The ArchFX Platform empowers electronics manufacturers to reclaim 20-60% in valuable machine performance and line utilization losses. Every day, Arch extracts data from thousands of SMT machines worldwide, accelerating Industry 4.0 and enabling real-time visibility and actionable insights into some of the most complex problems manufacturers face today.
Arch Systems has emerged as a powerful data connection, architecture, and predictive analytics platform, working with some of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world. Their product stack, including the ArchFX Platform, enterprise support, and IOTile Devices, uniquely positions them as a manufacturing data authority between vendors, manufacturers, and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers. Today, Arch operates one of the largest surface-mount-technology (SMT) data lakes in the world, enabling critical insights for improving manufacturing operations.
The ArchFX Platform provides the machine connectivity, machine data management and advanced insights needed to bring digital transformation to the electronics manufacturing process. The elements of the ArchFX Platform work together to accelerate Industry 4.0 by enabling real-time visibility and providing actionable insights.
Data from any machine
The process of turning data into value begins with extracting data from diverse machines. For electronics manufacturers, the ArchFX Platform connects to the heartbeat of any SMT line: the pick-and-place (P&P) machine. The rich data collected from P&P machines provides deep insights into the overall health and productivity of an SMT line.
The ArchFX Platform also has configurable database connectors that make it easy to collect data from all smart machines, along with out-of-the-box integrations with a wide variety of common SMT manufacturing machines. Programmable logic controller wiretap kits enable manufacturers to monitor pins in existing installations, while Fieldbus connectors can be used to tap into the native language of other machines. For conveyor belts and other machines that don’t generate data, configurable hardware sensors collect data.
ArchFX Broker
All of this data is collected and standardized in the ArchFX Broker. The broker helps automate reporting on key performance indicators such as throughput, machine utilization, line utilization (LU), and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
This makes it possible to identify areas of trapped capacity and lost productivity. The ArchFX Broker’s data collection, processing, and mapping is a continuous process, constantly determining where new improvements can be made.
Learn more about the ArchFX broker.
ArchFX Cloud
The broker is just the first step in analytics. In order to optimize manufacturing operations and unlock business value, the data must be organized as well as securely and centrally archived. The ArchFX Cloud receives data from brokers across the enterprise, storing all of this information in a secure data lake for processing by AI/ML analytics.
Learn more about the ArchFX Cloud.
Advanced Analytics with AI/ML
The standardized data stored by the ArchFX Cloud feeds advanced analytics, including AI/ML models. One of the advanced analytics modules manufacturers turn to first is Sessions Analysis, which uses advanced algorithms to study every product cycle on all SMT lines. It determines which cycles should be identical because they are building the same product. By comparing thousands of occurrences of theoretically identical machine operations, Sessions Analysis begins to build a golden cycle time for each product on each line. This golden cycle represents the time needed to build a particular product on a particular line when the line is functioning optimally.
Sessions Analysis is ultimately a hyper-specialized, automated version of the work done by expert SMT engineers when tasked with investigating a performance issue on a single line. The combination of rich machine data, SMT domain expertise, and advanced algorithms empower ArchFX to do this automatically for every line at once.
Sessions Analysis is available in the ArchFX Cloud-based SMT Utilization Suite.
No-Code Customization
Results can be viewed and analyzed through the ArchFX Platform’s customizable reports and dashboards. While reports and dashboards can be customized without any need for additional code, the platform also provides a visual API and download access to raw data.
Learn more about our management and productivity dashboard services.
Global KPIs Solution
The Global KPIs Solution provides standardized manufacturing dashboards displaying Key Performance Indicators such as LU, OEE, MU, etc. over any time period of interest to the user. Executives can compare performance across lines, sites, and regions. Operational staff can tell how well they are performing compared to their peers and identify metrics needing improvement.
Beyond the power of these dashboards, ArchFX Cloud has an extensive RESTful API that gives the user access to every database record. Any information you can see on the Global KPIs Solution can be extracted via an API call. Advanced insights into global KPIs can be custom built according to the needs of each organization.
Read more about the ArchFX API here.
Automated global benchmarks and insights provided by existing tools and the API can be used to improve capacity utilization and process efficiencies. These improvements are only enhanced by the identification of maintenance gaps, transforming maintenance programs from prescriptive to predictive—saving manufacturers millions of dollars in CapEX and wasteful maintenance costs in the first year alone.
The power of complex manufacturing data made simple
Using the ArchFX Platform, manufacturers can now collect complex data from both new and existing machines, automate the collection and standardization of data via ArchFX Brokers, and achieve real-time analytics results from machines distributed across the world. The power of a central data lake, combined with real-time information, enables manufacturers to act faster to solve problems, optimize assets, and generate increasingly powerful analytics for predictive capabilities. Digitization initiatives can roll forward at an increased pace as they add more machine categories, expanding the ROI of machine utilization while also tapping into the data lake for the next set of advanced use cases. The ArchFX Platform is turning Industry 4.0 from a vision into a reality for SMT manufacturers worldwide.
Learn more about the ArchFX Platform.
Like what you see? This is just the start. See what we’ve been up to!