Learn About The Benefits of Monitoring and Capturing Machine Data
If you are the owner or manager of a CNC machine shop, it is important for to know what is happening on the shop floor. Without accurate real-time data, you would have to be everywhere at once to know the true status of all your machines. Machine monitoring software and hardware can make it possible for you to view up-to-the-minute details about your machines from any device. Whether you are in the office, on the golf course, or on a business trip, you can see detailed activity on your shop floor. More importantly, machine monitoring systems give you an accurate macro view. A robust monitoring system enables owners and managers to compile and report customized data that provides an accurate snapshot of the larger picture so that you can react to and correct issues that are trending in the wrong direction.
Machine efficiency data is worthless if it’s incomplete or inaccurate. How do you know that your machine shop is unning efficiently? What data do you have to prove your efficiency rating? These are all questions that can be answered with one solution. Machine Monitoring gathers information from your CNC machines to give you better data driven answers. Most machine shops think that they are around 70% efficient, however that is not usually the case. Studies conducted and released by Modern Machine Shop magazine shows that most machine shops think they are at 70%, when in reality, many are operating at 20% – 40% efficiency. A robust machine monitoring system can offer many other metrics. Why your machine is down? Do you know the real reason? By locking the cycle start until the operator enters a reason code, you can accurately track downtime to the second. The lockout times are user configurable to help give you the control of what types information you wish to gather. These codes can correlate to the reason your machine is not making parts, such as first piece QC, delayed material handling, machine failure, or maintenance, etc. Machine monitoring gives you the ability to identify the what/why/when related to the idle time so that you and your team can develop solutions that reduce that time and improve your overall productivity.
Productive operators can benefit from machine monitoring, too. Why do your operators like having this system in place? One of the biggest problems for operators is that they may get reprimanded when machines are down, and it may not even be their fault. Most machinists truly want to be productive. By the same token, if there is a bottleneck it will be found and dealt with. It can can also eliminate the need to babysit your operators. A top notch system gives you the information you need before you have to ask. In short, are you getting the data that you need to make informed decisions? The decision to make an investment in a machine monitoring system can daunting and must be considered carefully. As the east coast installer and distributor for eNETDNC, Ron’s CNC Services consider it our duty to provide you with enough information to make the best decision for your company. Our machine monitoring solutions can be customized to fit your company’s needs and can pay for themselves very quickly if implemented correctly.
