Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a popular metric for identifying the effectiveness of manufacturing assets and improving production. By taking into account uptime, performance, and quality in tandem with one another, OEE offers end users an assessment of production line efficiency. However, an OEE calculation must be contextualized with other data and interpreted by end users or artificial intelligence (AI) before it can yield any valuable insights into how to solve a specific problem.
Because of this, software applications that provide data visualizations via dashboard in a simple, easily digestible format continue to become more common. These dashboards can visually plot various types of time-series and historical data to help operators more easily identify performance trends. The ability to view and compare these metrics allows end users to see patterns that otherwise might go unnoticed.
As part of this trend toward greater data visualization, robotic tooling provider OnRobot has released WebLytics, which helps end users generate visual dashboards from data gathered from the equipment that comprises a workcell. By integrating data from peripheral devices and tooling such as grippers, machine vision cameras, and sensors, the software provides a holistic view of a workcell's operations. In addition, WebLytics features onboard remote monitoring, device diagnostics, and data analysis capabilities.
According to OnRobot, WebLytics eliminates manual data collection by drawing on live device diagnostics to provide insights into how well a robotic application is performing. Moreover, by integrating the OEE metric, the software can identify trends in the workcell in real-time, including patterns, peaks, and disturbances in application productivity. When changes are made, their impact on application performance are automatically reported.
Lazlo Papp, product manager and sales engineer at Wamatec Hungary Kft., an industrial equipment provider that tested WebLytics on machine tending, pick-and-place, and palletizing applications explained, “When cycle time is really important, WebLytics helps you identify the small mistakes that cause time wastage. WebLytics can also save a lot of time by making it easy to schedule all maintenance and product changes. My favorite function was the dashboard. I really liked how WebLytics allowed me to monitor all my applications, my cobots and robots, and my end-of-arm tools using one platform that provides real time monitoring, data collection, and line charting.”
Deployment of a WebLytics server can occur either on a plant's local network or via a virtual network that connects to a workcell. While data collected is stored locally, it can also be accessed remotely via a built-in web server that uses a secure HTTPS connection.
