Machine Truth^TM is very simply the automated gathering of data directly from the factory floor machine in a manner that accurately describes what that machine is doing at that time. Types of Machine Truth^TM data include the run speed, production count, scrap count, etc. Machine Truth^TM can be gathered from sensors or directly from the PLC. The important thing is that it is automatically gathered, it is accurate and unbiased, and it is the absolute truth of what the machine is doing at all times.

Why is this important? Often times we hear from Plant Managers that they know what is going on at the factory floor because they gather data manually and record it in their ERP system or their Excel Spreadsheet for processing. They feel this gives them the visibility they need. Unfortunately they are wrong. Our experience has been that manually collected data is invariably inaccurate and this inaccuracy is costing the plants real money.

Here is a straight forward example. This diagram shows what was collected by the operator – the blue area is the set up time, the green the time running time and the red the downtime. Now the production manager realized they were not producing what they should have been. His conclusion was that they were not running fast enough. So he asked his team to run the machines faster.

In this next diagram, the automatically collected data, for the exact same time period, is shown. The difference is immediate. The setup time was longer; there same two major areas of downtime are visible but more importantly there were a number of smaller slivers of downtime that were not recorded. There problem was not run speed, it was downtime. This customer was spending real CI dollars on trying to improve in the wrong area. They were spending money on improving run speed http://www.shoplogix.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=768&action=edit when they should have been focused on downtime. They were chasing CI ghosts.

Why was the incorrect data manually recorded? Was it the operator deliberately attempting to protect himself? Possibly, but this hasn’t been our experience. Another plant was in a similar situation. They were packaging gum and they believed they could produce more but were unsure as to why they could not. In a similar manner to the above, they collect data automatically and found they had more downtime than expected – their shift was littered with slivers of downtime. When the operator was approached as to why he did not record these slivers of downtime, he responded it was because the machine jams and it had always jammed and he never recorded it because he thought that was just how the machine operated. When they investigated as to why it was jamming, they determined it was because the gum was too big. The plant manager moved up the line to ask why they were making the gum too big. The operator responded that they were making the gum to the specification provided. When asked if they could make the specification tighter, the simple answer was, yes of course. The result: the slivers of downtime disappeared and production increased. Machine Truth ^TM provides the visibility necessary to make the right decision.

Having Machine Truth ^TM enables key personnel to ask the right questions and to stop spending CI dollars in wrong area.