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Dave McPhail
Chief Executive Officer
Memex Automation Inc. (Cincinnati)
SOFTWARE UPDATE
NEWS ABOUT DIGITAL MANUFACTURING TOOLS AND SOFTWARE
The Value of Virtual Plant Monitoring
Manufacturing Engineering: What can a plant-floor
monitoring system do for shops today?
Dave McPhail: The achievable goal is real-time situation-
required, the cost is closer to $5000-$5500 per monitored
asset installed.
To make an informed cost decision, manufacturers need
al awareness and complete visibility of operations, or con-
to understand the value created by effectively monitor-
nected manufacturing. The vast majority of manufacturers
ing their shop-floor assets. Memex Automation customers
today do not measure the results of their shop-floor opera-
typically experience IRR [internal rate of return] greater than
tional efforts in real time. With a disconnected manufacturing
400%, which means that the average payback is measured
model, they have little or no real-time data to drive excellence
in mere months.
ME: What new monitoring tools from Memex Automation
and profitability.
ME: Why don’t more manufacturers use monitoring?
McPhail: As with anything new that challenges the pres-
can help shops today?
McPhail: We call our award-winning technology MERLIN,
ent status quo, adoption rates are contingent on manufactur-
an acronym for Manufacturing Execution Real-time Lean
ers sharing their successes with others. Most manufacturers
Information Network. Our solution includes both connection
purchase and adopt new equipment and processes by
hardware, if required, and visualization software that, for the
identifying and benchmarking their performance against that
first time, allows manufacturers to really see exactly what
of their peers.
transpires on their shop floors, in real time, by the second.
As the results of our early adopters are validated and
MERLIN enables the synthesis and contextualization of
shared, we are seeing the market open up dramatically. At
three data sources. The first data source is the shop-floor
last September’s IMTS show, our booth was booking a new
equipment that produces the product. This could be any
lead every two-and-a-half minutes and we are now scaling
piece of resident shop-floor manufacturing equipment, such
up all areas of our company to meet demand.
as CNC machines, punch presses, saws, injection-molding
“To make an informed cost decision, manufacturers need to understand
the value created by effectively monitoring their shop-floor assets.”
ME: How much does it cost to start a shop-floor monitoring program?
machines, packaging equipment, robots, and PLC-controlled
equipment. It could also be a “virtual machine,” where the
McPhail: The cost depends on the method of connec-
process is completely manual, such as assembly or pack-
tion required to access the data generated by the shop-
aging. The second data source is the shop-floor personnel
floor-resident manufacturing equipment. For new equip-
that operate the equipment, and perform related tasks. Our
ment capable of talking intelligently via Ethernet and using
MERLIN Operator Portal (MOP) supports a new paradigm in
an electronic protocol such as MTConnect or OPC, the
manufacturing where the equipment operator is as valued
cost is $2750-$3500 per monitored asset installed. If the
as an intrinsic resource. Our customers have proven that if
equipment is considered legacy and a hardware adapter is
the operator is empowered and given the tools to assist in
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February 2015
SOFTWARE UPDATE
pliers, costing, and scheduling. In a
disconnected manufacturing model,
the data that they are presently
Image courtesy Memex Automation Inc.
fed from the shop floor is manually
entered, usually well after the fact,
which hinders their ability to influence time-sensitive outcomes and
make critical decisions.
A connected manufacturing
model offers the ability to automatiUsing Memex’s MERLIN Operator Portal, operators are empowered with tools needed to
quickly solve problems, boosting shop-floor productivity.
cally drive and influence inventory,
and procurement, based solely on
what is happening in real-time on the
solving problems as they arise on the manufacturing floor,
shop floor. Another benefit is transparent scheduling visibility
productivity dramatically improves. The third data source is
based on exactly what has been produced by the company’s
ERP/MRP. In most manufacturing shops, these complex sys-
manufacturing operations without the delay associated with
tems are not directly tied to what is happening on the shop
manual data entry.
floor. They hold vast amounts of data about sales orders, raw
material availability, delivery dates, outsourced vendors/sup-
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February 2015
ME: What specific metrics are most critical for shops
looking to improve productivity?
McPhail: The new buzzword in manufacturing today
trapped in most manufacturers’ ERP/MRP systems. With
is OEE. OEE is a distillation of the six-sigma principles of
F.OEE, Income From Operations [IFO], asset by asset, hour
waste, and is the product of three ratios. The first ratio is
by hour, can for the first time be calculated, visualized and
"$+)'(',',',!-+--#*#+*+)--+$)"-(--,&-+
Availability, which is defined as actual run time/total
time,
truly understood.
including downtime. The second ratio
is Quality, which is defined as good
parts produced/total parts produced,
including rejects/scrap. The third ratio
is Performance, which is defined as
actual part-to-part runtime collected/
theoretical part-to-part runtime.
Availability is where most companies
see the largest and quickest improvement for the effort expended. MERLIN
measures nonproductive time into 20
downtime categories per machine. This
allows continuous improvement personnel to rapidly determine root causes
of equipment downtime and eliminate
them by understanding exactly where
to look, and exactly what to change to
gain additional manufacturing capacity.
Quality and performance are also
extremely helpful in improving a company’s overall OEE score. World-class
OEE is 85%, which is 95% in each of
these categories multiplied by each
Looking to make things a whole lot easier
around your shop?
other. It should be duly noted that
the average manufacturing customer
we engage with believes its OEE is
approximately 65%, when the actual
post-MERLIN-implementation initial
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benchmark is closer to 32%.
Once the shock of that typical OEE
-
gap is fully understood, within a few
months a MERLIN customer’s OEE
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improves dramatically. We have several
customers that have started at 32%,
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and attained world-class OEE of 85%.
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ME: How can using financial OEE,
which you described at MTConnect’s
conference, help improve shops’ bottom line?
McPhail: Financial OEE, or F.OEE,
Solid
Modeling
2-5 Axis
Milling
High-Speed
Machining
Multi-Task
Machining
Swiss
Machining
Tombstone
Machining
Turning
Mill/Turn
Wire-EDM
leverages the power of real-time shopfloor data, and accurate costing data
See us at HOUSTEX Booth #1245
February 2015
|
AdvancedManufacturing.org
29
SOFTWARE UPDATE
This allows manufacturers to manage their shopfloor operations with a new management tool that helps
them understand their equipment’s contribution to their
monthly income statement in real-time, not three weeks
after month-end when it’s far too late to modify a manufacturing process. Think of F.OEE as a universal metric
Image courtesy SigmaTek LLC
that is well understood by all—money!
New Releases
SigmaTek Systems LLC (Cincinnati), a developer
of nesting software, has released its updated SigmaNest Version 10 for users of plasma, laser, punch, oxyfuel, waterjet, router, knife, tube/pipe and combination
cutting machines.
The updated SigmaNest Version 10.2 software adds a Split Window for
simultaneously viewing different areas of the workspace.
The updated SigmaNest software adds a number of new
areas of the workspace. Users can also manually nest parts
features and enhancements that make machine program-
across the split windows and onto other sheets. This capabil-
ming even more effective and easy. SigmaNest 10.2 offers
ity provides quick nesting of parts onto multiple sheets. The
a Split Window that allows simultaneously viewing different
new software adds several other enhancements including
the infinite
possibilities
of process control
RENGAGE™ strain gauge technology—for the most accurate probes in the world.
OMP400—Optical
transmission strain
gauge probe.
More details at
renishaw.com/omp400
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February 2015
SOFTWARE UPDATE
laser destruct; center of gravity tabbing; a quick search parts,
sheets, and work order list; horizontal line cropping; and
Acquisitions
ERP developer Epicor Software Corp. (Austin, TX)
punching enhancements.
CADENAS Part Solutions LLC (Cincinnati) on Dec. 5
announced Jan. 5 that it has completed its acquisition of
released the new parts4cad app for users of the cloud-based
privately held ShopVisible LLC (Atlanta), a cloud-based
design and planning tool Autodesk Fusion 360. The app, cre-
retail order-management and digital commerce solutions. No
ated by software developer CADENAS GmbH (Augsburg,
financial terms were disclosed.
Germany), gives engineers access to millions of 3D CAD
The acquisition, announced Dec. 11, 2014, expands
models from more than 400 certified manufacturer cata-
Epicor’s position as a leading provider of extended omni-
logs. The desired components can be configured individu-
channel solutions for midsize and large retail chains. Shop-
ally and afterwards integrated directly into existing designs
Visible customers include global and domestic retailers and
in Autodesk Fusion 360, a solution for 3D modeling that is
manufacturers such as 3M, Liberty Hardware, Tempur-Pedic,
used by designers and engineers to collaborate on product
Bluemercury, Hue, Atwoods, and Plow & Hearth.
creations. The cloud-based technology in Fusion 360 allows
ShopVisible’s multitenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
users to access designs at any time and any location with
software will complement Epicor’s offerings in retail transac-
any mobile device and Internet browser. The part4cad app is
tion, enterprise and analytics systems, and the acquisition
available for download for $7.99 from the Autodesk Ex-
will become part of the Epicor Retail suite of solutions.
change Apps store. For more information, see http://tinyurl.
VacuumFilterAd_Layout 1 1/12/15 1:34 PM Page 1
com/parts4cad.
Software Update is edited by Senior Editor
Patrick Waurzyniak; e-mail [email protected].
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