Shop floor to cloud connect for live monitoring the production data of CNC machines

ABSTRACT

Manufacturing industry is at its most exciting times with digital revolution. Man, machine, material and tools have to co-ordinate with each other seamlessly to maximize efficiency in a mass production environment. Various theoretical models are in practice to measure efficiency of equipment, gauging, services, maintenance, etc. While all the theoretical models are quite accurate in their approach to measuring the activities, they lagging behind in the process of data collection. The data collection methods are manual and not accurate. In this paper, a model is arrived at to collect live data of production, rejection and idle time in a machine tool with the help of electronic sensors. Effort is made to enhance operator engagement by compelling the operator to feed data so that the data collection becomes closed loop. As all data are digital in nature, meaningful information is sent to the management through an Internet of Things platform. This paper focuses on the digital data flow from the shop floor to management through the Cyber Physical System, enabling smart manufacturing in a mass production environment. The proposed model has been implemented and validated in a mass production set-up, engaged in manufacturing plug shell components.

KEYWORDS:

• Industry 4.0
• cyber physical systems
• production data monitoring system CNC machine
• overall equipment efficiency

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support and contributions of Distinct Productivity Solutions, Bangalore, India, to carry out the research and validate the same.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.