It’s a well-established maxim in manufacturing circles that the very act of measuring a desired outcome can have a positive effect on performance—at least, that is, in processes that involve humans. When team members know the score, competitive instincts tend to raise the bar. But to be effective, production monitoring technologies also need to incorporate safeguards against those who might opt to game the system for personal gain or stature.
Such production monitoring applications are common in high-margin manufacturing environments where programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems provide a ready platform. Still, these expensive PLC/SCADA systems do not display production line key performance indicators (KPIs) that are visible to all operators from a distance. And for less sophisticated, semi-automated manufacturing environments, the implementation of such solutions has often been deemed economically infeasible. That is, until now.
To tackle this need and opportunity, the engineering team at EZAutomation has complemented its market-leading marquee LED displays with the key tracking logic, data logging, real-time clock and integrity checks implemented in PLC firmware—at a price of only $999 for a marquee that includes two lines of ten 2-in., tri-color characters (pictured).
The aptly named Production Monitor does not require coding or development; just the input of five parameters, explains Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, EZAutomation chairman and founder. These include part number, shift hours, goal per hour, productivity limit %, and quality limit %. “Even a simple maintenance mechanic can set it up,” Optically isolated inputs provide production and quality counts via relay contact closure or DC input.
“Manager and employees know in real-time how they are doing,” Kumar adds. The marquee is readable from 100 ft. away, and the data can be displayed on a Wi-Fi enabled laptop within 50 ft. as well.
“With our vast experience with LED message displays, we can guarantee that the EZ Production Monitor will pay for itself in less than 1 month,” Kumar says. “We also embedded logic to automatically defeat tampering by line personnel—just enable ‘product sensor integrity check.’” Production data for a year is stored inside the EZ Production Monitor and can be readily retrieved as an Xcel file.
“Increased use of such Production Monitors will make American manufacturing more efficient to be able to compete with factories in China using much cheap labor,” Kumar adds.
In the Production Monitor, EZAutomation has created an innovative, cost-effective tool to improve the manufacturing efficiency of any plant. The Production Monitor stands alone in the market and is another testament to EZAutomation’s approach to innovative product design, Made in America.
For more information on the Production Monitor and other EZAutomation innovations, visit pdt.EZAutomation.com.
