OEE Improvement Strategy
Your OEE optimization approach must include a method for measuring downtime, rejections, and cycle times 24/7. OEE, or Overall Equipment Effectiveness, is a fantastic idea that informs you how much waste is on your shop floor in a single number. It’s just the ratio of what you actually produced to what you could have produced — the actual output to theoretical maximum capacity. It’s a straightforward indicator of your profitability and return on investment. Increased OEE leads to increased profitability.
Availability: The percentage of planned running time available for production is known as availability. Unplanned and planned downtime fall under this type of losses.
Unplanned downtime occurs when equipment is scheduled to operate but is unable to do so due to unplanned circumstances. Equipment breakdowns, unplanned maintenance, a shortage of operators or resources etc.
Planned downtime occurs when equipment is set for production but is unable to do so due to planned circumstances. Changeover, tooling adjustment, cleaning, scheduled maintenance, and quality inspection are just a few examples.
Performance: The ratio of the number of components produced to the theoretical maximum number of components that might have been produced in the period the machine was running. Inspection, insert changes, tool breakage, and other factors might create a difference between the start and end of a cycle.
Quality: The percentage of components that pass quality inspection compared to the total number of components produced. The number of components rejected is the difference. On the shop floor, OEE allows you to measure and reduce waste. It’s a single number that everyone understands, from the machine operator to the President. It may be tracked and improved on month to month.
Example:
- Available time in a day = 20 hours (short feast breaks and shift changes)
- Running time = 15 hours (5 hours lost because of breakdowns, setup change)
- Theoretical production=220 parts
- Actual production=200
- Parts Good production=180
- Availability= 15/20 = 75
- Performance= 200/220 = 9
- Quality=180/200=9
- OEE = A x P x Q = 0.75 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 61
This figure indicates that only 61% of the available capacity is being utilized, with the remaining 39% being wasted. That’s terrible, but it’s a lot better than the usual shop floor. In terms of return on investment, 61% OEE is equivalent to paying for a banana and receiving just 3/5 of it.
You can’t improve your OEE unless you measure and track it, as well as its components A, P, and Q, on a regular basis. Your OEE optimization approach must include a Machine Monitoring System that tracks Production, Machine Downtime, and Rejections automatically.
Industry 4.0 standard?!
The term Industry 4.0 standard is meaningless. There is no specific designed criteria by which you can claim, “This system complies with the Industry 4.0 standard.” Industry 4.0 is simply a term for a type of automation defined by the collection, transfer, and analysis of data via sensors connected to machines, the internet, and the cloud.
However, Industry 4.0 is based on a set of design principles:
Interoperability: A system’s or component’s ability to work well with other systems or components.
Information transparency: The ability to collect and process machinery activity using electronic sensors for other uses.
Technical assistance: First, the ability to assist people by reporting and informing them so that they can make decisions. Second, the ability to assist people by completing unpleasant, tedious, or dangerous jobs.
Decentralized decisions: The ability to decide and execute tasks as autonomously as feasible. Decisions and duties are only delegated to humans when they become particularly complex or have conflicting objectives.
The extent to which each of these principles are implemented can vary, and will likely rise as technology advances in the next years.
There are several standards for the various components of Industry 4.0 like sensors, cloud, IoT, etc. and how they are work like protocols, securities, etc. but there are no specific standard that states “This is Industry 4.0 and this is not”. If there is any system that follows the design principles listed above, that is Industry 4.0
230 years ago, in Industry 1.0 there were no specific standards revolving around the number of machines run on steam and steam used. Similar to that, seen today, there is no set rigid conformance to Industry 4.0 standards.
What is Industry 4.0?
In actuality, your requirements determine on your definition of Industry 4.0 and there is no standard definition. It is the TREND in manufacturing technology and processes toward automation and data interchange, which includes cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing, with software automating many of the choices that people used to make.
At its most basic level, Industry 4.0 has mainly works on the components like data – which is directly collected from machines and inbuilt sensors of machine and software – which converts that raw data into information for decision making which further helps the CEO of the company to improve productivity and OEE.
There are several key design principles that make up Industry 4.0:
Interoperability: A system or component’s ability to work well with other systems or components
Information transparency: The ability to collect and process machinery activity using electronic sensors for other uses
Technical assistance: First, the ability to assist people by reporting and informing them so that they can make decisions. Second, the ability to assist people by completing unpleasant, tedious, or dangerous jobs
Decentralized decisions: The ability to decide and execute tasks as autonomously (human-independent) as feasible. Decisions and duties are only delegated to humans when they become particularly complex or have conflicting objectives
In summary, Industry 4.0 refers to any industrial automation system that uses sensors linked to machines, the internet, and the cloud to record, transfer, and analyze the data. It is a wide term that excludes absolutes or measures such as interoperability, technical assistance, and so on.
Specific Industry 4.0 definition will be based on everything from your pain points, to your budget, to your ability to make culture changes in your organization as well as the benefits you see coming from different approaches. The goal of this exercise is to get you thinking about how you define success for yourself and what experiences, resources, and connections might be needed to achieve that.
What Industry 4 is NOT:
- The Industry 4.0 Standard is a myth: Industry 4.0 begins when you link your machine to your computers and can view what it is doing at any time.
- There is nothing like ‘Compliant Industry 4.0’: After you’ve connected your machines to your PCs, you may choose which features to add based on the advantages you observe from each.
- Industry 4.0 has NO LIMITS: You may expand your system’s capabilities in any way you like.
- There are no technologies that your system must include: There is a widespread misperception that additive manufacturing (3D printing), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), robots, and automated machinery are all required components of Industry 4.0. This is incorrect.
Industry 4.0: BREAKING THE JARGONS
There are multiple terms related to Industry 4.0. Professionals associated directly/indirectly with Industry 4.0 are supposed to know about these terms and jargons. This blog is especially for the users who are puzzled by the terms and jargons thrown at them while attempting to figure out what Industry 4.0 is, and how can it assist, and how much does it cost.
As with any equipment, portions of Industry 4.0 are the domain of the developers of the equipment, while others are the domain of equipment users (this is you). For example, with a CNC machine, you need to know about accuracies, vibration levels, speeds, and so on — in other words, what the machine can accomplish, not how it accomplishes it.
Here is a collection of helpful jargons that you should know, unnecessary stuff that you should avoid, and misinformation that you should avoid.
- What you’re going to know
Cloud:
The term “cloud” refers to Internet-accessible servers as well as the software and databases that operate on those servers. Cloud servers are located in many data centers across the world.
IOT (Internet of Things) and IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things):
The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical gadgets that are linked to the internet and collecting and exchanging data all over the world. IOT and IIOT are the same thing, however IIOT refers to how IOT is used in industry.
IT infrastructure:
IT equipment required for implementing the Industry 4.0 system on your shopfloor: IT maintenance staff, recurring IT maintenance cost, LAN (wired/Wi-Fi) in the shop floor, Server (with A/C, physical security, backups, UPS), etc.
Digitalization:
The use of digital technology to modify a company model and generate new revenue and value-producing opportunities is known as digitalization. It is the transition to a digital business.
- These are things that only software developers worry about, but not you
Cyber physical system:
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are systems that integrate computer, networking, and physical processes.
Big data:
The large volume of data – both structured and unstructured – that inundates an organization on a daily basis is referred to as big data.
Analytics:
The scientific process of discovering and communicating important patterns in data is known as analytics.
Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field of computer science that aims to build smart machines that can perform activities that would typically require human intelligence.
Machine learning (ML):
The science of teaching computers to learn and accomplish things by themselves without being explicitly programmed to do so.
- Unless they are a part of your operation, you don’t need to know this
For some inexplicable reason, these technologies are (misguidedly) seen as integral to Industry 4.0, and are frequently discussed alongside Industry 4.0 by Experts in speeches and writings. Additive manufacturing, virtual reality, and robotics are a few of their favorites. They make it sound like Industry 4.0 is only possible if you include them in your manufacturing processes.
Additive manufacture:
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an appropriate name for the technologies that create 3D items by adding layer upon layer of material, whether it’s plastic, metal, or concrete. Additive manufacturing is NOT required for Industry 4.0, and 3D printing machines are not required for Industry 4.0 deployment in your firm.
Robotics:
Industry 4.0 does not necessitate the use of robots. Incorporating Industry 4.0 into your business does not need the use of robots.
High degrees of automation:
It’s possible to have a large number of manually operated machines. All of your material handling might be manual, and manual intervention might be required in every aspect of your business. Industry 4.0 does not necessitate high automation. This is not required for Industry 4.0 deployment in your company.
Virtual truth (VR):
Virtual Reality is a three-dimensional, computer-generating environment with which a human can explore and interact.
Augmented reality (AR):
Augmented reality overlaps the physical world with digital information. For example, you point your mobile phone camera to a machine part, the software will detect the item and provide precise information about the component to be used or serviced.
Action point:
Industry 4.0 is just a term that refers to the automation of data capture, transfer and analysis by means of machine-connected sensors, the Internet and the cloud. Please use the rules above and make your discussions with professionals associated to Industry 4.0 meaningful, crisp, and swift.
Role of a CEO in Industry 4.0 implementation
Advancement and Transformation are the truth of today’s fast paced world. The world is moving ahead, and at a lightning speed. Today whatsoever fails at keeping up gets left behind. Change, has ceased to exist as a choice and is now but a necessity.
This lightening sharp nature of present has come up as a challenge for businesses and CEO’s. The essentials have increased. Today, for the CEO of a manufacturing company essentials apart from finance, marketing, and planning have outgrown. Today, more than ever, for the CEO of any manufacturing company, developing a high-performance team, leading it, and overlooking operations ensuring consistent delivery of high-quality products to maximize profits has become vital. Now is the time of Industry 4.0, and it is here.
An Industry 4.0 framework gathers data directly from machines – development, downtime, uptime, efficiency, maintenance, and human resources – and displays it to decision makers or sends it to other applications for processing. It gathers a large amount of data, analyses it, and presents it to decision makers at different levels of the company. Different numbers at different levels. These figures must be used to boost productivity.
Industry 4.0, which is the fourth industrial revolution, is the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology. Now, your whole process will be seamless thanks to it. If properly implemented and used, it will reveal the truth about what is going on in your business.
In one of the companies utilizing AUTOBITS 4.0, for instance, the CEO completely designated the work of Industry 4.0 execution to the shop head. The CEO had nothing to do with it. AUTOBITS has configurable formulae for calculating OEE, and the shop head insisted on using ALL downtime in the OEE estimates, resulting in perfect “world-class” OEE numbers reaching 85%. For example, if a normal component unload/load time is 1 minute, a 10-minute downtime is considered part of the cycle rather than 9 minutes. The same can be said for setup times. The company is deceiving itself by relying on misleading productivity figures, and it is squandering a golden opportunity to increase profits.
Every organization, at every level, has two types of people. First is the Transparency enthusiast and second is the Transparency Despiser. Here the Transparency Enthusiast is a self-motivated individual who thrives for the best, is secure in his abilities, and sees transparency as an opportunity to change things even further whereas the Transparency Despiser is an individual with low skill and motivation whose longevity in the company depends on feeding fake efficiency statistics before the hierarchy as feeding reality would result to addressing issues which they lack the ability to confront.
Industry 4.0 system aids leaders to base their decisions on real-time information. You, as the CEO, are inspiring the transparency lover and making life tough for the transparency hater, pushing the latter to develop his motivation and skills by becoming active in the implementation of Industry 4.0 and then closely monitoring it. As a result, by being actively involved in the development and operation of Industry 4.0, you can improve both the quality of your operations and the performance of your team.
You must be heavily involved at first, then gradually decrease your involvement. You must examine efficiency figures, ask people to take action, and track the actions’ progress. Efficiency metrics can be anything you want, depending on your target area – OEE, spindle use, rejections, downtime, and so on.
Here’s a blueprint for a CEO’s job in implementing Industry 4.0:
Months 1-2:
- Review the previous day’s productivity numbers every morning – 30 minutes, every day
Month 3-forever:
- Review the previous week’s productivity numbers every Monday morning – 1 hour, per week
- Look at long-term patterns in efficiency numbers on the first of the month – 2 hours, every month
Effective AUTOBITS installations have seen one or more of the following advantages: Despite increased sales, no new machine acquisitions have been made for at least a year. OEE has doubled, consumable costs have decreased significantly (energy, combustion gases), workers have switched to working two shifts instead of three (16 hours instead of 24), and manpower costs have decreased. Both of these things, of course, lead to profits.
Industry 4.0 is a great friend of the CEO, and the CEO’s position is indeed crucial in its implementation for success.
IoT and Smart Homes
Home automation today is in a nascent period in terms of consumer adoption. This area, more than any other market is clearly here to stay. Smart Homes is an exciting concept for modern establishments. Just within few years of its existence, we are now witnessing a crazy increase in the adaptation of this application.
On the other hand, company owners are looking at this scenario as a chance to flourish their businesses. Giants like Apple, Amazon, Google are developing high-end future technologies in the world of IoT.
Even when market is quickly flooded with technologies of different sorts, adoption of automation in our buildings will take place stage – by- stage. Commoners will get accustomed to the various gadgets working for them, and also maturing with time to the degree of simplicity, reliability and fault-tolerance.
The future, when considered in a span of five-years, is expected to view an enormous amount of technology improvements. But all these will happen smoothly without making it look like technology volcano.
The automated and smart technology is not only going to be for developers but for everyone in general. And in these span, public will start using it comfortably and also see value in it.
The workaround homes is updating and the phrase ‘life in homes’ is coming into existence. Smart homes which are so different, so smart are now on the verge of also being so affordable. These applications will be useful for Buildings, banks, ATMs, stores, etc.
There will be Wifi-enabled video doorbell, apps that enhance security against theft and any other violations, automated lighting and also central music system triggering according to the home mates energy and mood. All this isn’t just imagination, this has actually been started to be provided by new builders and investors.
Industry 4.0 – The Journey
Though both are tightly related, most of the times, Internet of Things(IoT) and Industry 4.0 are thought to be same. But there’s much difference between them. Lets first take a look at origin of Industry 4.0.
At the end of eighteenth century, first mechanical loom came into existence. Innovation began thereon and many other mechanical machines were developed. All of these were ran by human power and were highly dependent on the energy and force of humans.
I’m sure you would have an old memory where your grandparents would have told you about ‘their times’ and the hardships they had to face. One of my such memory is when every week a man roamed around the streets to polish the blades of kitchen knives. He did this with a self made machine on his cycle. Pedaling the cycle helped to polish the blades. Many such machines like steam generator, water geysers, etc were prototyped and developed. This era can be termed as Industry 1.0
Industry 2.0 came into existence with the invention of electricity. It was in early twentieth century when this happened. It was the same time when assembly line was developed by Henry Ford. It was a huge break through for the industries as it accelerated mass production, helping to reduce production cost.
Next revolution began with the development of computers which is said to be Industry 3.0. Machines were merged with computers. Automation came into existence. Machines completed tasks without human intervention. It increased the accuracy and speed drastically.
Since 2010, Industries are fast growing. Lots of upgrades have been made to the way machines work. And currently we are at a stage where human commands aren’t needed anymore. Machine commands other machines. With the help of Internet and cyber-physical systems, communication between machines have been made possible and is emerging to be next big thing called Internet 4.0.
Market trends for Industry 4.0
As we already saw glimpses of IoT market trends, let us now have a overview of what Industry 4.0 holds for 2017.
- Manufacturing
It is going to be surprising for people who think rapidly changing, customer-specific mass production is a dream for future to accomplish. Industry 4.0 manufacturing architecture which is fast, customized and automated is soon expected to become a reality. It seems futuristic fantasy but we will soon see some amazing implementations of it. It will take time for the industries that are mass production centralized and sophisticated. But some new, small and decentralized organizations units are expected to see the ray of light to meet customized individual needs.
- IIoT Platforms
IIoT platforms are blooming almost everywhere. Organizations are integrating data hubs fir storage, processing and analyzing the data. It is a wild growth phase which is sure to persist for next two years. We will also witness increasing demand of device integration, data management, device management like software updates and also business process management. IIoT applicants are also looking for easy-to -use connectors which are fast and simple to deploy.
- Industry 4.0 data integration
We live in a diversified world and it will remain this way in the future. In IoT, elements like big data, machine learning and analytics play a big role. But the issue is to combine the diversified data that is created by each individual in a meaningful way. IoT elements needs to utilized to its optimum utilization power to do so.
- Users become Industry 4.0 vendors
In near future, we will witness typical enterprise users who have experience of IoT or Industry 4.0 trying to market their knowledge and expertise to external customers. This is how enterprise users are entering in the Industry 4.0 and IIoT market. They offer their own technological developments and may even offer consulting and integration services.
- IoT Ecosystems
In current scenario, where economy is highly interconnected, the strength of network plays a vital role rather than the size of company to determine the revenues. This particular concept is critical in Industry 4.0. Iot Ecosystem is expanding frequently and will soon provide complimentary micro services. Increasing number of partners are attracted when there is a strong business model and core solutions which depends on the maintenance of network. An intense competition will soon emerge between top notch IoT ecosystems. All these will have great impact on industries too which will help Industry 4.0 to a greater extent.
Understanding new robotics trends
Robots are advancing with each passing day. They are getting lightweight, faster, smaller, simpler and less expensive for a specific load capabilities. With robots, components like connectors and cables are also evolving. The robotics technology today is expanding its use beyond automotive applications.
For example, six-axis robots are usually installed on places to shuffle from one task to another. Cables have to meet these level of mobility demands that can provide plug-and-play functions to connect the robot to- maybe the ‘seventh-axis’, providing robot to move in multi-direction.
Let us look at the example from another point of view. A painting robot is now capable of switching from one shade of paint to another in less than ten seconds with least amount of waste. Furthermore, cables are becoming lightweight and more compact by instilling new technologies like foamed materials and thin jackets to both protect and reduce the size of cable yet not compromising with power capacity and performance.
Strategies to incorporate multiple functions like transmitting control signals, media lines and power supply lines for oil and compressed air within the same cable are also available in the market. Next, choices between exterior and interior cabling too, is developing. This would be beneficial for space constraints and cumbersome wiring.
Thus, future considerations and upfront planning for choice of cable can be really beneficial in long run that can help reduce the machine downtime, thereby, improving the efficiency of robots.
Industry 4.0 and Chemical Industry
Organizations focusing business operations may use Industry 4.0 to improve efficiency and reduce risk factor. While organizations that are focused on growth must apply Industry 4.0 to generate a brand new revenue stream. As we explore the ways in which information creates value, it becomes evitable to also understand this from manufacturing perspective to relate the cycle from physical to digital and back to physical.
IIoT combines connected technologies to give rise to Industry 4.0 with both Information and Operation Technology. Sectors like manufacturing, robotics, artificial intelligence, cognitive technology, augmented reality would come together and drive IIoT. Industry 4.0 extends these connected technologies to complete the physical-digital-physical cycle.
Industry 4.0 Transformation in Chemical Industry
The advancement of Industry 4.0 in chemical industry is yet at operational level due to lack of sensors that would detect historical data collected by the chemical factories over the years. The potential of Industry is at par, if not more efficient, but all these applications take time to develop. Efficiency and productivity of chemical plants can be drastically improved by smart manufacturing techniques.
Improved Business Operations
The business operations can be improved by increasing productivity and reducing risk. Process control and smart techniques can be used to increase the productivity of the chemical plants. While risks can be reduced by managing supply chains and in-house operations that respond to the quick customer requirements and also improve security and quality.
Smart Factory
Also known as smart manufacturing, smart factory combines the ability of IoT, artificial intelligence with OT like addictive manufacturing, robotics and advanced materials. It is nothing but joining IT and OT to improve productivity.
Supply Chain Planning
Current trends in Industry 4.0 helps chemical companies in supply chain planning by firstly improving the visibility into the supply chains, and then, by predicting the demand patterns.
Sensors and connected devices help to improve visibility in the supply chains to reduce risks. And latest analytics tools can help the industry to predict demand patterns that can align the supply chains and operations accordingly.
Developing New Products to Expand Revenue
R&D is one of the most critical phase in the value chain; It depicts subsequent improvements and manufacturing details. R&D sure demands heavy investment. And that is the reason chemical companies are looking for big data and other tools to predict the outcome of investment. For example, in material genomics, advanced analytics provides researcher with data to understand the chemical components of the available materials and thereby consider optimal combinations to develop new materials with customer specific properties.