Shop Floor Automations Helps Manufacturers Perform Preventive Maintenance with Bigfoot CMMS

CMMS from Shop Floor Automations

Shop Floor Automations, a DNC networking, communications and automation solutions provider, announced that its manufacturing customers are gaining full control of plant floor maintenance operations by using newly enhanced Bigfoot CMMS.

Shop Floor Automations“ Typically maintenance operations teams try to keep up with equipment repairs, and the barrage of mobile calls and text messages from beleaguered machine operators,” said Greg Mercurio, President of Shop Floor Automations. “By implementing Bigfoot CMMS, we are helping maintenance teams shift from high-stress reactive mode to an organized preventive maintenance culture, handling routine maintenance and ad hoc repairs ahead of breakdowns and before complaints start rolling in. Bigfoot customers report saving more than 40 percent in annual maintenance costs.”

Bigfoot CMMS is a web-based solution that fundamentally automates preventive maintenance schedules for Every piece of plant floor equipment and all components entered into its database. Personnel submit requests for repairs through Bigfoot that generates work orders. Bigfoot captures data from work orders to drive calendar and meter-reading based preventive maintenance schedules. Additionally, Bigfoot collects valuable information to use on replace/repair decisions, outside vendor repair cost negotiations, capital investments and new hires.

Bigfoot’s advanced capabilities include predictive maintenance, asset life cycle analysis, parts replacement inventory, and history tracking with built-in reporting. Latest features include:

• PM balancing analysis.

• Assigning work orders to multiple people.

• Work order/asset criticality (RIME) analysis.

• Enhancement requests – direct to appropriate staff based on priority, type, etc.

• Employee certifications tracking.

• Enhanced tracking of replacement parts inventory.

• Bar coding work orders for easy access and retrieval.

• Additional languages have been added. Bigfoot is available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew.

Bigfoot Web is now supported by Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

“Through work order information capture, analysis and reporting on all aspects of equipment maintenance, Bigfoot optimizes preventive maintenance, and ensures that all monitored assets achieve maximum up time, safety and longevity,” said Mr. Mercurio.

More over at Manufacturing News

Shop Floor Automations Updates FD Connect for CNC Controls

Floppy Drive Emulators for CNC Controls

UPDATE, as of the Summer of 2016 – the “FD Connect” has been renamed the Floppy Drive Emulator, as part of the Connect Series (Floppy Connect).

Floppy Drive EmulatorShop Floor Automations has updated its FD Connect solution, which eliminates cumbersome floppy disks on the manufacturing floor. The new model includes support for Mitsubishi WireEDMs, Bridgeport and Siemens controls. The released model is also available in a “Universal” model to allow emulation of drive type such as Sony, IBM, Citizen, Teac and NEC, commonly found in older CNC controls such as Haas, Fadal, Mazak, Okuma, and Anilam.

Shop Floor Automations has updated its FD Connect solution, which eliminates cumbersome floppy disks on the manufacturing floor. The new model includes support for Mitsubishi WireEDMs, Bridgeport and Siemens controls. The released model is also available in a “Universal” model to allow emulation of drive type such as Sony, IBM, Citizen, Teac and NEC, commonly found in older CNC controls such as Haas, Fadal, Mazak, Okuma, and Anilam.

“Floppy disks are easily damaged in the shop environment due to dirt, oil and grime and are becoming impossible to replace. The FD Connect solution eliminates the need for floppy disks making it an ideal program and data storage solution for industrial equipment and machine tools,” said Greg Mercurio, President, Shop Floor Automations. The device is a simple plugin thumb drive that allows easy transfer of files to the Floppy Connect. Users simply remove the existing drive and the FD Connect plugs directly into the ribbon and power cables of the old drive. It is compatible with 720K or 1. 44MB systems.

Read More over at Manufacturing News

More on our Floppy Drive Emulators –

Our Floppy Drive Emulator, available in two models, acts as a Floppy USB Emulator, is easy install, requires no system configuration or debugging, & replaces the need for floppy disks, which are very difficult to obtain. The drive emulates your existing floppy drive & acts as if the floppy drive was never removed. Works with almost any existing 720k/1.44MB capacity DOS format floppy drive. 28 or 32 pin ribbon cables systems are supported & will connect to your existing power cable.

Works in PCs & in CNC machinery such as Haas, Mazak, Fadal, Mitsubishi, Omniturn, Centroid, Robots, Flame Cutters, & Greco boxes, with new models being added to our compatibility list monthly!

Your time is valuable in the shop floor environment. Stop using it to search for old media!

  • Interface to the existing ribbon cable
  • Plugs into floppy power connector
  • Supports 720k/1.44MB capacity IBM
  • Support Wired EDM, Mills, Lathes, Robots, & other types of equipment
  • No need for Floppy Disks anymore
  • Our Haas Floppy Emulator is also off-the-shelf in functionality and pricing!
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Shop of the Future

Shop of the Future Article

Using Shop Floor Automation’s software, manufacturers are now able to increase the efficiency and precision of their machines. These advancements in software technology have allowed manufacturers to reduce the amount of manpower as well as errors in their manufacturing processes, truly making them the shop of the future.

Joe Morales, director of manufacturing of Implant Direct states in the article:

“We chose Shop Floor Automation’s Predator DNC software,” he says. “All our machines have plenty of built-in memory, so we don’t use the drip-feed feature of the software, but we use most of its other features. All our machines are linked to their own computers, which, in turn, are linked to a server with Predator software. That way, our guys can read their travelers, input the program they need and Predator will deliver it to their workstation.”

“One thing we really like about the Predator software is its editor,” he says. “With as many parts and programs as we have, document control is extremely important. In the past, if an operator made changes to the G-code, the change could slip through a crack. But Predator prevents that. As soon as a program is no longer needed on the floor, it goes back to the programmer via Predator Software. The programmer uses the Predator editor to compare the returned program with the original. The software instantly flags changes so the programmer can check it out.”

Another useful feature, according to Morales, is the software’s “mass” editor. “The mass editing capability lets you call up multiple programs all at once and make changes to them,” he says. “This saves a tremendous amount of time. For instance, let’s say we wanted to alter speeds, feed rates or G-code. With Predator we can make one change and the software will change the entire family of parts all at once. It’s one of the key links in our manufacturing chain that helps us run this factory on the cutting edge of technology.”

Read the full article here.

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Wireless Hardware & Software provider for Alumco

SFA Inc. & Alumco

SFA is the featured wireless hardware and software provider for Alumco in a CNC West article. Look for us in the CNC West April – May 2004 issue.

More about our wireless shop floor solutions: 

SFA offers industrial grade wireless devices with quick installation to connect to your CNC machines. Consumer level devices, like DLink or Netgear products, cannot withstand the manufacturing environment. Our products allow you to connect your RS232-based machines to your existing wireless network & we can even help if you lack an existing wireless network!

Costs of stringing cable will vanish. Machines with overhead cranes, traveling gantries, or those simply too far to cable are efficiently & reliably networked. Want to move your CNC machines? No need to change cables or re-configure software. Best of all, nearly any CNC machine can be connected using wireless! Any PC with a Wi-Fi compliant network card on this wireless network can be configured to access the wider PC network.

Encryption & spread spectrum technology, thanks to WEP, WPA, & WAP encryption features, means wireless DNC is the most secure & interference-resistant way to network CNC machines.

Want to get in touch with Shop Floor Automations? Call (877) 611-5825 toll free, or visit on social media. We also have a convenient chat engine on our site.