Improvement in the manufacturing process is the key to increasing competitive advantage, but finding opportunities to do so is often challenging. For manufacturers facing increased competition and persistent logistical disruption, fully leveraging production data and domain expertise has never been more crucial.
But that is easier said than done. Machine data is often trapped in equipment with no collection service that can preserve it. Production expertise can disappear courtesy of personnel turnover. When expertise and data are siloed by geography or technology roadblocks, operators end up making crucial decisions with incomplete information. They lack the available input from peers past and present. Manufacturers need Industry 4.0 technology to help preserve domain knowledge and collect machine data, whether they are locked away on the other side of the factory or the other side of the world.
Spreading expert knowledge across operations
Those tools now exist. Manufacturers can extract the data from all machines in the production ecosystem to provide a full view of operations. That alone is not enough to unlock opportunities for manufacturing improvement. Machine learning applications can filter out bad data and noise, correlate data between machines and lines, and create context that elevates instances of critical issue resolution. This process of enhancing machine data context and domain knowledge creates expert data.
Expert data amplifies the work of machine operators, process engineers, and quality inspectors — helping the entire operation make better decisions, scaled across every department in every factory. Expert data systems break down knowledge silos. They bring factory experts together with the data solutions architects and analysts to establish a lens to view the entire operation, even on a global scale.
These advancements in data collection and analysis have transformed manufacturing organizations by bringing global transparency to their operations.
Take action faster
Machine learning and AI is capable of unifying data and analytics across a global fleet of machines and factories without disrupting systems or requiring expensive equipment replacement. Manufacturers can gain a holistic view of the entire production ecosystem — making it easier to identify and resolve operational inefficiencies across the factory floor or across the globe.
Detection and resolution of production issues on the factory floor typically happen at the end of a manufacturing run, when it is too late. That’s because most manufacturers don’t benefit from the use of expert data. Vital knowledge that guides process resolution is often inside the heads of experts who may or may not be on the factory floor experiencing an issue. Even with data-collection practices designed to create global transparency in real-time, analysis and resolution can remain elusive.
ArchFX Action Manager
ArchFX Action Manager captures knowledge from experts all over the production ecosystem and renders it alongside real-time analytics, identifying problems earlier in the process, resulting in improved efficiency, output, and reduced rework. Action Manager builds on the robust ArchFX platform, which uses modern data and connectivity technology to collect, store, and analyze machine performance signals. Action Manager integrates knowledge from production experts throughout the operation with machine data collected from every machine, then uses it to identify issues on the factory floor and automate responses to them.
Action Manager is a groundbreaking solution that detects issues with machine processes and intelligently shepherds their resolution. Unlike traditional IoT systems that require regular and consistent intervention from IT experts, Action Manager empowers operators to utilize robust technology without relying on IT department resources. With domain-specific alert modules and a growing playbook to resolve problems that created the alerts, Action Manager accelerates and automates manufacturing improvement – clearing the path to higher quality products, optimized production processes, and operational excellence.