最近，我们有机会与机械学用户和潜在客户举办活动，以了解制造业领导者如何利用数字技术来提高运营效率。我们的“让我们获得数字化”活动取得了巨大的成功，使当地制造商能够进行亲自游览AccuRoundsfacility, as well as network with colleagues at Trillium, a local brewery. (Stay tuned: We’ll be hosting more of these in-person events in the future!)
We also held a panel with several manufacturing leaders to better understand the driving factors behind digitizing their operations and leveraging data to make better decisions. This was complemented by a presentation by our very own Rob Urbani, a Senior Value Engineer, who outlined a framework for measuring the ROI of digital solutions.
Below we share a couple of the questions and answers from our panel. Thanks again to our three guest panelists for their insights:
 |
 |
 |
| Morgan Waldau, Production Engineer at Waters Corporation | 精确的所有者兼首席执行官Mike Tamasi | Bruce Watkins, President & GM at Karl Storz |
MachineMetrics was already part of the shop operation when I joined Waters. The concept behind it was that we weren’t optimizing machine capacity, and we didn't know why. We knew there had to be a better way than sending an engineer to the shop floor to check each machine's run status manually. It was an issue of visibility and opening up that line of communication between operators and management to learn where we need to improve. We wanted a tool to help realize increased utilization to recapture those hours.
为什么我们选择MachineMetrics,我们喜欢吃晚饭porting businesses close to us. We also thought the customer service would be better. And that's been proven every time we ask for something or suggest an idea. This has always been the case when dealing with MachineMetrics, and that's not something you can always do in a bigger business. The benefit of working with a smaller, agile company was great.
When I was in college, computers were my MachineMetrics. As an owner, you're always looking for the latest, greatest opportunity and what will make your company better, and how to progress. We're in a high-cost labor market and are always looking at technology.
We reviewed MachineMetrics a few years ago, and we weren't ready. Fast forward three or four years, and MachineMetrics had come a long way. They were established, and we were more prepared. After reviewing several MachineMetrics competitors, we realized they were now the leader and the most mature solution. I think we're in year four, and we're still just scratching the surface of what the platform can do for us.
I've been with Karl Storz for 15 years and in high-tech, precision manufacturing for 38. When I came to Karl Storz, I realized that doing business in New England isn't the cheapest endeavor. If all we're going to do is copy what other people are doing, I thought “we're dead and may as well go offshore.”
We began with GBMP, the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, and got a workforce training grant to help train our people in lean philosophy. We vertically integrated manufacturing for our small sports medicine business even though others advised us to keep our core competency and outsource everything else.
We made a conscious decision to stay in New England and convert and integrate a lot of our screw machine parts businesses. We started with data analytics using Excel. But we quickly outgrew that, which led us to MachineMetrics. I love MachineMetrics because they came and set up at no cost so we could experience it. The cost model was very affordable and was like a pay-as-you-go model.
当你谈论的数据,我们正在努力做世界卫生大会t MachineMetrics does with their platform on paper. Everything was manual and handwritten. We were looking at two-day to three-day-old data, and it was too late to make decisions.
进行机械测量法可以使我们能够与地板上的团队成员更有效地进行沟通，因为实时使用硬数据使我们能够做出更好的决定。需要一分钟，一小时，甚至每天都要一分钟做出决定。这是高度挑战的。
With MachineMetrics, we could have a conversation at the machine because we're looking at a process and not looking at a person's performance. We started small with ten machines, and we now have 27, and we’ll go to 35 or so soon.
What's important at the front end is including people in the decision-making process. Try to involve as many as possible. And from a systems integration standpoint, the future of our success will be to integrate different systems, hardware, and software and accelerate process flow. And because our ERP system talks to MachineMetrics, it opens doors to communication and allows workflows. Those are important considerations as you look to implement any data analytics solution.
At first, this was met with resistance, and operators were really against it. They felt like they were being monitored like Big Brother. But once MachineMetrics was deployed and operational, the operators realized it was protecting them because scrap was much lower. In fact, they were applauded for it because we need that information.
这反映在生产过程ses. If an operator takes longer to set up, that isn’t necessarily on them; that may also be the process. I think it was a good segue though to the future of our machine shop because we want to implement more technology.
这有助于为我们的决定提供信息，因为我们正在考虑引进机器人。MachineMetrics是将新技术引入商店的绝佳方式。我不认为我们有如此重要的事情，在过去的几十年中，这会给他们带来震惊，因此这是商店前进的良好开端。
Again, the machine shop is vertically integrated into our business, captive to the main light assembly facility. Each machine in our facility has a contribution margin annually of about $800,000. Every machine we bought has paid for itself in less than a year. We have about 20 machines. And we have about 300 parts that we do on those 20 machines. So, set up reduction management is absolutely critical.
MachineMetrics has allowed us to stay in the space of facts and objective evidence and not emotions. It allows us to use those facts to manage and improve performance on those setups. That's where it's helped us focus on the data and not just the hallway, emotions, and conversations about a good and a bad setup.
The advantage is in starting small. That's what's great about the upfront investment with MachineMetrics.
幸运的是，我们能够从活动中捕捉镜头。观看下面的视频，直接听到Morgan，Mike和Bruce对机械学对商店地板及其底线的影响。
Ready to empower your shop floor?
Learn More.svg)
注释