machine monitoring software

Tag Archive: machine monitoring software

Is Your Real-Time Shop Floor Data…Real?

Second or third shifts can start like any other: CNCs spin under the watchful glow of monitors, operators move between machines and production looks steady. But in the morning meeting, that’s when staff may start getting curious about dashboard results.

“According to this,” you may say, “half our machines were idle for three hours last night. But they weren’t.”

IT may even have investigated, noting that sensors said they weren’t in cycle. But they were changing tools, running checks and making chips again within two minutes – it just logged all that as downtime.

If you’ve experienced this oddity, despite investing in machine monitoring software, you may find yourself buried in notifications that don’t mean anything and cycle time reports you can’t trust. Your operators will learn (if they haven’t already) quickly to ignore the alerts. The data no longer reflects reality, and worse – now decisions can’t be based on it.

When monitoring alerts don’t match what’s happening on the floor, operators learn to stop responding to them. This is a pattern known as alert fatigue.

Real-time Does Not Automatically = Reliable

Manufacturers have more access to production data than ever. Machine monitoring, MES platforms, OEE dashboards and connected equipment can provide a near-continuous stream of information about machine status, production activity and performance.

But there is an important distinction between data that is collected in real time and data that accurately represents what happened on the shop floor. Having more data does not necessarily mean having better information.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has identified trustworthy data, traceability and effective data governance as important foundations for smart manufacturing. After all, if you can’t trust what the machines are telling you, how do you plan the next job – or even know what’s holding you back?

“If you don’t track the right stats, you don’t know what to practice tomorrow. 
You’re counting the wrong swings.”

Manufacturers are collecting more data than ever, yet more dashboards don’t guarantee better decisions.

Three Questions to Vet Your CNC Data Reliability

Before investing in another system, dashboard or AI automation, consider asking:

1. Does the data reflect what actually happened?
   Compare system-generated machine states with what operators, supervisors and maintenance teams know occurred.
2. Do you know where the data came from?
   You should be able to consistently identify the source of a metric and understand how it was transformed before it reached the dashboard for true CNC data reliability.
3. Can your team act on it?
   A dashboard filled with real-time numbers is not automatically useful. The data should help people identify a loss, understand its cause and decide what to do next.

Turning Machine Data into Meaning

This where an expert manufacturing integrator, like Shop Floor Automations (SFA), serves as a vital partner to your company. With a lengthy background in connecting and modernizing complex machine environments, an experienced integrator will often start CNC data reliability investigations with a blunt question, such as: What does “in cycle” mean to you?

“In cycle,” may not just mean cutting – but tool changes, probing, chip clearance. Your current system, or its configuration, may only recognize power as “on” or “off,” without any shades of gray. A solution such as DataXchange changes that potential. DataXchange, an equipment monitoring and OEE solution from Minitab, provides native flexibility to define exactly what “active” can mean per machine, per process. By collaborating with SFA consulting teams, those definitions can be brought to life to tie real-time machine signals to business context in a single, accurate view.

The results, then, can follow fast: true cycle times, accurate downtime reasons and alerts that actually matter. Maintenance should be able to spot recurring bearing issues before failure. Production should be able to track spindle utilization correctly. And management should sit with confidence, showing data that reflects what is actually happening.

Greg Mercurio, president of SFA, likens the issue to baseball. “If you don’t track the right stats, you don’t know what to practice tomorrow. You’re counting the wrong swings,” says Mercurio. The lesson becomes clear: not all real-time data is real. Trust begins with the right definitions, and with the right partners to turn those definitions into decision-making power.

With accurate data in place, teams tend to gain greater confidence in the decisions they support.

Ready to Get Real Data?

If you’re eager to start answering practical business questions about your true capacity, where downtime is costing you the most or whether to add a machine, another hire or another shift, talk with an SFA expert today about the data you can trust, the processes you need to define and the operational decisions that you need to solve – accurately.

Tag Archive: machine monitoring software

Manufacturing in 2024: AI, Cybersecurity & DNC Software

At Shop Floor Automations, the top provider of DNC software in the United States, we find it crucial to stay on top of all of the latest manufacturing trends and predictions as these may affect your goals, plans and budgets for the year ahead. As 2023 winds down, it’s an ideal time to peer into the manufacturing crystal ball for 2024.

Overall, there’s an expectation that interest rates will fall in the middle of 2024, fueling more consistent economic growth and acceleration by the end of the year, reports Dodge Construction Network chief economist Richard Branch in Engineering News-Record.

Escalating tensions in the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine may present difficulties, however, as will continued labor issues. Alan Beaulieu, president of ITR Economics, recently told the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) that, “The good news is manufacturers will gain economic strength in this country and secure our economic wellbeing for generations to come. But for the individual manufacturer, there will be higher competition for workers in an already labor-scarce market, and that problem will persist for years. The only hope for companies to survive is to drive efficiencies by adopting automation and other advanced technologies.”

Automating for Worker Productivity and Efficiency

For manufacturers feeling the continued pressures of the labor market, they’ve been heeding Beaulieu’s advice and turning toward technology to increase worker productivity while minimizing costs. There’s many examples of this occurring on the shop floor; let’s dive into three:

1. “I’m trying to upgrade the machines in my shop to a more modern way of communicating with add-ons to keep costs low.” This manufacturer knows it can’t afford to upgrade its machines altogether. DNC software from manufacturing integrator Shop Floor Automations (SFA) was recommended by a user, sharing their experience that “all machines had their serial to WiFi and it was flawless sending from the DNC computer.” That same user leaned on SFA for machine monitoring software as well, noting that management loved knowing when night shift “truly ran great” based on progress reports from the software.
2. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, says Bernard Marr in Forbes. Use cases are often described within enterprise organizations, such as Hitachi’s AI-generated training videos to ramp up new workers in maintenance and manufacturing. But that doesn’t mean small-to-mid-sized manufacturers can’t leverage this technology in 2024. CGTech’s CNC machine simulation solution VERICUT 9.1, for example, uses AI to learn from cutting while simulation occurs to automatically set up tools for optimization and then auto-optimizes NC programs after learning.
3. From the outset, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) compliance would seem to decrease worker productivity as the control of removable media, including PCMCIA cards and USB drives typically used to transfer CNC programs, is significantly tightened, if not prohibited altogether.

But for manufacturers still relying on such media, they know the inefficiency – and costs – of uploading programs and getting routers per part. The use of one industrial DNC software network for all your CNC machines, robots, CMMs, PLCs, 3D printers and other equipment can help streamline the CNC program transfer process as well as provide revision control. The use of a single DNC network comes just in time, too, as CMMC is expected to be included in public contracts sometime in 2024.

By partnering with a manufacturing integrator, you’ll be best positioned to address enduring workforce issues at the lightning pace of the modern digital economy.

“The only hope for companies to survive is to drive efficiencies by adopting automation and other advanced technologies.”

While manufacturers look to technology to fill the labor gap and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” machine monitoring solution that will be able to address enduring workforce issues at the lightning pace of the modern digital economy. Only by partnering with a manufacturing integrator that understands your existing environment – and the direction you’re headed toward – will you be best positioned to tackle the trends and predictions awaiting you in 2024 and beyond.

At SFA, we are committed to providing our clients with the best DNC solutions. For 20 years, we’ve been the top reseller of Predator software, including Predator DNC, PDM and MDC software. Contact SFA today to discuss your strategic initiatives of tomorrow as well as discovering DNC software solutions that will give your business a competitive edge.