Analytics

MTConnect Institute TAG Meeting - June 19-20, 2012

2012-05-21T17:16:00.003-04:00

The next MTConnect Institute TAG meeting will be held at Swan Lake Resort, Plymouth, IN on June 19 -20, 2012. I will be presenting the use of MTConnect technology to integrate Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data with the real-time machining data stream from the Computer Numeric Controller (CNC).

June 19, 2012 - 8:30am to 5:00pm - Open Discussion With Each Of MTConnect Institute's Working Groups

June 20, 2012 - 8:30am to 4:00pm - General MTConnect Issues and Working Group Summaries/Tour

For registration and more information click here.

The Revolutionary iBlue

2012-05-21T16:29:00.000-04:00

For more information visit: http://www.itamco.com/iBlue/

A New Age in Manufacturing is at Hand

2012-05-21T16:19:00.001-04:00

A great article explaining the use of the internet and cloud computing technologies to manage shop-floor operations in real-time. The article lists the common manufacturing issues such as downtime analysis, machine availability and usage, maintenance tracking, overall equipment effectiveness etc.. and explains how MTConnect applications can be effectively deployed to solve the problems. Click here to download the complete article.

MFPT 2012 Presentation: A Study Of Machining Process Power Monitoring And Product Quality Prediction

2012-05-19T16:37:00.000-04:00

The paper titled "A Study Of Machining Process Power Monitoring And Product Quality Prediction" was presented at the 2012 Prognostics and Health Management Solutions Conference. Click here to download the PDF file of the presentation.

Mfg4 Conference

2012-05-09T14:12:00.000-04:00

I am at the Mfg4 conference and Mazak Open House in Hartford, CT this week. In addition to the expositions, there are conference presentations showcasing the state-of-the-art manufacturing technology in the aerospace, defense and medical field. Connecticut Center for AdvancedTechnology (CCAT) is demonstrating the MTConnect technology using a web viewer. All the machines in the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (at CCAT) and one machine from the Mazak Tech Center is monitored remotely in real time.

PneuViz: Compressed Air Monitoring Application

2012-02-08T12:42:00.001-05:00

Compressed air is the fourth largest utility in the manufacturing industry behind electricity, natural gas and water. It is used in a wide variety of pneumatic, mechanical and maintenance applications in every manufacturing facility. However, very little efforts have been made in trying to monitor and optimize the utilization of compressed air. Hence, a study was conducted to analyze the utilization of compressed air under various scenarios that are typical during metal cutting operation in a manufacturing facility. PneuViz application was developed to analyze the results. PneuViz provides drill down capability to analyze cost of compressed air on a per part, per machine, and per customer order. Monitoring the utilization of compressed air by a stand-alone Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine as well as the overall utilization on the shop floor was facilitated by the use of a sensor system comprising of a flow meter, data acquisition system and a power sensor. MTConnect was used to enable plug-and-play functionality across the various machines on the shop floor. MTConnect was implemented by developing a system of sensor adapters, agents and data parser. Finally, analysis was performed over different machining scenarios to determine the cost, energy consumption and carbon footprint of the compressed air usage on the shop floor.

Reference: PneuViz: MTConnect enabled Compressed Air Monitoring Application; Atluru S., Deshpande A., Huang S., Pieper R.; Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, MSEC2012, June 4-8, 2012, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Raspberry Pi for $25

2012-01-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

A new ARM GNU/Linux box called the Raspberry Pi will soon be available for $25. More information available at http://www.raspberrypi.org.

http://www.raspberrypi.org

Thanks to Jon Fournier for sending Rasberry Pi information.

Getting Started with MTConnect: Connectivity Guide

2012-01-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

The MTConnect connectivity guide is now available for download at the mtconnect.org website. Click here to download (direct link) the connectivity guide.

The article is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in getting the first-hand knowledge of the MTConnect standard and its potential benefits to manufacturing. Though most of the sections in the document explain the technical aspects, Section 3 and Section 4 focus on benefits and steps to get started with MTConnect implementation.

Content Overview:

Section 1 - Introduction

Section 2 - MTConnect Overview

Section 3 - What Problems Do Companies Solve With MTConnect?

Production Dashboard or Monitor
Alerts
Equipment Availability and Usage
Machine Downtime Analysis
Overall Equipment Effectiveness:
Production Reporting/Tracking
Maintenance Tracking/Planning

Section 4 – How to Begin

Step 1 – Define the Problem That You Are Trying to Solve
Step 2 – What Does Success Look Like?
Step 3 – Define Your Equipment
Step 4 – Define Limitations/Restraints That Impact Your Project
Step 5 – List the People in Your Organization Who Will Impact the Project

Section 5 - I Know What I Need – How Do I Get It Done?

Section 6 - Information (Data) Available using MTConnect

Section 7- Connecting a MTConnect Device to a Network

Section 8 - Conclusions

Appendix A – MTConnect Glossary of Terms

Appendix B – MTConnect Project Work Sheet

Appendix C – MTConnect Data Model and Data Types

Click here to download (direct link) the connectivity guide.

Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing

2012-01-04T16:59:00.003-05:00

Recently, I gave a talk on Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing at the 2011 MC2 conference. The presentation video is now available.

[MC]2 2011 - Day 2 - Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing

The PDF copy of the presentation is available here.

More information on the session and MC2 conference available here.

Sustainable Manufacturing: Applications to Monitor your Equipment

2012-01-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Recently, the MTConnect Institute completed a survey of currently available applications which utilize the MTConnect standard to enable sustainable manufacturing. The survey was conducted as part of the "Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing Initiative (SAMI)" for the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT).

The SAMI report is now available for download at the MTConnect Institute website. Click here to access the report in PDF format (261 pages, 4 MB).

Book Review: Crossing the Chasm, Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers

2011-12-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

The author's emphasis is on distinguishing between the selling and marketing tactics for the early innovators versus the mainstream customers. There is a chasm between the innovators and mainstream market and the author dedicates the book outlining the various steps a high tech company should perform to successfully navigate through the chasm.

Some key points and lessons learned:

- It is important to maintain momentum in order to create a bandwagon effect that makes it natural for the next group to want to buy in.

- Early adopters want a change agent while the early majority looks for productivity improvement for existing operations - they want an evolution not revolution.

- Vapor vare should be avoided during chasm crossing - Vapor vare is pre-announcing and pre-marketing a product which still requires significant development.

- Resistance is a function of inertia growing out of the commitment to the status quo, fear of risk or lack of compelling reason to buy.

- Crossing the chasm requires moving from an environment of support among visionaries back into one of skepticism among pragmatists. It means that moving from product related issues to unfamiliar ground of market oriented issues AND moving from the familiar audience of like minded specialist to uninterested generalist.

-It is the market centric value system - supplemented ( but not superseded ) by the product centric - One that must be the basis for the value profile of the target customers when crossing the chasm.

-Elevator Speech Template

1. For (target customers - beachhead segment only)

2. Who are dissatisfied with (the current market alternative)

3. Our product is a (new product category)

4. Unlike (the product alternative)

5. We have assembled (key whole product features for your specific applications)

- Why is elevator speech important ?

1. Your claim cannot be transmitted by word of mouth consistently.

2. Marketing communications will be all over the map.

3. R&D will be all over the map.

4. You are not likely to get financing from anybody with experience.

- The product alternative in your elevator speech helps customers understand your technology leverage (what you have in common) and your niche commitment (where you differentiate). Market alternative helps people identify your target customers (what you have in common) and your compelling reason to buy (where you differentiate).

- Positioning: Goal should be to make products easier to buy not easier to sell. The four stages in positioning:

1. Name it and frame it - Positioning needed to make a product easy to buy for a technology enthusiast.

2. Who for and what for - Positioning needed to make the product easy to buy from the visionary.

3. Competition and differentiation - Positioning needed to make the product easy to buy for the pragmatist.

4. Financials and future plans - Positioning needed to make the product easy to buy for the conservative.

- During the chasm period, the number one concern of pricing is not to satisfy the customer or the investor, but to motivate the channel.

- When crossing the chasm we are looking to attract customer oriented distribution by using distribution oriented pricing. There are two types of pricing strategies: value based and cost based. The value based strategy is based on the final big value the client will realize using the product while the cost based is dependent upon the cost incurred to deliver the product.

Statistical Process Control Using On-Machine Probing Data

2011-11-21T11:11:00.000-05:00

Product quality plays a major role in the success of every manufacturing organization. The popular way to study and analyze the quality is through the use of a set of Statistical Process Control (SPC) tools. The correct application of these tools in a manufacturing scenario is fundamental to good process management and reduces process variation.Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) and on-machine probing are being extensively used in the inspection of mechanical components for statistical process and quality control in manufacturing processes. SPC uses certain process performance indicators and statistical methods to monitor for changes that might affect the quality of the product. It is important that we need to understand the true reason behind process variability; and simply not whether a process is in control or parts being manufactured have been accepted or rejected. A preliminary step towards understanding inherent process variation present in cutting process is to dwell into an SPC monitoring system that deals with raw probing data. The MTConnect standard has facilitated extensions to its XML tags to integrate sensory data from the on-machine probes along with control data, which is readily available across the shop floor network. MTConnect adapters are developed with customized XML tags that successfully collect raw data from the on-machine probes. This is accomplished by indirectly establishing communication between the probe sensor and the MTConnect Agent via the machine controller. An SPC monitoring application based upon the data collected through such an MTConnect implementation is presented. The application is used to collect real machining data under multiple cutting process conditions, thereby demonstrating how certain SPC performance indicators (trending, shifting) are related to avoidable and inherent variations in the cutting process (tool wear, tool macro-geometry disparities). Improved SPC monitoring methods that incorporate knowledge of variations in estimating performance indicators are discussed.

Reference: Statistical Process Control Using MTConnect; Atluru S. Deshpande A.; Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC2012); June 4-8, 2012, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Work above the line

2011-11-17T11:03:00.001-05:00

From - Kara Valz

Is that being "Green" for you ?

2011-11-13T10:49:00.001-05:00

Innovative thinking is sometimes important than innovation

2011-11-13T10:43:00.001-05:00

A Study of Machining Process Power Monitoring and Product Quality Prediction

2011-11-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

The adoption of power sensor and power data analysis techniques has been expanding in the area of machine condition monitoring. Besides typical power usage analytics, machine health status and component degradation are the emerging merits of power data to provide more insights in the machine and process performance. This paper presents a methodology to monitor power consumption of a milling process and predict part quality based on a correlation model developed. A power sensor is instrumented at the main power supply of a three-axis horizontal milling center to manufacture a batch of typical aerospace components having a circular boss and bore features. A batch of 48 components is produced and the tool wear, product quality, power consumption and real-time machining parameters are monitored. The tool change is performed based on quality requirements and tolerance information. The boss and bore diameter is measured for each part using on-machine probing and compared with its nominal value, wherein the difference is used as the part quality metric. Effective power data in kilowatt from all cycles is analyzed and meaningful features are extracted from the power signal. The feature deviations from the baseline are used to interpret the performance degradation of each tool over cycles. The deviation trend is successfully correlated with the change in the part quality, verifying that the power data can be used to infer the part quality using the correlation model developed. In the future, the presented work can be validated with further testing and improved to be adaptive with multiple manufacturing process regimes. To conclude, the framework of using power data to predict machine performance in terms of health condition and part quality is highly beneficial to manage maintenance, information and product quality.

Reference: A Study of Machining Process Power Monitoring and Product Quality Prediction, Zhao W., Deshpande A., Lee J., The Prognostics and Health Management Solutions Conference MFPT 2012, 24-26 April 2012.

What's New in Advanced Machining Technology?

2011-10-22T11:09:00.001-04:00

Join the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Chapter 21 as they feature TechSolve and Mr. Amit Deshpande on October 25, 2011. Mr. Deshpande will showcase the latest research and development in advanced machining technology. His presentation will highlight:
• Advance Machining R&D (SMPI, IMAP )
• Machining Services
• Machining and Technology Development Center

Tours will include a 5-axis demonstration, and live test beds. MSC Company will also demonstrate their tool vending system. Tours will be held in parallel with the dinner and networking session, but will be conducted in two small groups to allow for plenty of questions and interaction between attendees and manufacturing experts.

More information available at: http://smechapter21.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/SME-Meeting-at-TS_201108041.pdf

Contact me if you have any questions.

Power Sensing’s Power

2011-10-10T18:18:00.000-04:00

Excellent article by Mark Albert (Editor-in-chief MMS), describing the benefits of energy monitoring in manufacturing. According to Mark "Linking power usage data to machine activities is a critical first step toward sustainable manufacturing". Click here to access the article.

For a PDF copy of the technical paper describing the feature based power monitoring methodology click here.

The Need to Know Is Basic

2011-10-05T11:58:00.001-04:00

Excellent article from Modern Machine Shop explaining the use of SaaS based applications for asset management and utilization monitoring to improve your shop performance.

The full MMS article can be accessed here. For PDF file click here.

If you have more questions regarding the Shop-Talk product (described in the article), feel free to contact me.

Chief Strategy Officer

2011-10-01T11:34:00.008-04:00

Traditionally, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for strategy development and execution. In today’s complex organizations, the CEO is responsible for many business issues including strategy, which is the most important. Rapid globalization and constant need to innovate has enforced strategy development to be a continuous process than a static one-time activity. Companies are becoming larger and more complex, making it more difficult for one person alone to have total oversight over the whole organization. The CEO will traditionally delegate the responsibility to the Chief Operation Officer (COO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Such delegation presents a dilemma. The COO is more concerned with getting things implemented, not necessarily getting the strategically right things implemented. Similar argument can be made for the CFO. According to the Bizmanuals, CFO is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. CFO is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to the management team. Proper financial planning and reporting is the primary responsibility of the CFO and not necessarily whether the decisions are made according to company’s overall strategy.
In the past few years, the number of Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) appointments has surged. The CSO is an executive who is responsible for assisting the CEO with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives within the company. The January (2008) issue of Outlook Journal states that a typical CSO is not a pure strategist that creates long-term planning which is isolated from the company's current initiatives. Many CSOs are considered "doers" first and have the past experience in execution. CSO’s are often executives who have played variety of roles at different organizations before taking on the responsibilities and tasks of the title. Most CSO’s enter the organization in roles of planning or mid-management, and go on to become the CSO’s later in their career. CSOs have prior experience in an average of four different business functions, with the most years in management, operations and technology. Fig. 1 depicts the average work experience in different business functions before taking the responsibilities of a CSO.

Figure 1: CSO Experience in Various Business Activities [2]

It is necessary that the CSO must understand the company’s business and culture to implement and sustain strategic changes. The CSO must be a veteran when it comes to change management. In short, the CSO must have the ability to act as “mini” CEO of the company. CSO’s have considerable responsibility with an average of 10 business functions and activities as shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: CSO Work Responsibility in Different Business Functions [2]

There are three primary tasks for the role of a CSO. The first and most important is to ensure that the strategic plans are converted into action. The CSO is responsible to clearly explain a company’s strategy at all levels in the organization. In addition, CSO must be able to explain the role each individual plays and how it is related to the company’s overall strategy. The second task is to drive results. Strategies are discussed in boardrooms and formulated in strategic plans. However, it is important to put the strategies to work in order to achieve results. The third task is to sustain the change and make sure that the decisions made are aligned to the overall strategy. Sometimes, as business requirements change, strategy can become fuzzy. CSO task is to ensure that management does not revert back to their old practices based on prior experience and accomplishments. CSO’s must be pragmatic and analytical, but should also have a vision for the organizational growth and success. The CSO should leverage their deep understanding of the business and connections within organization.

The potential CSO candidate should have the following qualities/characteristics:
1.Should have a good working relationship and trust of the CEO.
2.Should have a reputation of achieving excellent results in his earlier roles.
3.Should have a working knowledge of various functions in the company e.g. operations, technology, marketing, sales and human resources.
4.Successful management requires taking decision under uncertainty. The CSO should be able to work under ambiguity and embrace the uncertain future.
5.Should have the ability to influence the incumbent management and communicate effectively at all levels of the organization.
6.Should have good multi-tasking abilities as they play a major role in various activities like planning, sales, mergers and acquisitions, new product development, market research and sales strategy.
7.Should be able to split the time between strategy development and actual strategy execution. The emphasis should be on achieving results by strategy execution.

The complex strategy development and implementation justifies the overhead cost associated with the appointment of CSO. Many organizations including Motorola, Marsh & McLennan, Nations Health, Universal Pictures and Yahoo, along with the other have appointed CSOs. It not only ensures quick and compliant action but can also serve as the succession plan. However, there are some challenges when it comes to hiring a CSO. The search for the right candidate can be long and expensive. The CEO needs to alter the organization chart which can face stiff resistance from the existing employees and stakeholders.

References:
[1] Chief Strategy Officer, R. Timothy S. Breene, Paul F. Nunes, Walter E. Shill, Publication date: Oct 01, 2007. Prod. #: R0710D-PDF-ENG.
[2] Rise of the chief strategy officer. R. Timothy S. Breene, Paul F. Nunes, Walter E. Shill. Accenture, Journal of High Performance Business, Jan 2008.

MTConnect Technology - It's Not Just for OEMs

2011-09-28T16:24:00.001-04:00

I will be presenting (and demonstrating) at the upcoming AMTS 2011 conference in Dayton, OH.

When: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 12 noon
Where: Advanced Manufacturing Technology Show
              Dayton Expo Center
              3900 McCauley Drive
              Vandalia, OH 45377
              937.454.8700

Learn about MT Connect Technology and how you can improve manufacturing processes by 20-60%. Find out what’s new for small to mid-sized companies: new applications, new uses, how it can save you money and how you can be better informed about what’s happening on your shop floor.

More information about AMTS- http://www.daytonamts.com/

Book Review- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

2011-09-05T20:27:00.000-04:00

In this easy to read book the author outlines the differences in the financial decisions taken by the poor, middle class and the rich people. The rich people become richer by investing in assets. An asset is an investment which “puts money in your pocket”. That means that an asset is something which generates a positive cash flow. A liability is an investment which drains money out of your pocket and creates a negative cash flow. Against the contemporary belief, the author argues that the investment in the house you live is a liability and not an investment. Individuals should strive to build assets so that the cash flowing in your pocket is equal to your expenses – that is to be financial independent. One can pay their bills by a steady income but cannot create wealth. The author advices young couples to not invest all their money in a big expensive house, instead, concentrate on purchasing assets which will make them financially independent. The second point author emphasizes is to start your own business (work for yourself) and create a career ladder than climb a career ladder. Small businesses and corporations have enormous tax benefits. A short history of income taxes in United States is very interesting. The corporations spend first and then pay taxes, while the individuals must pay taxes beforehand. To conclude, the book provides commonsense financial and accounting advice for making sound decisions. A person not familiar with personal finance or just starting his/her career can find the book immensely useful. The author repeats many times that “make money work for you” instead of “work for money”.

“App” Development Platform for Next Generation Manufacturing

2011-09-01T15:44:00.004-04:00

The smart phone and information technology industry has stirred tremendous innovation by providing a platform (e.g. iPhone, Droid) to develop value added personal and business applications (“apps”). However, such a technology innovation was not possible in manufacturing, primarily, due to lack of universally accepted standard and closed architecture systems. However, the newly developed XML-based open MTConnect standard has been a game changing innovation for manufacturing. MTConnect can enable plug-and-play functionality and real time data from various assets in a production shop. In this presentation, we explain the development of a cloud-based MTConnect powered Shop-Talk application which provides a platform to develop value added productivity applications to achieve operation efficiency. The current apps include power monitoring, alarm management, enterprise content management, utilization monitoring and downtime analysis. The power monitoring app provides bottom-up methodology for autonomous energy consumption analytics with correlation of machining parameters and energy consumption from the lowest component features and up. The alarm management app provides customizable alarm notification with ability for user to add comments and classify the alarm according to its root cause. The enterprise content management is used to capture and organize all of the manufacturing documents including maintenance log, part programs and manuals into easy-to-find searchable electronic documents. The utilization monitor and downtime analysis enables machine, cell and shop performance monitoring with user selectable time scale for particular shift, day, week or month. Shop-Talk implementation will enable enterprises to further increase their efficiency leading to better overall performance and increased productivity essential for next generation manufacturing. The future work is concentrated on developing live value stream maps, supplier visibility, intelligent maintenance, and statistical process control apps.

Reference: “App” Development Platform for Next Generation Manufacturing; Amit Deshpande, Ron Pieper; Defense Manufacturing Conference 2011 (Accepted).

Integrating Flow Meter Data to Monitor Usage of Compressed Air

2011-07-14T10:49:00.001-04:00

The generation and usage of compressed air requires enormous amounts of energy within a manufacturing facility. It is estimated in various literature that 10% to 30% of the total energy consumed in a typical manufacturing plant is for air compression. This translates to air compression requirements consuming a total of 3-9% of the total energy being consumed in the United States. With the growing relevance of energy management, it thus becomes imperative that process solutions be designed to render energy efficient compressed air systems that would produce ongoing savings for the US manufacturing base.
A preliminary step towards developing an effective process solution in this regard is to advocate an effective monitoring system for compressed air. The MTConnect standard has facilitated extensions to its XML tags to integrate sensory data along with other machine data. Hence, MTConnect adapters are developed with customized XML tags that will successfully collect flow meter data from the CNC shop floor. The MTConnect adapters will also offer the provision for integrating multiple flow meters at individual points on the shop floor with various monitoring applications and systems across the managerial hierarchy of the organization through the company network. The flow meter data thus obtained through MTConnect provides specific insights into the amount of compressed air being utilized during various stages of machining. By successfully integrating flow meter data from various points on the shop floor, an audit can be presented with specific emphasis on compressed air losses due to insulation as well as compressed air wastage during CNC downtime.
A case study is presented wherein the usage of compressed air across the shop floor is analyzed. Flow meter data is obtained through MTConnect integration from real locations on the TechSolve shop floor defined at the main air compressor reservoir source, at the actual CNC machine during various machining states (idle, tool change, active machining) and at the end of compressed air line. This data is analyzed to estimate losses due to piping as well as air consumption associated with various machining states.

Reference: Integrating Flow Meter Data to Monitor Usage of Compressed Air; Atluru S.; [MC]2 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference.

NAMRC 2011 Presentation: Feature Level Energy Assessments for Discrete Part Manufacturing

2011-06-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

Last week, I presented the paper titled "Feature Level Energy Assessments for Discrete Part Manufacturing" at the 39th North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC 2011) in Corvallis, OR. The presentation is available in PDF format. Click here to download the presentation.