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Monitoring your factory: a practical example.
Discover the benefits of monitoring
In previous posts we have talked about the many advantages of monitoring: real-time knowledge of the values from the critical elements of our system, on-time reaction to problems and unforeseen events and even failure prediction.If we add a centralized tool capable of showing all the information of interest in a simple and personalized way without having to be an expert in the subject, it looks that monitoring could be great option to keep control of what’s happening in our factory, doesn't it?
In order for you to see it for yourself, we have designed a demo that shows how our monitoring system would work in a factory.
Factory Demo: Getting into context
Let’s be honest, in our fictitious factory things don't work ideally. We've designed a system where the machinery fails repeatedly so you can see how Muutech's monitoring platform responds when something like this happens.The factory for which we have designed our real-time monitoring system consists of the following elements:
- Industrial equipment: Two CNCs, a robotic arm, an AGV and a furnace (with 2 burners, 2 belts and a fan)
- IT systems: A rack that includes an AP, a switch, a server and a UPS
- General Dashboard: is the main panel of the demo
- Operator Dashboard: intended to be used by the on-site worker
- Maintenance Dashboard: created for the maintenance operator
- CNC Dashboard: includes the CNC’s information
We will now get into more detail explaining the information and possibilities offered by these dashboards, as this is where their true usefulness lies.
As a note, in most graphs, by hovering the mouse, detailed data is displayed at all times.
By breaking down the different parts of this panel, we have:
As a note, in most graphs, by hovering the mouse, detailed data is displayed at all times.
Factory Demo: General Dashboard
This is the main dashboard and gives the user an overview of the factory. It allows to know at a glance if the different machines are working correctly at every moment and offers economic data of relevance.By breaking down the different parts of this panel, we have:
- Factory: it visually displays relevant data and alerts of the following machines.
- Energy consumption, produced parts and alarms of the CNCs.
- Alarms from the robotic arm.
- The amount of parts moved by the AGV and its alarms.
- The rack image displays the following information: status and consumption of the AP, status of the switch, use % of the CPU and RAM of the server and status, alarms and battery % of the UPS.
- Flow chart: it graphically depicts the manufacturing process with a colour code: red for stopped - regardless of the reason - and green for active. This diagram shows that the parts produced in the furnace are picked up by the robotic arm and put on the CNCs. After passing through the CNCs, the manufacturing process of the parts will come to an end under the supervision of the operator.
- Income vs. Expenses: this ring chart matches the total production revenue and expenses (€). As the factory suffers from constant breakdowns, the expenses are greater than the profits.
- Economic Forecast: this graph displays the economic data of profits and production expenses (€) over time. It also provides an economic forecast for the next hour.
- Production OEE: this graph allows checking the evolution of the OEE measurement (%) over time.
- Status and energy consumption graphs for furnace, robot and CNCs: For each of these machines, the following information is displayed:
- Current status: green - on and red – off.
- Status-over-time bar: including the amount of time (%) spent on each status by the machine
- Energy consumption graph: shows consumption over time (MW/h).
By clicking on the upper left corner of the furnace and CNC tables, you can access their specific dashboards.
The following data is displayed:
Factory Demo: Operator Dashboard - Furnace
On this dashboard, the operator is able to see all information concerning the furnace, as well as quality information and OEE data.The following data is displayed:
- Furnace status and energy consumption graphs:
- Current status and status-over-time bar.
- Current electric energy consumption (MW/h).
- Total burned-out gas (l/min).
- Full vs. empty: ring graph representing the % of time the furnace is full (green) and empty (red).
- Furnace components: it visually displays relevant data and alerts of the components of the furnace.
- The temperature information (º C) of the two furnace burners.
- The working speed (rpm) of the two belts.
- The speed (rpm) of the furnace fan as well as a background colour that changes from blue - off to green - on.
- At the bottom, alerts from the furnace are shown.
- Production OEE
- Operator forms: These forms can be created by modifying their configuration, without any software. Two possibilities are availabe:
- Quality control : Allows the operator to add information about the quality (colour, shape, tolerance) of the parts produced by the furnace.
- Ventilation: Button that temporarily activates (10 s) the furnace fan in order to cool down the burners.
- Furnace temperatures: This graph shows the temperature over time (ºC) of the two furnace burners. In addition, the minimum, maximum, average and current temperature values are indicated.
- Burned-out gas: the graph in the middle provides data on gas burned out by the furnace (l/m) over time. It also shows the minimum, maximum, average and current values of burned-out gas.
- Electric energy: the lower graph shows the electric energy consumed by the furnace (kW/h) over time. At the bottom you can see the minimum, maximum, average and current values of energy consumption.
Factory Demo: Maintenance Dashboard
This dashboard is intended to make maintenance functions easier. It shows both alerts and status information of the CNCs, furnace and robot.- Status graphs for robot and CNCs
- Status, current electric energy consumption and total burned-out gas for the furnace
- Furnace components
- Burned-out gas
- Furnace temperatures
- Electric energy
By clicking on the upper left corner of the furnace and CNC tables, you can access their specific dashboards.
- Alerts: The table on the right shows all the alarms of the machines and computer systems of the factory.
Each alert is classified according to the item that has failed, the severity of the failure (colour coded from most to least important) and its current status (PROBLEM - red if not resolved, RESOLVED - green if resolved).
The table also allows you to filter the alarms as: Unsolved, Undetected or Unclassified.
The operator may click on the pencil-shaped icons and acknowledge or close the alerts when problems are addressed and solved.
Factory Demo: CNC Dashoard
The fourth dashboard displays all the information related to the CNCs.- Status and energy consumption graphs of the CNCs:
- Current status and status-over-time bar.
- Current electric energy consumption (kW/h).
- Total number of parts produced.
- Electric energy of the CNCs: This pair of graphs show the electric energy consumed by each CNC (kW/h) over time. The lower part shows the minimum, maximum, average and current values of the energy consumed.
- CNC alerts: This table shows the alerts of both CNCs. Each alarm is classified according to the CNC that has failed, the severity of the failure (colour coded from most to least serious) and a tag indicating the type of problem that has happened to the machine.
To sum up
We hope that this little tutorial will help you get the most out of our demo when you try it, and that it will help you discover the many possibilities that good monitoring can offer to your factory.The wide freedom of design available when creating dashboards allows for each user to have a personalised panel displaying on an easy and attractive way all the information that is relevant to him.
Similarly, if needed, a worker could also be able to operate digital forms and alerts adapted to his needs.