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.
Calculation of OEE
There are innumerous factors that affect the OEE performance of the company. The main factor in OEE is downtime in manufacturing process. Downtime is defined as the time when a process was intended to execute but did not. This includes unloading / loading of parts, inspection, setup changes, breakdowns, etc. OEE is not just a number for any organization, but it’s a mirror for decision taker to improve and evaluate the performance of the shop floor. It’s not a number that you achieve and sit, relax, but it’s a number that you constantly strive to improve.
Multiple organizations consider unloading / loading, inspection, tool change, setup change downtime as a part of the process but not as downtime. This contradicts the logic about using OEE. It inflates the OEE figure artificially, yet it is worthless.
Availability = Run time divided by Planned Productive Time
Run time = Planned Productive Time minus Downtime
Here’s why you should treat ALL downtimes as downtimes
One can get an artificially high availability of 95% by excluding certain downtime and increasing the numerator in the availability calculation. As a result, one fails to root for a scope of improvement and ends up sitting back and relaxing.
Assume that the setup time for a CNC lathe component is 2 hours. If I don’t consider this as a downtime, this setup time will remain constant for years. If I consider it as a downtime, I will continue trying to decrease it by using quick change tooling, automatic tool pre setter, etc. and similar practice with other downtimes.
There are so many formulas available for calculation of availability (A), performance (P), quality (Q) and OEE. The OEE formula is differ from organization to organization as per their process.
Action point:
Rather than creating an artificially high OEE number, patting ourselves on the back, and sitting around complacently, we must obtain genuine OEE figures and work to increase it.
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.
CNC Machine Monitoring – Data collection methods
Accumulation of data concerned to a machine’s status is a vital part of CNC machine monitoring. This is accomplished by various techniques and also depends on various characteristics possessed by the machine.
Technique 1: Data Transfer using macro calls – over the RS232 Serial Interface
For example, on a Fanuc or Haas machine when a cycle begins/ends, or the spindle is turned on/ off, data is sent out over the CNC machine’s serial port using the DPRNT command. Serial-to-LAN converters connect the machine’s serial port to a server over a wired or wireless network. Data is transferred to the server, and reports are shown on local network PCs.
Features:
- Long establishment time due to LAN and RS232 port connections
- Macro B (or same) option is expensive
- Restricted to CNC machines that have Fanuc Macro B choice or same
- IT infrastructure is required, including cabling, serial or LAN hardware, a server, and an IT professional
- The establishment of network has a high initial cost as well as a high maintenance cost.
- Because of the diversity of equipment involved – cabling, LAN hardware, and server – there is a high risk of downtime. If any of these fail, the system as a whole collapses. Because everything is visible, it is also vulnerable to harm
- Macro calls must be included in every program. It does not function if individuals forget to insert them or purposefully do not insert them
- Machine mobility is limited – moving machines inside your shop will require rewiring the serial connection from the machine as well as the LAN cabling from the machine to the server. Machine monitoring stays unavailable until the period of rewiring lasts, which usually takes a few days.
Technique 2: Data Transfer using the machine’s Ethernet Port
The ethernet port on the system is used to send data. Over a wired or Wi-Fi network on the shop floor, the machine’s ethernet port is connected to a server through serial-LAN converters. Data is transferred to the server, and reports are visible on local network PCs – Or, data is sent to the cloud, and reports followed are made visible on the internet, on a PC, tablet, or smartphone.
Features:
- It is essential for the machine to be able to communicate through Ethernet
- Long establishment time due to LAN and cabling connections
- A wide range of data may be collected, including spindle power, FRO status, spindle temperature, and so on
- The network has a high initial cost as well as a high maintenance cost
- Machines that are newer than 2015 are excluded
- IT infrastructure is required, including cabling, serial or LAN hardware, a server, and IT professional
- Because of the diversity of equipment involved – cabling, LAN hardware, and server – there is a high risk of downtime
- The system’s mobility is limited; moving machines inside your shop requires rewiring the machine’s LAN connections. Using Wi-Fi LAN can help with this.
Technique 3: Monitoring the status of signals at machine’s relays
This is accomplished with the help of a sensor that monitors digital signal lines from the CNC machine’s PLC. Send the data to the cloud directly. The hardware sensor examines the state of relays to determine cycle start/end, spindle on/off, and other parameters. The sensor sends data straight to the cloud via mobile phone network. Reports are visible over the internet on a PC, tablet, or mobile phone.
Features:
- Installation within 40 minutes – Which is very less
- There is no need for IT infrastructure, and hence no need for IT maintenance.
- Only works with machines that have 24V digital output signals
- There will be no downtime due to IT equipment failure
- Because the sensor hardware is contained within the machine control panel and is not accessible from the outside, it cannot be tampered with
- There are no initial or recurrent costs for IT infrastructure and maintenance
- Machine’s mobility is very high. The sensor hardware follows the machine and begins monitoring the moment it is turned on in its new location
- Cycle start/end, spindle start/stop, and machine failure are the only types of data that may be obtained. Program number, feed rate override status, spindle temperature, and other information are unavailable.
The comparison:
Because of the expense, installation time, and lack of dependability, Technique 1 is the least desired. It is no longer in use.
Technique 2 provides the most information, but it is only available on newer machines and requires LAN connectivity.
Technique 3 offers the lowest cost and installation time, as well as the maximum reliability, but it fails at tracking internal machine characteristics.
Autobits Industry 4.0 is perfect for CNC machine monitoring. It supports both Technique 2 and 3.
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.
Introduction to IoT
While IoT is gradually advancing and becoming an important part of tech world, there is also other class of people who have little to no knowledge of this streaming technology. Today, we will bridge that gap just as IoT does. Confused? Well, don’t be.
To make it simple, lets first split each word and dive into it:
Internet is all about WWW, a network that is globally used which is both build and used by human beings.
Thing, on other hand, is any object or substance which is dormant in nature.
Hence, Internet of Things (IoT) is a bridge between living (i.e internet) and non-living (i.e things)
Say, if we want to communicate with each other, we may use a network like facebook or twitter, where one of us sends friend request to the other and there on conversation begins, or make a phone call or even better- just meet in person to hit the conversation.
But, if a machine wants to communicate with other machine, it of course cannot talk as easily as we humans can do. And that is where medium like IoT comes into picture.
What is IoT?
“Machines built to run machines.”
Today, when the world has advanced drastically, revolving around data and cloud computing, IoT is an emerging technology which is the world of sensors or chips. IoT is a platform where a machine commands other machine to perform certain tasks ranging from simple to hybrid functions.
It is finding a route to connect numerous applications, devices and technologies in a single, coherent network. It is a vision where each thing that we see (or cannot see) with our naked eyes will be embedded with smart sensors to make our life easy, safe and even luxurious.
For example, a car would send an automatic text message to both hospital and family member with location when the driver meets with an accident. Reaching hospital, the patient wouldn’t have to wait to fill up a form, his personal details would be fetched from the chip attached to his car. This little improvisation would save a lot of hassle and a life.
Lets look at another example where a customer orders a product from an online portal, and say, a chip is attached to the packed product which would automatically track its location and regularly update the customer regarding its arrival. This would help both customer and vendor to maintain security constraints and cordial relations. All these wouldn’t have been possible without the powerful use of Internet of Things.
Hence, IoT helps to bring each machine to a basic, general platform where a common language is build for machines to communicate.
Bottom Line:
Every little thing has a story. IoT helps machine to describe its own story. It is a platform that brings components of various devices to common bridge of communication.
Why IoT will be powerful?
Twenty-five years back, you wouldn’t have imagined a machine that would give money- today we have ATM machines; no watchman would have thought that a door can open all by itself- today we have automatic doors; no traffic police officer would have seen in his wildest dreams that a car can be run without a driver- today Google have successfully built driver-less cars. All these has been possible with the powerful use of Internet of Things.
Earlier, manpower was affordable while technology was expensive. Gradually came a stage where both human and technical resources were at par. Both were almost equally expensive. But lately, tables have turned altogether. Technology is becoming cheaper day-by-day. And in the upcoming years, to reduce the cost of human resources, technology will have to cumbersome for the same.
Also, seeing from a network perspective, the information that we search on internet travels numerous servers and networks in the background to serve us the correct data in the minimal amount of time. And the cost of transferring this data cannot be neglected.
It is next to impossible for the single human brain to acquire, process and analyze such a huge amount data without any device or system. IoT can be a great platform to reduce cost and enhance the efficiency of such resources.
As cellular devices are becoming smart and easily accessible, according to a survey, nearly 75 Billion devices will be connected to each other by 2020 and its market value will grow to around nineteen dollar trillion. Yes, you read that right! Internet will soon have benchmarking solutions in the field of medical, security, household, transportation, education and others.
Bottom Line:
In the fast pacing world, life without devices seems impossible and in the world of devices, life without connectivity is irresistible. IoT is surely going to be an integral part of these vicious circle.
How Iot Works
IoT – How?
Time isn’t far when your coffee maker will know your mood swings better than your loved one.
Iot is an amalgamation of devices that are connected with each other. Devices acquire, process and transfer the data from their surroundings with the help of sensors, controllers and other hardware components.
These connected devices have the potential to generate a vast amount of data and traffic which can be used to provide real-time information. You can monitor the workplace and home remotely. Industries can be blessed to improve productivity and reduce cost and waste. Sensor can make the city smart to avoid congestion and help during accidents or any natural calamity.
- Sensors are an integral part of any IoT application. They are the gripping point from where innovations begin.
- Without network like internet, this isn’t possible. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in the IoT framework.
- Controller is the middle man between sensor and internet. It acquires data and commands the machine or device to function accordingly.
Controller can be of numerous types. Earlier, 90% of controller were built in C language and C++. But with time, they got diversified and now, hybrid technology is available which is both real time and lightweight. Thus, gap between developer and controller to make the hardware is bridged.
Cellular technology is one of the most widely used tech which is both general purpose and easily available. According to a survey, in 2001, 58% cities were covered by 2G which has increased to 95% with the help of cellular community.Today devices like Pi are available which is a credit card sized device, efficient to perform many desktop-like functions.
Computing has improved rigorously and is easily accessible today. Processing power is getting better day-by-day. A decade back, the processing power that NASA didn’t have is now available in your smart phone.
Real time analytics, too, has advanced a ton. Fetching records from DOS based system took minutes to hours back then which has now reduced to milliseconds.
Top IoT Trends for 2017
Here’s list of some top notch areas where IoT will have powerful impact:
- Startup Innovations
It’s the peek time where technocrats have realized the potential of IoT and are also pushing their ideas into reality. Though idea is only the first step, they will have to make the devices that are cost effective to garner success.
- Big Data
To fully utilize the impact of IoT, Big Data needs to be used efficiently. As information is an integral part of IoT, data continuously needs to be transferred between the devices. Smart cities, smart homes, smart cars or any other smart device produces enormous amount of data. Data quality matters more than data quantity. It requires some methodology to fetch, process and analyze this data. Thus, to maximize the advantage of IoT, Big Data must be considered a fundamental part.
- Personalized Tech
The hype around smart phones and wearable is predicted to be at par while other personalized devices are being innovated. The scope is expected to go beyond health and wellness where smart phones will have an incorporated health sensor. This revolution is taking place even at smart homes and not only at hospitals and health centers.
- Connected Retails
Daily chores such as shopping, parking, etc will soon be transformed by IoT driven retails. It will offer customers exactly what they need, thus increasing user experience. This will also unveil new scopes for advertisements. This will surely have a revolutionary impact on how consumer behaves.
- Security
With comfort, comes challenges. Over the time, IoT has been facing security issues globally. It seems that 2017 will be a year where security will get stronger. Security constraints are growing stronger with strategies to fight cybercrime and loopholes.
IoT In Healthcare
What if you didn’t have to watch white walls of the hospitals when you met with an accident? What if you didn’t have to inhale the ‘medicine smell’ of the hospital while you were sick? It is fascinating, I know. Yet, this is how technology and medical science is moving hand in hand.
IoT is rapidly developing in health sector. The new tech can monitor patients from their homes, reducing the urgency to rush to the clinic or hospital by sending the tracked data directly to the doctor. In next ten years, 50% of medical care is estimated to get virtual. From medical perspective, real time data would allow faster and rational decision making. While talking from technology perspective, more than any other sector, health care is forecasted to shed 40% of the global economic impact.
Devices available:
- You can have your home connected with health monitoring device for extended care after discharge
- You can get a wearable, wireless medical device for aged family members
- You can have your home medical monitoring device integrated with cellular connectivity for real time records
- You can use medical apps in your smart phone to keep in touch with the doctor
- Your doctor would know beforehand when you are going to have a heart attack.
The good side:
- Efficient care
- Convenient access
- Reduced re-admissions
- Extended care while traveling
- Improved communication between patient and doctor
As they say, prevention is better than cure. With IoT this saying will have its real existence.