Page 73 - MetalForming Magazine June/July 2022 80th Anniversary Issue

he says—and his firm already has a mature IOT platform in place, con- necting stamping and nonstamping equipment to monitor production, eliminate manual data entry, and col- lect and analyze data. Same at BTD, where, says Fledderman, “we’ve been logging machine data into our ERP sys- tem (Plex) for years. It’s in our DNA to automate data collection. We’ve elim- inated nearly all of our manually driven
processes when it comes to gathering and analyzing data. It’s all automated now and seamless.”
And, at Marion Mfg., Johnson’s front-office team recently implemented a new software platform for quoting (Paperless Parts).
“It’s an open-communications plat- form that allows us to see if and when a customer looks at the quote we send out,” Johnson says, “and how many
times it’s been looked at. And, cus- tomers can place an order directly through the software. At the same time, we’ve evolved greatly in recent months with the use of our ERP system (Job- Boss). We’re running more reports and integrating it into our production plan- ning process. And, it’s helped us more accurately capture our costs, crucial throughout COVID-19 as we were forced to adjust our pricing consider- ably. Soon, we’ll start capturing live machine data so that we can get a clear picture of press capacity and utiliza- tion, to help guide future capital investments.”
Lastly, at Wiess-Aug Group, “we always have believed in automation and continuous improvement,” shares Weissenrieder-Bennis, “in order to compete globally. Looking forward, we’ll look to continue implementing robots and collaborative robots, as well as machine learning. This has been an area under development at our Lupine Research division where they are build- ing custom computers and software combined with vision technology and inspection technology.
“Of course,” she continues, “with this comes a need for higher-level tech- nical support, so we also have invested in internal automation groups at each of our locations. And on the shop floor, data analytics is and will continue to be critical. We implemented a new ERP system (Plex) in 2019, with the need for more data as the main driver. Now we’re looking at OEE by work center every shift, every day, and making bet- ter decisions based on that data. This is critical as we look to drive out costs and compete at a high level.”
Summarizing his perspective on Industry 4.0, UHY’s Bruce adds:
“Digital transformation impacts all of your teams and directly affects your ability to scale and take on new mar- kets and customers. In order to grow, you can’t operate as you have in the past. Digital manufacturing includes end-to-end process improvement and is critical to scalability and to your ability to shift quickly into new mar- kets.” MF
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