Are your machines talking?

Machine tools get plenty of use on a production floor, yet these metal cutting workhorses are only at their best when running at optimum efficiency – something every plant manager wants to see.

Traditionally, managers would have to manually collect massive amounts of production data from these machines, but this missed the step of analyzing efficiency from real-time monitoring. Additionally, since each machine tool builder uses proprietary software, various interfaces were needed to analyze machine and condition monitoring software data, together with production management information.

However, since its announcement in 2007 and its unveiling at IMTS 2008, MTConnect has brought true data exchangeability. From large machine tool builders to smaller job shops, MTConnect links shop floor technologies, delivering greater interoperability between devices and software applications. Using an open plug-and-play connection, data collected in real-time is optimizing productivity.

So, as MTConnect moved to shop floors, machine tool builders worked quickly to offer its capabilities on customers’ machines and in their own facilities. Early adopters noticed this simplified data collection delivered improved overall assessments across the plant for leaner manufacturing. As the interoperability between equipment grew, the ISO 13399 standard was added to MTConnect, enabling data about cutting tools and their performance, enhancing the information goldmine at plant managers’ fingertips.

All of these advancements with MTConnect align with the shift to data-driven manufacturing and support the push toward Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things. Without the interconnected plug-and-play of machines, equipment, software, and cutting tool data, operations would not have become so efficient.

Knowing what MTConnect brings to manufacturing efficiency, I hope your company has abandoned antiquated methods of data collection. And if it hasn’t, stop and consider the benefits of MTConnected-manufacturing – either at the MC2 MTConnect Conference at the end of April or ar www.mtconnect.org.

Vast data is all around your facility. Your machines have a story to tell, and you need to help them talk.
 

– Elizabeth