Connecting manufacturing equipment to your office systems.
Amtech has created RPM, our Real-time Plant Monitoring system. This "out of the box" machinery interface solution can be retrofitted to virtually any machine regardless of age utilizing industry - standard hardware. Some of the new features of this module include:
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Photo sensors on machines provide real time speed and mode change information
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Mandatory reconciliation of material waste from machine to machine
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A virtual dashboard showing real time statistics by machine and department. Displays production information by shift, day, week, or month.
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Instant replay feature to view past history in a time line mode.
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Automatic feedback to the estimating system using actual production data.
Some of the benefits of this module are:
At the heart of the RPM system is the Plant Controller. This single device can monitor up to 50 machines. The Plant Controller reads information from sensors, processes it, and then feeds it to the Plant Data Entry module. Photo sensors (or eyes) are retrofitted to each machine. These sensors (via the Plant Controller) control the Plant Data Entry systems modes. For example, when the run speed of a machine exceeds the defined threshold, the Plant Data Entry module automatically enters Run mode. Automatic mode changes are enabled for Ramp up, Run, Slow Run, and Down modes. Setup is manually started. Speedometer gauges and progress meters on the Plant Data Entry screen show the plant user current run speed versus standard, along with elapsed setup time versus standard.
In addition, current quantity and cumulative quantities are shown. Amtech's Plant Inquiry provides the way to share both the real time and historical production information. The Plant Inquiry shows the real time status for every connected machine. This includes the current customer, job number, item and order information. Next, current mode (Setup, Run, etc.) and elapsed time is shown. Lastly, you see a progress meter for Setup and speedometer gauges for current and cumulative run speed. A quick click on the "Statistics" button for a particular machine reveals a snapshot view of the shift, day, week, and month to date production totals for quantity, footage, waste, and number of setups. In addition, the average efficiency compared to standard for both setup and run are shown.
Lastly, up time versus downtime is shown for each of these time periods. From the Plant Inquiry, you can choose the "Instant Replay" button to view a graphical representation of a particular machine's production metrics. You choose the date and time ranges, you choose statistic, and the Instant Replay gives you a bird's eye view of past production data. Lastly, you can use RPM's actual production data to estimate future quotes. Estimators have the option whether to use the standard speeds or actual production history for quotes. Schedulers also can choose to use either standards or actual production history for future scheduling. In additional to a powerful Gantt chart, users have the ability to create "scheduling rules" on the fly.