Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – July 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archive of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – July 2012.

Manufacturing Engineering Magazine Summarizes Managing Factory Data

Executives, managers, and engineers are constantly looking for ways to streamline data and take control of the shop floor. There are only a few companies that provide solutions to help attain these goals.  For example, monitoring and ERP/MRP are two key areas that are typically considered to be the same; however, they provide different areas of focus and results.   Shop Floor Automations is able to provide you solutions for machine monitoring and ERP/MRP which will help close the gap and manage data effectively within your business system.

Revive Your Older CNC Equipment with Ethernet

As new CNCs with Ethernet communication are added to the shop floor, old CNCs are left behind. RS232 communication via switchboxes, PCMCIA cards or USB is not the only solution.  Using our latest LAN Connect Remote device you can now send files from your office or pull them from the CNC using FTP and Ethernet.  There is no software to purchase, simply attach to your existing (or provide a new) network and you are able to leverage 2GB of storage with on-board memory.  Our LAN Connect Remote device is easy to install, simple to use and a great, low-cost solution to bring everything into the 21st century.

Support Center

Frustrated with limited support Monday – Friday and short hours? Are you leaving voice mails all day waiting for a response with other companies?

SFA’s Web Callback is available 24/365.  Visit our website under “Contact” to reach us ANYTIME! We have a dedicated staff of Engineers ready to respond within hours.

Link to original newsletter HERE.

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – June 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is a copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – June 2012 issue.

Changes to our Website

We have recently made a lot changes to our website. Our improvements should make things easier to find and better explain what SFA can do for you. While there is still much work to be done, please visit us and provide us your feedback on what you would like to see on our website.

If you already know what you want, look at the “Software” and “Hardware” drop down menus to see all our available products.

If you are looking to improve your shop floor and looking for ideas, go to the “Solutions” drop down for more information on a broad range of topics.

We sell, service and support a wide variety of software and hardware solutions from the industry’s leading manufacturers. We have brought together the best vendors, to make your shop floor run more efficiently and be more productive.

If you are Upgrading to Windows 7

If you are considering upgrading to Windows 7 soon, we want to make sure you are prepared.

Over the years, many of our customers have purchased serial hardware which uses a serial card inside the PC or is connected via a network cable.  Most of this hardware was introduced in the early 2000’s and compatibility for this equipment from the manufacturer is no longer supported.  We have several options to move forward with new hardware or extend the life of the existing equipment.

Specific Hardware

  • ISA or PCI hardware needs to be updated to Wireless or Wired Ethernet Hardware
  • New SIM? Check the SIM on the back of your PC to see if it’s a parallel SIM, plugged into the printer port.  This will need to be upgraded to USB SIM.
  • Drivers? Hardware uses drivers to communicate between Windows and your machines.  Check to make sure your version is the latest and greatest available from our site.  If not, call us for help with updates or any other issues with your DNC product.

Specific Software

  • Version 9 or newer for Predator
  • xtremeDNC can be upgraded to SFA DNC
  • JobPack needs to be upgraded to the 2012 version
  • Bigfoot includes free upgrades on web versions
Send Us Your Story & Photos

Email us your success story on how SFA improved your shop floor with pictures and (1) winner will be selected from a random drawing for a $100 gift card by 8/3/12

Link to original newsletter HERE.

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – May 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archived copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – May 2012.

Machine Monitoring for as low as $45 Per Month!

Scytec’s Hosted DataXchange is the most cost efficient and simple method of Machine Monitoring available. It can scale for those with limited budgets up to sophisticated 200+ machine shops with assembly lines and robotics.  DataXchange allows customers to collect machine data remotely and store in a secure offsite location. It is available starting at $45 per machine per month and includes volume discounts.

You may have seen our advertisements in the press and on the web! Act now while our setup fee is discounted through May 31st.  Schedule an online web demo or onsite visit by contacting our sales department.

Tech Tip
#4 of 4 Mistakes Manufacturers make:

Working extra hours of overtime to create a cushion that can be called upon for hot jobs

Overtime labor is expensive. Not every employee wants to work overtime, either. If you know that a large order is imminent and you want to clear your schedule to accommodate the order, then perhaps working overtime makes sense. But, what if the order does not arrive when it is expected? What if the order requires manufacturing resources you didn’t plan to deploy?
The JobPack Master Scheduler is a real‐time finite capacity scheduling tool that loads production jobs to maximize the use of machines and other resources and immediately identifies what resources will be overloaded. This allows you to adjust the production schedule to reduce the overloads and meet your customer delivery promises. Add overtime if you need it. Move jobs to other machines or work centers. Schedule jobs into the future as far as your lead times require.

Link to original newsletter here.

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – April 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archived copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – April 2012 issue.

Congratulations to our contest winners!!!

Our “Success Stories” contest winner is Nathan Pierce from Lesco Automotive Industries in San Luis Obispo, CA. He won a $250 gift certificate to Amazon.com for submitting the best success story.

Hosted Machine Monitoring is now available!

Josh Davids from Scytec Corporation unveiled his company’s latest product – Hosted DataXchange. It allows customers to collect machine data and store it in a secure offsite location. Hosted DataXchange is available starting at $45 per machine per month without any long term commitment.  Volume discounts are also available starting at just 6 pieces of equipment. Collect multiple types of real time cycle status and have access to reporting and charting from anywhere with internet access.  Hosted DataXchange is easily integrated with network based machines using Fanuc Focas or MTConnect on Mazak, Okuma, and many others.

For Shop Floor Automations customers, until the end of May, we can offer 50% off the already low setup fee of $1,000. Call to set up a personal online presentation today!

Tech Tip

#3 of 4 Big Manufacturer Mistakes:

Padding a job with extra hours OR giving the customer a padded delivery promise

When you have no faith in the accuracy of your production schedules, the way to cushion the schedule is to deceive yourself by padding the time standards or padding the delivery promise dates. Rather than “just‐in‐time”, you now have “just‐in‐case” production management. Anytime you put incorrect information into the system, you make all of your answers incorrect. The problem becomes larger because the inflation of rates and dates grows as employees become less confident about the information they receive.

With JobPack Master Scheduler, the real‐time, finite capacity scheduling system, the accurate time standards and accurate machine/resource capacities deliver a reliable, achievable production schedule with dependable customer delivery dates. As production jobs are completed and reported on, you capture the actual performance results, so you can use the actual performance to fine‐tune the time standards for future production jobs. Gradually, employees and customers believe the accuracy of the production schedule. This reduces the amount of work‐in‐process inventory, minimizes expediting costs, and improves overall customer satisfaction.

Link to original newsletter HERE 

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – February 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archived copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – February 2012.

Bloomberg: “Manufacturing in the U.S. grew in January at the fastest pace in seven months, adding to signs of a global pickup from Germany to China.” – We hope it is for you too!

Maintenance for your Equipment and Machines

What method do you use to remind yourself to change the oil in your car? Is it sticky notes, when the red light goes on or when it all breaks down in the middle of your road trip?

Bigfoot CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) can help you with everything from CNCs, forklifts, manual equipment, HVAC, managing your routine maintenance, tracking your repairs, parts, procedures for services and reporting history and cost.

It is simple to use over the web or on your smartphone and is billed per user with no long term commitments.

Contest for Success Stories 

We would like to hear from you! So we decided to run a contest. The best SFA success stories will win! Contact us to ask how.

Did you know…?
A spreadsheet of production orders is like a newspaper. By the time you get it, the information is out‐of‐date. Spreadsheets are a great way to maintain lists of information, but a spreadsheet can’t react to changes to the production schedule that occur every day when new orders arrive, orders are canceled, or when customer‐requested delivery dates and quantities change. With the frequent changes that occur in manufacturing businesses today, a spreadsheet can’t respond quickly enough.
How much manual effort is used to maintain the spreadsheet? JobPack Master Scheduler, a real‐time scheduling system, integrated to your ERP system, can receive order information effortlessly, and immediately identify resource constraints caused by overloaded resources.
The ability to simulate multiple scenarios to resolve the constraints is impossible for a spreadsheet.

Link to official newsletter HERE 

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – January 2012

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archived copy of our Shop Floor Automations Newsletter from January 2012.

Happy New Year! We hope you are looking forward to 2012.

Floppy Disk Emulator

Are your machines still using floppy disks? If you’d like them to enter the 21st century, we have Floppy Disk Emulators that work with virtually any CNC machine and eliminate the 3.5″ media on the shop floor that is plagued by dust, oil and chemicals.

You are still limited to 1.44MB or 720KB for your files, but it will be much easier to transfer the NC programs on USB memory sticks with reliability.  Easy to install, low cost and operation remains the same on the control.

Success Story
A year ago, one of our machine tool partners was trying to find a reliable solution for a customer who had several Haas CNC machines. They used 3.5” floppy disks to load NC programs on the machines.  The media became difficult to find and costly to maintain the floppy drives.

In July, they contacted SFA to see if we could help them.  After our assessment, we recommended they use our Floppy Disk Emulator.  The drive replaced the existing 3.5” disk drive and allowed the user to load NC programs from a USB memory stick with ease.  The unit was installed by the end user and operation on the machine was the same. Within months, they ordered additional units for other controls used in the manufacturing plant and increased production by using a better method to transfer NC programs into the control.

The differences between a Serial and Ethernet cable? Each one has its own ideal use.
  • Serial is best for connecting your serial based CNC controls using DB25 or DB9 ports.
  • Serial cable’s capability is limited in length and has connectors such as DB9, DB25, RJ45.
  • Serial cables should use a drain wire for earth ground to prevent damage to the CNC control board.
  • Ethernet is best for new machines that have a CAT 5 connection on them provided by the machine tool builder.
  • Ethernet cables are recommended for long distances and available in category 5 and 6 and are typically used to connect network based equipment such as PCs, printers, routers and Windows based CNCs.

Link to original newsletter HERE 

December 2011 Shop Floor Automations Newsletter

The following is an archived copy of our Shop Floor Automations Newsletter from December of 2011.

We hope 2011 has been a good year for you and that 2012 will be even better. We are planning to launch a few new products next year and are encouraged with news about machine tool sales and continued growth in our market. Please let us know of anything we can help with to wrap up this year or kick off the New Year.

In Memory Of: Shawn Dunne
1968 – 2011
Vice President
Shop Floor Automations 

On October 27th, we lost our dear friend and Co-Founder, Shawn Dunne to cancer.

Shawn spent the last 13 years helping to build a remarkable company

and culture that was focused on providing the best solutions to our customers.

He cherished his relationships with all of his customers and enjoyed

learning about the wide variety of industries we serve. He will be missed by all of us.

You can read his obituary here  – http://www.legacyfuneralcare.com/shawn-dunne-obituary.html

Shop Floor Scheduler

What jobs do you have planned next year? Next month? Next week?

Are you using a whiteboard or Excel spreadsheet to figure this all out?

Get an instantaneous view of all of your jobs, equipment, capacity, bottlenecks, etc.

with a simple click. Our Scheduling Solution JobPack can help you with all these needs and more.

Partner Rewards Program 

Could you use an extra $500? That’s what one of our Partners received last month

(actually $560) for simply introducing one of his customers to us

and taking a little time to explain things to both parties.

Now our Partner is happy, as well as our mutual customer!

Email Greg (gregm@shopfloorautomations.com) to add your name

to our Quarterly newsletter and get rewarded! Earn up to 10% of a transaction.

If you get your referral in to us by the end of the year,

we will add 25% to your reward when it closes.

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterTechnical Tip: 

Are you about to change your shop floor PC?

Be sure not to throw out your security key / dongle.

It contains valuable information and losing it may disrupt your operation

and cost you in the long run. Keep in mind, we now use USB SIMs and we are able

to replace your old parallel key for a small fee.

Our year end specials are coming to an end soon. 

Planning on upgrading your PC, adding machines or moving the shop in 2012?

If you place an order for a service call before Dec 22nd

and pay in advance, you can receive up to 20% off.

Use of the service call must be made within 6 months.

Call (619) 461-4000 to place your order now.

Enjoy the Holidays with your family and friends while having a safe New Year!

http://twitter.com/SFA_INC

California Office Tel: (619) 461-4000
Toll Free: (877) 611-5825

Original link to newsletter

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – October 2011

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterThe following is an archived copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – October 2011.

As the end of the year approaches, we would like to share our excitement for 2012. Shop Floor Automations has added new solutions to our product line to improve automation and productivity on your shop floor.

* CNC Editors *
Tired of manually editing G-code on your CNC? The Predator CNC Editor is the most popular 32-bit CNC code editor on the market. It includes hundreds of features to improve the day to day productivity of CNC machine tools, yet is extremely easy to use. Four editions are available including a free version.  Features include:
  • CNC Editing
  • Unlimited File Size
  • File Compare
  • CNC Communications with drip-feed
  • Backplotting

* Network Serial Hardware *

Designed for manufacturers with multiple buildings and existing Ethernet infrastructure. The hardware eliminates PCI cards plugged into computers and directly links to the network backbone. You can network up to 256 machines to your Windows-based PC. The hardware supports transfers of your CNC programs, offsets and parameters.
This solution supports a wide range of CNC protocols for drip-feeding, downloading, and uploading via RS232. Models are available in a 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 port configuration and include a 5-year warranty from Shop Floor Automations.
* CASH For Clunkers *
Do you have an outdated, unsupported DNC System from a software company who has been out of business or not updated their product since Window NT or 2000? Now is the time to consider a software upgrade with our trade-up program.  For orders placed in 2011, we will provide up to 25% of credit towards the purchase of a new system from Shop Floor Automations. Call us now at (877) 611-5825 Toll Free!
  • Support for Windows 7, Vista,
    Server 2008
  • Wireless or Wired System
  • Upgrade from switchboxes
  • Simple upgrade path
For all existing customers, please remember to backup your systems.

Consider a spare hub, PC or even our backup portable USB device in case something goes wrong. Downtime is costly and a small investment now can save thousands later.

Tell your colleagues about Shop Floor Automations and receive up to a 5% or 10% referral reward when they become a customer. Fill out our contact form with the company information and details or contact your Account Executive.

Link to original newsletter HERE. 

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – May 2011

The following is an archived copy of the Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – May 2011.

The manufacturing industry continues to grow and the upswingShop Floor Automations Newsletter in business seems to be around the corner for our customers.  Although most of us have not fully recovered from the recession, there is hope through automation and solutions.  Shop Floor Automations is here to bring your attention to some of the new products we have found to be most productive and keep the machines running!

* Backup USB Solution *
Many of our customers have been using Predator DNC or other competitive products to communicate to CNC machines for years.  These systems are very reliable and typically are untouched until something goes wrong. Do you have a plan in place?  Check out our backup USB solution to add to your CNCs or have on the shelf for when that day comes. Works with any brand or size USB memory stick and any CNC control.

* Data Collection Made Simple*

Capturing real-time data from the shop floor does not have to be complicated.  Using your existing infrastructure and computers, our data collection can be added to your equipment with ease.  Works with any type of  CNC control including Mazak, Fanuc, Haas, Okuma, Siemens, Cincinnati and robots, press brakes, bar feeds, welders, and more.  Report, chart and display the machines current status, including cycle, idle, and down times on any PC or shop floor LCD.   Later you can expanded to, capture job numbers, part numbers, downtime reason codes, scrap reason and more with our Enterprise MDC.

*Scheduling is Quick and Easy *

Scheduling is the key to efficient operations.  With Jobpack Production Scheduling software, you can quickly identify bottlenecks and react in real-time to unexpected production problems.  You’ll know what job to run next, when to promise the customer’s order, and what machines can get it done the fastest.  You can optimize production capabilities while achieving realistic delivery dates to keep customer satisfaction humming right along.

Link to original newsletter HERE

 

Shop Floor Automations Newsletter – April 2011

Shop Floor Automations NewsletterShop Floor Automations Newsletter – April 2011

The following is an archive copy of our Shop Floor Automations Newsletter from April 2011.

Are you an existing customer using Predator Software?  Maybe you are using an old copy the CNC Editor inside SurfCAM, GibbsCAM, SmartCAM, ProCAM, CAMWorks, or BobCAD-CAM.  Ask us about productivity improvement!

* Predator DNC*
Upload, download, drip-feed up to 100+ machines from a single server and eliminate walking to and from your CNCs.  We are offering upgrade specials to bring your legacy system up to speed with new hardware and operating systems with little downtime and effort.  Call us today to learn more and if you want to add your Ethernet-based CNCs, we support those too!
* Predator Production Data Management*
Predator PDM is a manufacturing driven software solution designed to organize and control CNC programs, setup sheets, safety procedures, quality documents and others files with revision control.  The application works in server / clients environments and supports Microsoft Access, SQL or Oracle.

* Predator Data Collection*

Machine monitoring is real-time software that automatically collects, reports, charts and processes real-time shop floor manufacturing data including cycle time, idle time, setup time, machine downtime and more.  Predator MDC improves manufacturing by supplying accurate shop floor productivity metrics to improve operations and to make better decisions.
Ready for Wireless?

Add wireless to any CNC machine with a serial port or Ethernet port to eliminate long cable runs, data lost and flexibility to move machines.  Easy to install and can be added to any wired system regardless of communication software.  Works with Predator DNC, CAD/CAM system and competitive DNC systems. Free wireless survey at your facility by our service technicians.

Link to original newsletter HERE