In a recent project to improve productivity at Omron’s Kusatsu plant, engineers wanted to support anecdotal reports from plant-floor operators with real-time information. Their goal was to identify and assess continuous improvement projects with real-time data. To realise this, the factory traced products through the manufacturing processes to analyse where improvements can be made.

Using this information, a spreadsheet, driven by a combination of Sysmac NJ SQL Client and Microsoft Big Data software helped the factory reduce resources needed to identify and implement production improvements.

Improvement in Productivity

“Innovation in manufacturing is ultimately improvement of productivity,” says Masaru Takeuchi, Automation Systems Division HQ Senior General Manager of Omron. “The experience and intuition of experts take a major role in improvement activities at production sites. However, the improvement points that the experts cannot identify are hidden in the bottlenecks which hinder production efficiency. To overcome this and promote further improvements, we needed objective data.”

To meet this need, Omron embarked on a new application of the Sysmac NJ series of integrated Machine Automation Controllers, specifically models with built-in SQL client services that allow a machine or system to log data directly into databases running on a server without any middleware or PC.

The solution uses Microsoft SQL Server and Excel software to consolidate the logs, which are collected from devices on a production line and linked with each product, into the database and can graph the logs in real time. “Some people may avoid Business Intelligence (BI) due to complications. We, however, aimed to visualize actual manufacturing processes based on the Sysmac NJ Controller in real time and to create the solution that enables on-site workers to easily graph the data,” says Mr. Takeuchi.

Go here to download the Omron case study

Find more Omron Automation products at 999 Automation