives often possess exception manufacturing, engineering, and production expertise, yet lack management knowledge
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Plan B: Senior Manufacturing Executives Ponder Job Loss
In the ten years since the inception of TR Cutler, Inc., the largest manufacturing marketing firm worldwide based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the manufacturing sector has seen many changes. Lean has become normative and a level of technological sophistication has permeated the sector (with many firms on third and fourth generation ERP systems.) Statistical Process Control, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, SaaS delivered solutions, Six Sigma, is all commonplace. Perhaps the most significant changes are cultural.
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OPC UA: An End-User's Perspective
OPC UA (Unified Architecture) represents the OPC Foundation’s most recent set of specifications for Process Control and Automation system interconnectivity. This paper explains OPC UA from the perspective of the organization that will benefit from the connectivity, in other words: the End User. The first form of OPC relied on DCOM for its data transportation
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Beyond Reports: Two Firms Find Ei Dynamics Lean Solution
TRL Systems is a regional provider and installer of security and alarm systems for commercial enterprises. As a component of TRL's business the firm captures and enters a high volume of various types of data such as entering and updating customers, vendors, jobs, contracts, purchase orders, service agreements, invoices, budgets and much more. Much of TRL’s data input was prone to human error and
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Real-Time Data: Same as a Diamonds Clarity, Cut, and Color
In the Shirley Bassey sung James Bond anthem Diamonds are Forever, she muses, "Diamonds never lie to me, for when love’s gone, they'll luster on." The same is true with accurate real-time data.
GIA (Gemological Institute of America) revolutionized the diamond industry in 1955 with its Diamond Grading Report. Based on the 4Cs of diamonds and International Diamond Grading System™, both of which GIA created, the grading report provides a comprehensive analysis of quality and authenticity for
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Electronic Kanban for Faster Turns, Reduced Inventory Improves Top Supplier in Commercial Trucking
Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG), one of the world’s top suppliers of cabs and cab-related parts for the commercial trucking industry, needed to automate its implementation of kanban, a demand driven method of inventory replenishment, because the company’s manual approach to the method was complex, time-consuming, and error-prone. CVG implemented Ultriva electronic kanban, a fully automated solution based on Microsoft server and development technologies. Within just a few months of deployment at two of its plants, CVG saw turns increased, inventory reduced, and associates at all levels, within CVG and suppliers, better collaborating and communicating toward company objectives of total quality production, lean manufacturing, and elimination of waste.
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Simultaneous Improvement: Safety and Productivity
Leading businesses know that safety is not incompatible with efficiency; as a best practice safety enhances productivity. Safety is a competitive advantage since the majority of serious accidents involve stability incidents and vehicular collisions with pedestrians. New safety systems integrate technology with intelligent speed control, vehicle tracking, and pedestrian tracking that can provide both improved safety and increased productivity.
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Automation: Salary Survey Results for 2008
Great news! In one year, the average overall salary jumped from $83,623 to $88,252...roughly a 5.5% increase since 2007. I've always said that with the skills shortage in our industry, automation professionals will be in higher demand and, as a result, they will be able to command higher salaries. This is proof of that trend.
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How Real (Floating Point) and 32-bit Data is Encoded in Modbus RTU Messages
The article discusses some of the typical difficulties encountered when handling 32-bit data types via Modbus RTU and offers practical help for solving these problems.
The point-to-point Modbus protocol is a popular choice for RTU communications if for no other reason that it’s basic convenience. The protocol itself controls the interactions of each device on a Modbus network, how device establishes a known address, how each device recognizes its messages and how basic information is extracted from the data. In essence, the protocol is the foundation of the entire Modbus network.
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Best Automation Solution for SAP Users: Outsourcing an eCommerce B2B Website
Since outsourced B2B eCommerce firms do only one thing, there are no distractions from ensuring that firms succeed with B2B eCommerce projects.
Some organizations have such unique requirements that it may be impossible to outsource B2B (business to business) eCommerce websites. According to Sam Bayer, Founder and CEO of b2b2dot0, "Some control-oriented organizations have the illusion that if you do it yourself, you're more in control. Never entering into their decision making process is the reality that with added control comes additional responsibilities and costs. Like anything else in life there are trade-offs and every situation is unique."
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Warehouse Automation Becomes Essential for Direct Selling Firms
Direct selling is a growing industry. Sales in the U.S. have more than doubled in the last decade to more than $30 billion and are now more than $100 billion worldwide reports the Direct Selling Association (DSA.) People from literally all walks of life, of all ages, are successful in direct sales. Many people start part-time, and later leave other careers when direct selling becomes more lucrative.
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Moving Toward Best-in-Class
Evan Miller, President of SPC (statistical process control) Hertzler Systems, recently sponsored an Aberdeen Group benchmark report titled Event Driven Manufacturing Intelligence – Creating Closed Loop Performance Management. Miller wanted to differentiate Best-in-Class (BIC) performers from Average or Laggard performers. To derive these data the percentage of BIC performers who practiced specific behaviors were divided by the percentage of Average performers using the same behavior; this measurement provided “Impact.”
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The Unsung Hero of Automation
Sure, the Engineer is proud of his HMI, highlighting the realism in his displays, the color coordination of his data and the mastery of his navigation… And then there is the plant manager, gushing over his KPI dashboard and how effectively the plant is running with the implementation of his new MES solution . The historian and analytic solution get all the credit when a plant control crisis is averted. Does anyone ever think to thank the lowly driver? Without data, the HMI is just a pretty picture, and the best analytics in the world are only ideas without any basis in fact. And, you spend tens or hundreds of thousands on that, while the driver budget isn't even a line item on the spec sheet…
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Double Output with Same Staff: Engineer-to-Order Manufacturers Find Productivity Solutions
Increasing capacity by adding new staff should be the last option for a manager, rather than the first. New staff immediately increases operating costs for the firm by utilizing management time dedicated to the hiring process, the employees’ salary as well as substantial hiring fees. New employees also require added resources such as office space, computers, training, and supervision. Not all new employees survive the first year which is also costly. Even a successful new employee, particularly in key technical departments such as Engineering and Manufacturing, require many months of experience before they can be 100% productive.
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Labor Benefits Achieved with Automated Traceability
The labor benefits from traceability are significant. Many food companies use piece rate systems to pay employees. Most of the systems are manual – both for collecting information and calculating the payroll. Often these manual systems require that the employees self-report the number of cartons packed via a form they provide to a supervisor. The supervisor visually reviews the form and then files it with the payroll department, which has a clerk enter the data into a computer system.
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OPC UA Enables Business Intelligence – To Be or Not To Be?
Most people recognize famous quotes, but many people don’t know the play they’re from or the context they fit into. The same can be said for many familiar application terms from industry. Business Intelligence (BI) is a popular term describing the
result of in-depth analysis of detailed business data from various systems. CRM, ERP, SCM and other competitive technologies all provide data and analysis, but how can these systems be unified into
a complete business-wide decision platform? Just as words and phrases organized together create a classic work of art,
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The Next Phase of Lean: Returnable Packaging
Fortune 500 businesses, particularly automotive Tier 1 manufacturing suppliers, consumer product manufacturers, scrap steel businesses, and distribution and freight companies, are utilizing returnable packaging services as the next phase in a lean manufacturing initiative. Having maximized many of the plant floor operations, it is precisely this type of creative packaging purchase that empowers independent used equipment dealers, used equipment liquidators, and industrial end-users to eliminate another significant element of waste in their business model.
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The Test: Benchmarking the Best Nest
Benchmarking against a current method of producing parts using real world requirements is the only efficacious way to determine if new methods, such as Vision Emulation and Multi-Dimensional-Combinatorial-Nesting technology, are indeed improvements. Always having the highest level of automated productivity and cost cutting technology is quantifiable. Quantify a specific number of parts that are actually used in production; only then can optimized manufacturing metrics be compared and the best nest discovered.
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Regional Manufacturing Expos : Cost-Effective and Hands-On
Conferences, Webinars, and Expos, oh my. Deciding which events are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend sometimes feels like Dorothy in the woods en route to OZ. Too often tradeshows are for the benefit of exhibition companies, webinars to simply promote a software product, and conferences lack any dynamism or little more than a rehash of last year’s content..
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Two Years Later: A Look at the Demand Driven Supply Chain Technology
Materials and Plant Managers improve productivity through automation of repetitive, time-consuming management functions as well as elimination of waste built into manual kanban card process. In a Demand Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) there is instant availability of real-time inventory data as well as an automatic calculation of proper replenishment levels. Much has changed since first writing about Demand Driven Supply Chain issues and technology in the past two years since first authoring a feature for Automationmedia.com.
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Transactional Six Sigma Must Maintain Productivity Gains
Six Sigma projects are often hampered by the high cost of acquiring and managing data. Black Belts often invest significant effort in collecting data for the Define and Measure phases. But they risk losing those hard-won productivity gains during the Control Phase if process owners can not sustain costly and time-consuming data collection tasks over the long-term.
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PLC Training and Education
Recent studies claim that the global demand for automation propels the PLC market and, as we know, tied with any
technology comes its training and education. Currently the industry is concerned with minimizing the learning times and
cutting down the costs associated with the training and education, however in this competitive environment that the
industry is living, now, more then ever, there is the need to come up with fresh and inventive solutions.....
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With or without you?
If the Process Control vendor world was one great big outdoor rock concert, Honeywell would have to be U2. Both are absolutely huge and supremely confident, almost everyone is familiar with their line-up, most people take a liking to them, but not everyone cares for their bold strut or their particular brand of politics. The enduring parallel between the two, however, is that both redefine themselves through constant innovation to stay relevant within rapidly changing industries.
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Automation Proves Paramount in Food Sector Profitability
New food industry dynamics require that sustainability must be a priority; in an era of cost-cutting food automation, food operations professionals, from plant managers to quality managers, must implement innovative technologies and form alliances with outside experts. One of the central distinctions of food automation is developing the right mix of innovative niche food products and line expansions which produce the best bottom line impact.
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OPC and DCOM: 5 Things You Need To Know
OPC technology relies on Microsoft's COM and DCOM to exchange data between automation hardware and software; however it can be frustrating for new users to configure DCOM properly. If you have ever been unable to establish an OPC connection or transfer OPC data
successfully, the underlying issue is likely DCOM-related. This whitepaper discusses the steps necessary to get DCOM working properly and securely.
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Exporting To Europe Proves Manufacturing Profit Center for 2008
The dollar, having steadily lost value against major currencies over the past few years, has helped exports; the weak dollar will only continue to make local goods more affordable around the world and give exporters an advantage against otherwise competitive European rivals. From technology manufacturing companies to medical devices manufacturers, all are poised to experience significant international sales benefits in 2008 as long as the marketing support tools are positioned and measurable.
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There’s OPC in Them There Oil Fields
Anyone in the oil industry will have heard of the
Canadian Tar Sands. Alberta is the largest producer
of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural
gas and gas products in Canada. The providence
is best known for its oil sands deposits located
in the north, which span over 40,000 square
kilometers and contains an estimated trillion barrels
of bitumen. That represents a lot of equipment,
spread over a vast area that require reliable realtime
data monitoring and control. Many companies
are using OPC connectivity to meet the challenges
associated with coaxing this oil out of the ground.
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Continued Process Improvement Cubed
Three years since their initial purchase, Follett Ice continues to demonstrate that replenishment-based supply chain is fundamental to business efficiency. Reduced inventory levels, supply chain integration, and increased turns all eliminate waste and serve as hallmarks for continued process improvement. Follett Ice’s senior purchasing agent, Jeff Craig wisely identified the key variables when selecting a demand driven supply chain three years ago...
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Winds of Change - Using OPC in Guaranteed Data Delivery for Wind Farms
Standardizing access with OPC supplies a better way to manage wind performance and control assets. OPC products that gather high-resolution, real-time data gives the end user far more capability to analyze and affect the operation of the wind farm, than the currently used technology. Using OPC HDA technology guarantees the data is always available, regardless of how hard the wind is blowing.
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Lean Automation Optimization Found in the Mobile Warehouse
While change is often difficult, a change in technology systems, processes, and culture need not difficult for employees. Adoption of new lean solutions must be a central element of strategic planning and operations automation excellence. By minimizing the learning curve on new processes and technologies ..
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Woodworking Automation:Manufacturing Execution System Solutions
According Tony Parkinson, CFO of Hollywood Woodwork, in Hollywood Florida, “We were finding it harder and harder to hire experienced estimators that truly knew our industry and we were spending an inordinate amount of time developing estimators from within the company. We were concerned that ......
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VRM, Six Sigma, and Automation
Vendor Relationship Management or VRM is the reciprocal of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). VRM provides manufacturing enterprises a wide range of technological tools for efficient vendor interactions that benefit both the manufacturer and the vendor. In Lynne Hambleton’s new Prentice Hall text Treasure Chest of Six Sigma Growth Methods, Tools, and Best Practices, the author quickly defines that, “A method establishes the foundation for how work gets accomplished. It defines the who, what, when, where, by and how of a process; wherein a process describes a series of logically sequenced tasks to complete work.”
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ETO Manufacturers Learn to Track
Brunt Associates is an architectural millwork firm based in Wixom, Michigan. The company experienced significant growth and needed to upgrade its software system yet required a solution that could address the unique issues facing a company in the woodworking industry. “We are a carpentry and millwork company. We manufacture and install our own product,” said Brian Brunt, vice president. “Ours is a second generation, family-owned business. My father, Denis Brunt, founded the company over twenty years ago, originally as a carpenter contractor. I took the company into manufacturing and architectural woodworking, quite simply because the market was there. All of the jobs we were bidding had components of woodworking in them. It just made sense to start manufacturing.”
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Creating Secure OPC Architectures
OPC represents an easy to use, ubiquitous, reliable method of communication. As a result of it being based on DCOM; it is well known by security professionals, but unfortunately is also known by virus writers and hackers. Layers of security mean that should one part of the system be compromised, the rest will remain secure. Typical layers used include: physical business layer security, physical process layer security, exposure to the internet, business to process layer traversal, OPC architecture security, DCOM configuration, login security, firewalls, etc......
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The Practical Organization of Automated Software Testing
Automation is not an island unto itself. It requires a solid testing infrastructure and a thoughtful software testing life cycle that are both supported and valued by the corporate culture.
To begin, there is the automated testing system itself. It must be designed to support reusable module and one point maintenance. It must be very flexible and easy to update.
The testing infrastructure includes a dedicated test lab, a good bug tracking system, standard test case format, and comprehensive test plans.
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Automation: Salary Survey Results for 2007
The results of our 2007 salary survey are in with interesting observations and Good news! In two years, the average overall salary jumped from $76,926 to $83,623...roughly a 4% increase per year. It pays to obtain an advanced degree (or even attend some graduate school)...those with an advanced degree have a $9,993 higher annual salary ($93,631) than those with a bachelor's degree ($83,638). An overwhelming percentage (79%) of respondents said they were either very .....
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ERP for Process Manufacturing is Rare
Process manufacturing is a relatively small market compared to markets such as discrete manufacturing, retail and professional services; the size of the market is commensurate with the few quality software solutions for process manufacturers, whereas discrete manufacturing, retail and professional services have hundreds of software solutions, from entry level through Tier One.
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Reducing Energy Costs: Drying Efficiently
The economic optimization of dryer operations requires improvements in both the routine continuous operation and changeovers. In both operational modes, the real-time visibility of processing provides the key to optimization.
The optimization processes during changeovers are complex and nearly impossible to get perfect, however the largest improvements are found when correcting avoidable human mistakes. These errors are best discovered with real-time visibility of operations
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OPC – Paving the Road to Interoperability
When the majority of the top Fortune 500 companies are using a technology, it’s usually safe to say it’s more than just a coincidence. Companies like ExxonMobil, Wal-Mart, Ford, General Electric, Dell and Pfizer span a wide range of industries and businesses who are using OPC to solve the their problems. So what is driving OPC?
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Integrating OPC into Building Automation – The Latest Trend
OPC (OLE for Process Control) is a published connectivity standard that has become the de facto standard embraced by the process control industry because of the tremendous benefits it offers. However, these benefits are not unique to process control; they can be seen within other market segments such as discrete manufacturing, equipment monitoring and control, utilities and, recently, building automation and security.
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A Distributor Turns A Network Disaster into Operational Success
Being able to quickly respond to customer requirements is key to a distributor. Having reliable data that is easily accessible is a vital part of any distributors business. Don Beisswanger, President of Pacific Southwest Sales, faced a very unfortunate situation. His current business software was suddenly inoperable and he needed to find a software solution that would be quick to implement as well as sufficiently robust enough to accommodate the company’s expansion for years to come......
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Effective Product Development Outsourcing - Factors for Success
Outsourcing is much more than a trend. Companies, in their zeal for a competitive
edge, outsource virtually all non-core activities including manufacturing, IT, accounting,
sales, human resources and other functions. Engineering and product development are
among the last areas affected by this phenomenon. Can new product development
(NPD) outsourcing be effective and economical? Why are companies doing it? Is it
worth it? What are the issues that prevent businesses from maximizing potential?
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Winning the Battle for Interoperability
Achieving interoperability of some products is more like a running skirmish against hostile opposition -- painful and costly. Getting all sides to comply with the rules and best practices of interoperability can be an uphill battle at times. To combat the problem, the OPC Foundation has created the OPC Enhanced Certification Program...
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Putt's Law and the Successful Technorat:How to Win in the Information Age
Putt's Law: "Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand."
Written by an industry leader in R&D management, this title examines the above law by following the (often humorous) business development of both types of individuals in a Research and Development setting.
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Molding and Extrusion Require Skilled Labor
Since much of the molding and extrusion has been sent offshore, the specific skills required have migrated to other process industries and have adapted outside of plastics manufacturing. With fewer production facilities in the US, the pool of prospective recruits has diminished significantly.
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Document Searches Should NOT Defy Lean Operations
Tom sheds some light about the average information worker who spends more than thirteen hours per week creating documents and nearly seven hours per week organizing documents;
an additional four hours per week are spent managing document routing
and another ten hours per week searching for information. All this time searching for documents is negatively impacting the productivity, bottom-line, and lean operations of most North American manufacturers.
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Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Algorithm
A lot of papers, articles, and guides have been written over the recent years addressing Continuous Process Improvement (CPI). However very few address methodologies related to the improvement of the process itself, that is, the processing of the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of a process. The methodology proposed in this paper can be applied to any processes i.e. manufacturing, management, software development, financial, etc.
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Compliance for Dairy and Food Processing Leads to Lean Automation Advancements
Tom sheds some light on a need for technology solutions which provide real-time operations intelligence to provide dairy processing plant management and staff with visibility of product loss, wasted energy, or other inefficiencies, allowing them to take timely corrective actions......Tracking of all product flows, all equipment uses, CIP and other non-production as well as production modes, and all possible co-mingling of products or contaminants is core to the functionality of safety and automation in the dairy industry.
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Lean Warehouse Control Systems Transform Distribution Centers
Production losses, increased cost, and inefficient pick and pack methods, can drain capital resources and precious time. Getting the advantage and sustaining that effort, it is essential to streamline the order fulfillment rule process from time of order receipt to the time of shipping. Efficiently organizing order fulfillment rules and procedures can reduce cost, reduce order cycle time, and optimize labor......
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Moving from “Just in Case” to Just-in-Time
To ensure there were enough raw materials for production, Superior Quality Foods operated “Just in Case”, rather than Just-in-Time. Although the company was growing, poor inventory control was impacting profitability. Albert Barriga, vice-president of operations, explained the problem: “We just didn’t have any confidence in our inventory control systems. We would always double check regardless of what the system said.”
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Choosing the right Process Calculation Solution
Dane examines the various Process Calculation Solutions and pro and cons of different OPC Calculation Engines. Process Calculations can add valuable insight into how a plant, process, or unit is functioning. This can lead to higher efficiency, reduced waste, more effective maintenance, higher quality, reduced emissions, quicker turnarounds, and reduced energy usage……
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Facing Competitive Global Manufacturing
More than fifty years ago, 1952 to be precise, B&K Corporation (with plants located in Saginaw and Fenton Michigan) began designing and building assembly and test systems for the automotive industry....
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Industrial CRM: An Area of Neglect
With up to ten years of continued process improvements on the plant floor, back office, and distribution operations, manufacturers have finally arrived at the front door of customer relationship management (CRM). Still engineering and operations focused, many senior manufacturing executives are strongly resistant and visibly uncomfortable.....
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Booming MES - Grand Challenge$ - Grand Opportunitie$
Now as the infrastructure of MMI-Scada widely exists, MES applications are easier to implement, and can easily relay data and information up and down the enterprise. MES can also be used for tracking purposes, as it can produce reports detailing the raw materials that went into an item, as well as each process it went through....
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ERP Suppliers Focusing Vertically
ERP (enterprise resource planning) software vendors can no longer attempt to be everything to everyone. To better serve their manufacturing clients and survive economically, ERP vendors are employing a variety of vertical marketing segmentation tactics to position themselves as leaders within a specific target market....
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Secure your Plant Data with SSL or VPN
Industry users are concerned about how to transfer senstive plant data and what are different secure ways. Main stream Web-Based Tools for accessing, analyzing and visualizing Production information with sophisticated trending and reporting capabilities started to work on it and many already offering Secure Sockets Layer....
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Component Based Rapid OPC Application Development Platform
OPC /3/ has changed the world. It has made it possible to use device and equipment data in PC applications
without the need to write vendor specific device drivers, etc. However, this is only the beginning: it will still
require a lot of work before the applications are built, because software development is complicated and a typical
OPC application needs to do a lot more than just communicate with an OPC Server...
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A NEW Vision - Industrial robots once were blind, but now they see
They possess a human’s ability to see, adjust to changing environments and plan ahead. When combined with a machine’s accuracy and untiring efficiency, significant manufacturing efficiencies are realized.”..............“Manufacturers have been spending billions of dollars each year on custom-made, complex, accurate fixturing devices to present parts to blind robots for processing....
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A growing Ethernet Challenge on the Plant Floor
There is a growing challenge on the plant floor if you haven’t experienced it yet, I am sure you will soon. A study by ARC predicts that the number of factory floor devices with an IP address is going to TRIPLE in the next four years and those devices are pushing lower and lower into the controls architecture… from systems, to sub-systems down to sensors… so Ethernet equipment with an IP addresses are increasing rapidly....
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The Lord of the Industrial Ethernet Ring
Ethernet has become nearly as common on the factory floor as PLCs. In many cases, along with this need for Ethernet connectivity is the need for fault-tolerant network redundancy. Automation and control engineers have been forced into this IT domain and really don’t want to get too involved with the idiosyncrasies and maintenance of Ethernet networks, especially redundant networks.....
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Intelligence in a New Age
Evolution took millions of years to progress to the development of primates and then Homo sapiens. Over the past ten thousand years, intrinsic human intelligence has changed very little - Socrates would probably have scored at genius level on the tanford-Binet intelligence test.
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New Coriolis Technology solves traditional flow measurement problems
Coriolis technology offers unprecedented accuracy and reliability in measuring material flow.
It may be the most superior flow measurement technology. However, conventional Coriolis meters have had one significant limitation: They haven't performed well in measuring two-phase flow conditions, flow that involves a combination of gas and liquid mass.
Two-phase flow can cause process interruptions and measurement inaccuracies that can significantly affect production and profitability. Recent developments in digital Coriolis technology overcome .....
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Power over Ethernet - The Industrial Opportunity Today
A Position Paper by GarrettCom, Inc.
May 2005
The Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard, which was adopted in June of 2003, allows users to power devices over Ethernet cabling. It was originally developed to support wireless technology in areas where the cost of providing – or the physical impossibility of deploying – electrical wiring limited its deployment potential. As such, PoE has contributed to wireless market growth because it simplifies the RF survey task: access points can be easily moved because the requirement of locally-accessible AC power is removed.
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The NEW GE Corporate Culture
Under former CEO Jack Welch (now retired), the skills GE prized most were deal-making, cost-cutting and efficiency. In 2002 CEO Jeff Immelt, then 46, was Jack Welch's anointed successor. Now in a vastly different business environment, Jeff Immelt is turning GE's culture upside down.
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The NEW Honeywell Culture
The "old" Honeywell had developed over the past century as a respectable, though plodding, Minneapolis-based company. It merged with Allied Signal and was almost bought by GE.
Now under the leadership of CEO David Cote, Roger Fradin (ACS) and Jack Bolick (Process Systems), how is the NEW Honeywell doing?
Weblog on this topic Honeywell Weblog
Go visit the Honeywell weblog.
Read the comments from many others, giving their own views and feedback. And you may wish to weblog your own comments.
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