understand machine downtime & bottlenecks

One of our customers makes metal composite parts made from tungsten carbide products for the automotive, aerospace, medical, petroleum, and woodworking industries. A mixture of metal powders and wax is used to create pellets. These metal composites are fed into presses and molded into the desired shapes. In one of the final stages, the sintering process, the parts are exposed to searing heat leaving behind a fully formed tungsten carbide component ready to be ground and finished.

The company had no visibility into machine downtime or bottlenecks. While they knew some presses sat idle for long periods, they had no way of seeing how long they were idle and why.

They knew machine downtime was costing them money, but the solution wasn’t obvious. Could better scheduling of production runs keep more of the presses working more of the time? Were machines going down and left idle while waiting for maintenance? Mingo provided them a solution that resulted in immense benefits.

Visibility into bottlenecks and scheduling changes addresses this company’s idle machines and motivates workers to outperform.

Yes, we have a mobile app built for both iPhone and Android devices, available for free on the Apple App or Google Play Store. As a manufacturer, you need to know how the plant is performing and if you’re on track to hit your goals, in real-time. The mobile app, paired with manufacturing insights emails and automated reporting, gives you the ability to do this. You’ll know, with just a glance, what’s happening on the floor.

  severity of a problem.

Keeping with the example of one of our customers, the company had a variety of brands and machines they wanted to monitor and measure, nineteen in all, and they wanted an integrated solution that worked for all machines, not just a few. Mingo installed inexpensive and reliable CLICKⓇ PLCs to track cycle times on the hydraulic presses, grinders, and furnace to provide a single data point capturing availability and providing end of shift reporting. Mingo gathered that data in the cloud and provided the entire organization seamless, transparent reporting and communication with automated reports sent to their inboxes daily.

Scoreboards placed strategically in the plant, visible to all workers communicated the availability and performance of the entire plant in real-time. Operations managers are able to view reports and make decisions about scheduling to alleviate the bottlenecks and ensure the presses don’t sit idle for too long. After each shift, notifications go out to the managers and workers. If there is unplanned downtime or a particularly productive shift, everyone knows.

That’s the power of plant floor visibility. After seeing vast productivity improvements, the company was able to grow its business and outperform competitors.

At the end of the day, you need to produce a quality product and deliver on time to your customers. Machine tooling software gives you the ability to know with certainty that you can achieve that goal. However, there may be a particular software that is better suited to your specific needs, as each manufacturer operates just a little bit differently. We understand that.

You should evaluate software vendors based on what you’d like to improve and accomplish. Will that software helps you accomplish your goals? Will they grow with you down the road? Do they fit within your budget? What does the implementation process look like? Will you need a dedicated team member to lead the project? Will it help to replace manual processes? There are a ton of questions to answer, but just remember to find software that will help you get visibility into the plant.