When costs rise or production slows, the first response is often to request more information. Sensors, reports and spreadsheets become useful when they help explain what is affecting the result. A worthwhile project starts by defining what each team needs to investigate and which decisions could change with the available evidence.
Start with an operational question
Management may need to compare costs across lines. Production may investigate stoppages and differences in output rate. Process engineering may examine cycle repeatability; maintenance, the events preceding a failure; and quality, the conditions under which a batch was made. The same measurement can serve several people, provided its context and scope are clearly defined.
Data that are often missing from a comparison
- Which equipment: machine, cell, line and measurement points.
- What was being produced: product, order, batch or mould, depending on the process.
- Under which condition: production, waiting, adjustment, heating or maintenance work.
- Over which period: dates, shifts, duration and changes in operating regime.
- With what result: quantities, quality, time and consumption actually recorded.
Three areas of work that can be developed in stages
Productivity
Machine availability is one component of productivity. Assessing performance requires consistent definitions of scheduled time, stoppages, speed or cycle time, and conforming output. Each indicator needs suitable evidence, which may require several data sources in addition to an electrical signal.
Energy consumption and cost
Power and kWh readings support analysis by equipment and period when the supply is correctly instrumented. An indicator per part or kilogram also requires reliable production records. Attributing a saving requires comparisons with the same measurement boundary and equivalent conditions.
Process stability and quality
Machine variables become meaningful when linked to the batch, setting changes and inspection results. Detecting a variation provides a starting point for investigation. Establishing the cause of a nonconformity requires further evidence.
KERN IoP’s contribution to the project
PM Tec Engineering, through its Industry 4.0 division, KERN IoP, combines process engineering with instrumentation, data acquisition and software to record the conditions relevant to each application. The scope starts with a specific need and can expand into production analysis, quality, traceability or specialist support as the plant requires.
The production problem and the evidence needed to investigate it should determine the data, instrumentation and analysis methods selected. Explore industrial applications, the KERN platform or solutions by plant role.
To turn this inventory of data into priorities for action, see how to prioritise losses and improvement projects in the plant and the page on productivity and OEE.
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