One of the biggest software trends in recent years has been the introduction of business intelligence-like programs to the plant floor. These types of programs are not new, by any means, having been around for years in a variety of flavors, ranging from data collectors and historians to operations management/manufacturing execution systems. What’s driving the new push to apply these technologies on the plant floor is two-fold: 1) the ability for manufacturers to minimize costs in every possible way by optimizing production processes as much as possible, and 2) enabling a smaller contingent of engineers on the shop floor to be as productive as they were in years past when they occupied the plant floor in larger groups.
One of the newest entrants into the operations intelligence field is Envision from Beet Analytics Technology (Plymouth, Mich.). The company claims that Envision is different from other intelligence types of software in that it goes beyond traditional motion sensing diagnostics tools by creating digital traces of all sets of events pertaining to the automated or manufacturing processes. To do this, Envision reportedly monitors and records every automated motion and process in real-time and compares actual process performance against intended cycle times to gauge the health of the system.
When compared to existing, similar applications, Beet Analytics Technology claims the biggest differentiators for Envision are that it includes support for:
• System lifecycle debugging; commissioning; real-time, event-based monitoring; continuous performance update and time-sensitive tracking; and
• Analytics such as: production leakage/variance analysis; maintenance effectiveness validation; fault/downtime prevention assessment; dynamic root cause/problem identification; and analytical modeling.
A key feature of Envision is its storage of every deviation from the targeted cycle time of each operation over a set period of time. These anomalies are highlighted in the application as “hotspots” and are prioritized in the system based on the critical path of each operation.
David Wang, president & CEO of Beet Analytics, says that an OEM is currently piloting Envision with many tests at other manufacturing facilities also underway.
