Remote monitoring of machine status is not just for real-time visibility and immediate intervention. The technologies that power remote monitoring also enable users to track trends in performance over time to improve the efficiency of their operations long term.
Track Machine Performance Trends
Tracking trends in machine and process data can help manufacturers identify when and where losses are occurring. However, manually monitoring the status of production machines is a time-consuming process.
Depending on the size of the facility, manually monitoring machine status slows down production and requires additional man-hours that could be more effectively used for other tasks.
With a wireless system, users can easily monitor machines remotely in a central point to log information. For example, using a tower light with a wireless radio base offers not only local indication of machine status but can also provide remote status of each light module.
By logging results from machine status indicators like tower lights, users can track trends in individual machine up time and cycle counts, giving operators machine status updates when and where it is needed.
Identify Sources of Waste
Monitoring production inputs and outputs provides machine operators and managers with critical data about their processes and equipment and can help them identify and resolve problems on the production line more quickly.
A remote monitoring solution for production input/output uses part count rates to determine if equipment is running, running slow, stopped, jammed, or starved of parts.
Whenever machine performance parameters are outside of user defined levels, an alert is sent to staff via email or SMS text, ensuring a quick response and resolution to any issues on the line. Users can track parts per minute, monitor machine status, and gather metrics to calculate OEE.
Replicate Success
For larger manufacturers with multiple plant locations, performance trends can be transmitted to a central location and compared plant to plant to identify and replicate the sucesses of the highest performing plants.
This visibility into how each plant is performing can also be a valuable motivational tool to help plant managers quickly and effectively implement changes to improve efficiency.
