Boston-based analytics provider Machine Metrics is leveraging the shopfloor data it collects and parses in the cloud to help manufacturers improve the accuracy of production runs with AI. Launching later this month, the MachineMetrics Production Intelligence platform aims at delivering actionable insights to operators and planners that can increase OEE.
Production Intelligence differs from the company’s core offering, which has helped manufacturers around the world get more from shopfloor units since it was launched in TK. MachineMetrics places its platform between ERP and MES, using insights from frontline operations generated in real time for the scheduling and cycling improvements that optimize workflow to boost time to completion.
“The status quo is often highly manually intensive,” says Graham Immernan, the company’s revenue officer. “Reliance on spreadsheets and ad hoc solultions leads to a disconnect between machines, operators on the factory floor, and the ERP systems the support the business. Because the data contained in the spreadsheets isn’t in real time, this leads to underutilization.”
The AI driving the MachineMetrics innovation draws on historic performance and real-time operations to allow manufacturers to more precisely estimate run times and delivery. Coupled with deeper integration to third-party ERP systems, the new platform relieves operators of reporting responsibilities and lets planner backtrack to fill in gaps in production accounting.
Along with downtime analytics and delivery optimization, use cases include tracking work in progress and automated OEE. These are accomplished with an algorithm that generate continuous estimates of cycle times and a dashboard that directs work orders to maximize machine capacity, including in the event of unplanned downtime.
“The platform offers solutions for dealing with overdue and at-risk operations,” says Rutherford Wilson, MachineMetrics chief product officer. “Cycle times, machine utilization, and real-time activity are factored into the algorithm to automatically update job completion time.”
MachineMetrics Production Intelligence platform marries real-time machine data with ERP to provide users with the contextual basis for decision-making. Rather than simply knowing whether and when a machine is performing an operation, information about output quality and cycle times is used for forecasting production runs and delivery times.
“While there is value to be had in machine monitoring, it’s a key piece of a bigger puzzle,” Immerman says. “If we want to monitor production, we need more information and insights from more perspectives.”
Key features of the new platform include:
- Scheduling Intelligence – a real-time reflection of shop floor conditions that enables users to adjust and optimize production runs based on up-to-the-minute estimates of job completion times and alerts for schedule deviations.
- Production Order Management – a performance tracker for production orders and part operations with automated labor-ticket submission flow.
- Production Analytics – a monitor for part operations, completed work, and work in progress.
- ERP Integration – a seamless channel two-way data flows between the shop floor and operational systems from Epicor, Epicor Kinetic, JobBoss Squared, and Infra Visual.
Along with MachineMetrics standard measures of utilization, performance and production quality at machine-level, the new platform’s dynamic scheduling capabilities improve the flow of work order on the shop floor by shifting work to unutilized machines when unforeseen incidents occur. Along with an accurate view of work in progress, the algorithm allows management to gauge the downstream impact of such events.
The algorithm calculates every cycle in real time for every machine on the shop floor to improve the accuracy of production scheduling. When orders complete and new work is initiated, the two-way interface allows operators to directly input information into ERP systems. Meanwhile, the platform’s tracking of machine data from completed jobs boosts production accounting by provides an historical view that can fill gaps that occur from logging oversights and omissions.
As part of its platform unveiling, MachineMetrics is hosting a live webinar on August 28 that features Immerman and Wilson, who will walk participants through the full spectrum of functionalities. To attend, follow this link.