Idhammar OEE Line Data Portal

Implementing a dedicated OEE system will greatly enhance continuous improvement and lean manufacturing programmes regardless of the method of data collection and input. However, there are a number of problems associated with paper-based production line logs, including:

• Missing or ignoring minor stoppages
• Operators, busy fixing problems, struggle to record lost time accurately
• Recording exact timings at production start-up is a complex manual process
• Paper-work on the factory floor can get lost, damaged and requires additional manual handling and processing

The Idhammar OEE Line Data Portal (LDP) goes beyond mass data acquisition, improving the accuracy and integrity of the data captured and ensuring that it is meaningful and useful in informing OEE analysis and driving continuous improvement. Designed for touch-screen capability, the LDP is available for both manual and automatic data capture, collecting information about product counts, waste counts and a range of stoppage events fundamental to the calculation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness. The LDP enables production specialists to improve factory efficiency through more accurate OEE data and by presenting the information in an easily configurable graphic format for faster, better informed analysis.

Idhammar OEE Manual Line Data Portal

The Manual LDP system enables users to enter information about product counts, waste and stoppage events as they happen in a structured and controlled way. The software is designed for touch-screen capability providing operators with a simple, fast and easy to use method of data entry. As the Manual LDP is part of the Idhammar Line Data Portal suite, it can provide manufacturers with a useful stepping-stone to a fully automated line data capture system.

Idhammar OEE Automatic Line Data Portal

When your OEE scores are frequently reaching 65% or higher, companies should consider moving from manual to automatic data capture to enhance accuracy and visibility of production process issues. For example, while 240 x 15 second stops in an 8 hour shift are almost impossible to record manually, collectively they still account for an hour of lost production and a significant impact on potential productivity.

Clearly moving to automated data capture increases accuracy, enables deeper analysis into hidden issues and reduces paperwork on the factory floor. If you decide that this is the best route for your environment there are then a number of methods of data capture available to you. Idhammar OEE is extremely flexible and can link to data from external event generators or other data sources, as well as being able to import most common data types.

Acquiring data from Process Control Systems

Although fully automatic process control systems such as SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition), where the time and failure reason is pulled from the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), provide accurate time-based information they fail to accurately obtain the full causal information behind the stoppage. For example, an operator seeing a fault at the end of the line chooses to stop the line by opening the nearest machine guard. As a consequence the alarm list records "guard open", when in reality this had nothing to do with the stoppage.