The significance of “plug-and-produce” integration for machine shops and manufacturing plants becomes clear from the perspective of an ERP software developer.
Article (24) | Case Study (10) | Advertorial (2) | inMotion Transcript (4)
For GKN Aerospace to overcome tool-related variations on its largest milling machines, it had to confront error sources that go unnoticed in many shops.
Introduced at IMTS 2008, this communications protocol for CNC machines and other manufacturing equipment is already helping shops and plants implement effective machine monitoring systems. Although these "early adopters" are motivated by the long-term promise of enterprise-wide efficiency gains, their experience with pilot projects shows that benefits derived in the short term are substantial and worthwhile.
Growing support for MTConnect among suppliers is a strong indication that this communications standard is taking hold.
This component-based troubleshooting and diagnostic system is said to consolidate large amounts of manufacturing information in a format that enables technicians to quickly find exactly what they need.
This automated machine data collection software automatically collects a wealth of information specific to machining processes and presents it in an intuitive format so users can quickly analyze the data and implement changes.
ERP and Management Software refers to the various software tools that do not control any specific piece of equipment in the machine shop, but instead ensure that all of a shop’s resources are deployed in an efficient and profitable way. ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning.” Some of the functions associated with ERP and management software include:
■ Costing or estimating, which means accurately predicting how much it will cost a shop to produce a particular part.
■ Scheduling, which has to do with assigning the various operations of various jobs to the shop’s various machine tools in an order that makes the most sense in terms of urgency, setup and machine availability.
■ Tracking, or logging each step in a part’s progress through the shop, so a part’s current status can be immediately known.
■ History, meaning the histories of particular parts in terms of personnel or machines, or the histories of particular machines in terms of outputs and in-cycle times, can be analyzed in search of trends.
■ Maintenance, or scheduling, tracking and alerting personnel to the routine maintenance needs of the various pieces of equipment in the shop.
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