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Improve machine utilisation rate with simple methods - Bring out the hidden data.
Teollisuus Nyt magazine 2/2003, text by Lauri Lehtinen

As this article shows, machine utilisation rate can easily be increased with relatively simple methods.

ARROW Engineering Oy specialises in developing solutions for industrial companies, especially in systems monitoring key machines essential to production. The company has successfully formed a large clientele and expanded its market area from Scandinavia to Central Europe, mostly to German-speaking areas.

ARROW Engineering's main products are the ARROW Machine Track machine monitoring system and the ARROW Maint maintenance system. While developing both systems, the main goal has been easy connectivity so that the data can be collected from the existing control signals of the machines. Secondly, emphasis has been put on clear and easy visualisation of the collected data so that the user can easily see the number and severity of production problems.

"Because we use existing signals, the complicated and expensive extra soling becomes unnecessary. Our product development work has also aimed at easy customisation", says general manager Harri Jernberg.

Productivity plays hide-and-seek

It is quite common in factories that productivity is low, even though there are no clear production breaks. The reasons for machine waiting periods may only come apparent after categorising, summing up, and interpreting the data.

Often the work flow and the related arrangements are not as effecient as they should. When it becomes apparent that expensive machine time is being wasted on waiting periods, for example, due to programming, increase in capacity can often be achieved with very small investments.

"This precious information on the actual production is hidden in the machine control automatics data, and this our main focus and strongpoint. When there are many production machines in a factory, there are also many different problems often not even visible to the production personnel. However, by sorting the different factors, summing them up, and visualising them in diagrams, the necessary actions to eliminate the weaknesses can easily be brought to a logical order", Jernberg says.

Finland is a challenging market area

Finnish companies have very well adopted the notion of machine monitoring systems to raise their utilisation rate. Finnish customers are demanding and conscious of their purchases and, therefore, doing well in the domestic market also speaks for a good chance in the export business as well.

"At the moment, we have approximately 150 customers for the Machine Track system. This includes both medium-sized as well as large groups of companies. We have been working hard in Central Europe with the aim in German-speaking countries. The economic slowdown in Germany, the long-term uncertainty and waiting have slowed down also our progress", says Jernberg.

ARROW Engineering has been continuously developing new applications, for example, regarding internet and wireless technologies. However, new innovations are used as long as it seems economically sensible. They are used to look for further increases in production and utilisation rate.

Competition in this field is fierce, but if one is ready to customise and provide comprehensive solutions, the position is always better.

Manufacturing copper products more effeciently

Outokumpu Oyj processes copper products in Pori, Finland. The product portfolio includes rolled plates, sheets, and pipes as well as conducted wires, rods, and bars. Today, Outokumpu Poricopper utilises the ARROW Machine Track machine monitoring system in all of its four production departments. Over 100 machines are connected to this system. Production manager Jari Lindström says that the cutter department and the rolling mill are the newest users of Machine Track. Approximately 30 of the rolling mill's machines are under monitoring and the rest is not critical to the overall efficiency.

So far the rolling mill has not had much time to get into the issues that monitoring waiting periods brings out in the long run. At the moment, they take advantage of real-time reports on production failures and their duration. These reports have become the basis of their every morning meetings, where the reports are evaluated together with the machine maintenance subcontractor.

Employees must be tempted along

Some parts of machine monitoring require manual data input, that is, specifying failure reasons or waiting times. Lindström says that it was essential to point out to the employees that the bottom line was to get more out of their machines  - not to increase the employees' workload.

The machine monitoring system was taken as a means of protecting the workers' jobs. The rolling mill has also redesigned their production bonus system and, for the first time, a part of the bonus now depends on the utilisation rate. Lindström says that in response to the new system, employees have come up with many good, justified proposals for improving productivity.

For further information on Outokumpu Poricopper, see www.outokumpu.com.

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