Problem:
The production manager at this plant wanted to increase material utilization efficiency by reducing the spool overage per customer order. The current system required a machine tender to stop the braiding machine when a customer's order was wound complete. When the machine tender was away from his machine controls managing other assigned tasks, he would allow additional cable to be produced per customer order.
Solution:
The production manager had one Data Masters LED display mounted on each braiding machine and presented order production information along with anticipated finish time to the machine tenders. Some machine alarm status information was also presented.
Data Source:
Spindle speed and spool roll information was measured by a few optical encoders and the data was sent back to an Allen-Bradley PLC 5/25 processor. The PLC then processed the data using preprogrammed formulas. Finally, the data was sent to the displays serially.
ROI:
Each machine produced an average of seven customer orders per day. Each customer order manufactured included an average of 2% overage. Each order overage produced an average cost of $75.00. The displays reduced the overage from 2% to less than .5%. This represented average savings of $393.00 per day, per machine. The displays paid for themselves in less than 4 days.