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Towards a Service – Oriented Business with Connected Machines

March 7 , 2016 – Doug Bellin

Mazak Corporation is pulling ahead of its competitors with an innovative connected machine deployment. A global leader in the design and manufacture of machine tools, Mazak has partnered with Cisco and machine – to – machine solutions provider MEMEX Inc. to drastically improve digital integration across all its processes.

To see the full article please click here

MEMEX - IIoT

NTMA – The Record

Kuss Filtration Deploys MERLIN IIOT Manufacturing Software in USA, China, Brazil Factories

March 2016 — NTMA- The Record,VOLUME 37 / NO. 3

In 2008, Cisco first used the term “Internet of Things”, or IoT, to describe the intelligent connectivity of smart devices by which objects can sense one another and communicate. The data shared between these devices offers the potential to profoundly change how, where and by whom decisions about our physical world are made.

Manufacturing companies craving competitive advantage are actively seeking ways to implement machine-to-machine connectivity their shop floors. They refer to this movement as the Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT. IIoT adoption accompanies a changing of the guard in manufacturing plants. New managers consider technology an everyday appendage, not an exotic novelty. So while it’s true that there’s a herd mentality in manufacturing that can stifle innovation, it’s also true that the herd is starting to move.

So how do manufacturing companies adopt IIoT? It starts on the shop floor with technology that equips industrial machines with the necessary interfaces for connecting, collecting and analyzing manufacturing data. To do this they need a proven framework for plant-wide and multi-plant communications. That framework will in turn provide actionable information for machine operators, factory managers, engineers, production managers and senior management to dramatically improve productivity and profit.

Kuss Filtration Inc., a global filtration product OEM, has embraced IIoT with MERLIN Enterprise Edition for a multi-plant rollout of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software. MERLIN will be used in Kuss factories in the USA, China, and Brazil. The purchase includes 43 licenses of MERLIN and is a follow-on to a 10-license sale in June of 2015.

MERLIN is an IIoT shop-floor-to-top-floor communications platform that connects industrial machines and provides manufacturing analytics in real-time. Specifically, MERLIN delivers a 10%-50% average productivity increase, and earns 20%-plus profit improvement based on just a 10% increase in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). It consistently achieves payback in less than four months with an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) greater than 300%, and connects to any machine, old or new, utilizing native MTConnect, other protocols or MERLIN hardware adapters for older machines.

“Kuss is committed to quality through our operating management system and use of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing techniques, which has earned us the ISO/TS 16949 certification in addition to many awards and recognitions for design, innovation and product excellence,” says Kuss Filtration’s President and CEO Hasnain Merchant. “MEMEX’s MERLIN has proven itself, and now we intend to enhance our manufacturing excellence and profitability with MERLIN in three of our factories.”

Kuss will use MERLIN to extend its reputation for unparalleled quality and innovation. The company has over 60 years of experience providing air and liquid filtration solutions to a diverse global market. Today, Kuss Filtration is comprised of six locations in the U.S., Brazil, Europe and China strategically placed to service its growing global customer base.

“Kuss Filtration is a great example of a world-class company embracing the power of our MERLIN communications platform,” says MEMEX CEO David McPhail. “MERLIN proves that the Industrial Internet of Things isn’t a theory. IIoT is an implement now competitive advantage for the smartest factories on the planet.”

MEMEX - Measuring Manufacturing Excellence Logo

Homeyer Precision Manufacturing Co. chooses MERLIN for an IIoT rollout

IIot Software Introduced to factory

March 1, 2016 – Manufacturing News

Homeyer Precision Manufacturing Co. has purchased MEMEX’s MERLIN Enterprise Edition for a plant rollout of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software in Marthasville, MO. The sale includes 23 licenses of MERLIN for overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and direct numerical control (DNC), plus nine MERLIN MTConnect hardware adapters for legacy CNC manufacturing machines.

Homeyer Precision Manufacturing is led by its President Herb Homeyer, who is also Chairman of the Board of The National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA). “A passionate business leader, he founded his company in 1990 with a belief in the power of American manufacturing – and a commitment to bring a new level of service to his industry,” said a company spokesperson.

“IIoT is a powerful trend, and MERLIN makes IIoT real by equipping industrial machines with the necessary interfaces for connecting, collecting and analyzing manufacturing data in real time,” said Homeyer. “Our manufacturing team did their homework before choosing MERLIN. One of the things that most impressed us is how no machine is left behind regardless of make or vintage. MERLIN can be implemented quickly on our factory floor without costly integration services or associated time lags. With this real-time visibility, we look forward to a significant boost in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).”

“We are honored to be implementing MEMEX’s IIoT technology in the factory of a visionary manufacturing leader like Herb Homeyer,” said MEMEX CEO David McPhail. “With a correct focus on achieving business value versus simply counting connected devices, IIoT represents no less than the next industrial revolution. The previous three industrial revolutions were mechanization powered by steam engines in the 1800s, mass production powered by electricity and the assembly line in the early 1900s, and automation powered by computers in the late 1900s. Ushering in the fourth industrial revolution, IIoT is powered by the Internet and software applications like MERLIN.”

MEMEX’s flagship software product, MERLIN, is an IIoT shop-floor-to-top-floor communications platform that provides manufacturing analytics in real time. “Specifically, MERLIN delivers a 10%-50% average productivity increase, and earns 20%-plus profit improvement based on just a 10% increase in OEE,” said a MEMEX spokesperson. “It consistently achieves payback in less than four months with an internal rate of return (IRR) greater than 300%, and connects to any machine, old or new, utilizing native MTConnect other protocols, or MERLIN hardware adapters for older machines.”

For more information contact:

MEMEX Inc.

3425 Harvester Rd., Ste. 105

Burlington, ON Canada L7N 3N1

905-635-1540

info@memexoee.com

www.memexoee.com

To see the article please click here

MEMEX - Machine Monitoring

To Measure Is To Know – MTConnect book

The world’s first book on MTConnect, an open and royalty-free interoperability standard and the application of open systems in manufacturing has been released and it is titled,  MTConnectTo Measure Is To Know”.  Written by Dave Edstrom, CEO/CTO of MTConnect, the book discusses the many lessons learned in the world of open systems and the value this means to the manufacturing industry.

Dave Edstrom has spent over 35 years in the computer industry.  He helps the reader understand that MTConnect is not just an evolution in manufacturing, but that it is a revolution, a true game changer.  “MTConnect will be more important in the 21st century for manufacturing than CNC was for manufacturing in the 20th century” said John Byrd, former president of Association Manufacturing Technology, www.amtonline.org   (MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg xiii).  MTConnect is making the dreams and desires of generations of manufactures possible.  Machine tool builders and manufacturing equipment providers alike all want to see the same goal of different devices having a common connection on the plant floor.  With MTConnect, anything is possible.

A few excerpts from the book:

“Only one to two percent of all shops monitor their shop floor.  The ability to know what is happening on your shop or plant floor anywhere, at anytime, is vital to the manufacturing process.  As a comparison, the next time you go in for a surgery, tell the surgeon that you want to save money and not monitor any of your vital signs.  Drop me a note and tell me what the surgeon tells you.  Then why is it that 98% to 99% of all shops don’t bother monitoring their shop floor?

Think of MTConnect as the Bluetooth of manufacturing that makes it easy to get information off your manufacturing equipment.  MTConnect is not an application, but it makes it very easy for applications to read data in a common and universal format.

Different Devices, Common Connection.
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg xii).

“The process of standardization is always a political struggle with winners and losers.  The primary winners will be those companies that understand it is co-opetition (competition and cooperation) that drives thriving markets.  The primary losers will be those companies holding on to proprietary solutions at all costs.  With a standard screw, you could now have standard tools, standard assembly lines, and the growth of mass production.”
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 3.)

“If we look at the manufacturing companies that are embracing open thinking and open collaboration, these companies report secondary benefits in morale as their employees typically tell their management that they have a much higher job satisfaction.”
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 22).

Memex is mentioned in the acknowledgements

“Huge thanks to Dave McPhail, president of Memex Automation.  Dave is a great guy, and so is his business partner, John Rattray, who is the vice president of sales and marketing, as well as the whole Memex Automation team.  Thanks as well to Bob Hansen of R.C. Hansen Consulting for his help at [MC]2 2013 and educating me on OEE”
(Dave Edstrom, MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 209).

There is a paperback version that is available at Amazon.

20% More Profit – For Free

The Modern Machine Shop magazine’s 2012 “Top Shop” survey results indicated that the median point of “other” machine shops (approximately the bottom 90% of shops sending in >350 surveys) was at a financial performance level seventy six percent below the TS median point for profit per machine.  Couple this with the information that TS are 150% more likely to apply Theory Of Constraints TOC methodology in their business/operating decisions and that TS are data driven.   Why is this an advantage?

One big reason for the TS competitive advantage could be in the data collection and analysis of true OEE by product at each machine in their product flow-lines.  This provides the actual throughput minutes per machine by product and allows an analysis similar to the “Bob’s Bolt Company” (pgs. 250 -260 of “The Constraints Management Handbook” by Cox and Spencer, St. Lucie Press/APICS series, Boca Raton, FL.) The example provides the necessary financial and operating information and examines a Line of Business with 4 products being produced by a series of 3 work stations. (A matrix of 12 ‘throughput minutes required by work station’ data points.)

It goes through the details of determining the best weekly product mix selection based on Market Demand using 1.) Traditional Cost Accounting using Product Profit, 2.) Traditional Cost Accounting using Contribution per Direct Labor Hour, and 3.) Theory Of Constraints and Exploiting the Systems Constraint(s).  The example results were $1508 profit for both methods 1 and 2, however method 3 resulted in $2265 profit, a 50% increase in profits and a different product mix selection!  Perhaps the data points were biased to favor the theme of the book?

To determine the strength of using the TOC approach, the author of this article took the 12 input data points and randomly applied them to the four product flow-lines 25 times and repeated the analysis of the three approaches for each new configuration.  The results were quite enlightening.

In every case, the TOC approach results either equaled the better of the other 2 approaches or exceeded both approaches (12 out of 25 times).  And the average profit using the TOC approach was twenty percent higher for the 25 investigations.

Perhaps you are not doing shop floor auto-data collection and using TOC as an advantage which means you are probably miss-using your existing assets (people, machines, materials) and unknowingly selecting the wrong weekly product mix?

 – Robert Hansen

Author OEE: A Powerful Production/Maintenance Tool for Increased Profits

R.C. Hansen Consulting, LLC.

www.OEE-College.com