Turn Knowledge into Money: How Data Can Improve Your ROI

As Brad delivers his presentation, you'll be able to ask questions using the Q&A box that appears at the right hand side of your screen. That permitting, your questions will be answered following the presentation. If time runs out before we can get through all the questions, we'll make sure the answers are emailed to you. It could run long and go past the top of the hour. If we do, we hope you can remain with us. If you can't, you will receive an email later telling you how you can view the entire presentation. And if you experience any audio or visual difficulty during the live presentation, please let us know via the Q&A app. Also, if you have questions about any other aspects of our webinars, please email me at arooks@sme.org.

So let's begin. If you ask any shop owner what their CNC machine utilization is, chances are they'll significantly overall estimate the number. That isn't because operators are overly optimistic, it's just because it's too cumbersome to actually measure utilization data and monitor it for needed adjustments over time. Modern CNC technology has now afforded shop owners and operators an easy way to better understand their production operations, by allowing them to monitor the status of machine operations, predict maintenance needs, and make smart decisions and boost productivity and ROI.

Then lastly, we're going to talk about the Connect Plan. So this is Okuma’s solution for optimizing machine productivity and implementing a preventative maintenance system. First off, let's discuss these technologies that drive Industry 4.0 and IIoT. These technologies are built off of data. So data is the building blocks for these technologies, so let's just talk about that for a second.

To put it into context here, or to show you some examples of how we use these probably every day. So like I said, AI is the overall concept, machine learning, examples of that would be Spotify, or music streaming, or Netflix, or streaming of video content. They use machine learning to actually learn what interests you so that they can recommend content to you. So they use machine learning every day to try to push more information to you, "Hey, you might like to watch this, you might want to listen to this." So they're using machine learning algorithms to bring you that information. Then deep learning. Some examples of that would be the voice to text or facial recognition software that the iPhones have now. What that basically is is detecting a pattern. So it's looking at features of your face, the pigment of your skin to say, "This is Brian, this is Doug, this is Susan." So it's taking all of those patterns, and basically comparing it against its library to say this is you or this isn't you. So those are some of the technologies that allow you to analyze big data sets.

But why should these even matter to you? Why are these important? Because bottom line, what are we after? ROI. They can help you make money, like Jerry Maguire, "Show Me The Money". So that's number one here. So that's why you should really care about Industry 4.0 and IIoT, because using these practices has been proven to increase revenue to change your processes, and to help you realize things that you had no idea could be done before, so that's number one. Some other things, number two, it's probably going to utilize assets or resources that are already owned, that you already have control of. It just makes a scalable system for processes that you couldn't even measure before, so that's important. It also helps you identify potential issues, and kind of eliminate any kind of guesswork that might have had to be done in the past. This is actually a true model of automation. It's not just a similar concept though the definition of automation making an apparatus or a process to perform a function with minimal human assistance, minimal human intervention, it's software automation at its finest.

So maybe you're replacing filters and pumps and different things more than you should. Then really, you're just throwing away resources. So we want to be right in the middle. We want to find a nice balance between under-service of equipment that can lead to costly repairs and downtime, and over-service, which can exhaust resources that don't need to be. So let's try to find that balance, and a predictive maintenance system can help you do that. That's one option. Another option to consider would be prioritizing a scheduling system. So with a production software, with a scheduling software, you can add a predictive analytics module to that automate shop floor schedules. So what you could do with that would be actually accurately quote jobs more quickly, and utilize your equipment to its fullest potential with this analytics module. So it's scheduling software plus this AI module that would really tell you what to run and when to run it. When hot jobs come in, it gives you the power to know what to do. So that's another option for you. Then just one more, visibility and process enhancement.

So we're talking about operation visibility, you'd really be surprised when you create this enhanced visibility of your operations. Individuals are going to be able to identify roadblocks and probably advise potential solutions that were unforeseen before. So those challenges, those opportunities, at least give you the power to better prioritize what you want to take care of and whether you want to take care of it at all. So during my presentation here, what I'd like you to ask yourself is what provides the best value to you? What provides the best value to your business? Again in the next couple slides, we're going to talk about some digital metrics and shop floor productivity. Alright. The hidden factory. The first thing that you see probably one of the most visible things you see when you walk out onto the production floor, is this shop floor productivity. You see operators out there running machines, making good parts, hopefully. But you might think, “How can we improve operations to keep them busy, keep those spindles turning?” That's the tip of the iceberg here, because it's easily visible, but it's something that's important nonetheless. What you might not see is below the surface, what we're calling the hidden factory here. So what's below the surface? What's the bigger chunk of this iceberg? Digital metrics. When I say digital metrics I'm talking about, OEE, asset health, asset life remaining, and diagnostic capabilities.

So just to talk about those for a second. When we talk about OEE, we're talking about utilization ratio, we're talking about maximizing your production rate. So finding an optimum balance between cutting speeds, feed, depth of cut, tool life that hopefully overall decreases your unit production cost for one metric. We're also talking about performance, unit production time. How quickly are you pumping out those parts, cutting time versus non-cutting time, reducing setup times. Here you might find some opportunities for automation or upgrading your equipment. So that's performance as a metric. Also, quality… machine and part inspections. So we're talking about part tolerance, as close to spec as possible. We're also talking about machining accuracy, or implementing some type of closed loop feedback system, maybe a post process gauge system, to help monitor what's going on at the machine tool.

A few other things that I think kind of go off of the radar would be these at the bottom. Asset health, asset life, and then the diagnostics. So asset health, this affects the quality of your product and the performance of your process really. So an example, if you didn't change the oil in your car, if you didn't perform regular tune-ups, if you didn't inflate the tires, I'm guessing your vehicle’s performance is probably going to suffer. It's no different from machine tools. You can actually gather component data to gauge the overall health of your equipment so that it doesn't suffer. We're going to be talking about these preventative maintenance practices and collecting this data here in a little bit, but that's overall asset health. Now, asset life remaining would mean something like how much life is left in the spindle bearings, how much have they worn? So maybe they're at 80%, but you'll want to probably do something when it gets closer to 50%. Asset diagnostics--how quickly the problem can be identified, how quickly that identified problem can be fixed.

So we've talked about a few things here as far as options. So how do you know which option works best for you or which option should you choose? What we would recommend would be that you look for quick wins. So I've got a chart here that breaks down payback period to potential benefit. So on the x-axis, you see a slow payback period as compared to a fast payback period. On the y-axis, you see the benefit. Low to potential high payback. We've just grouped these here into quadrants. I've only included a few things here. I'm sure there's a lot of other metrics and measurements that can be included here. But to just talk about a few of these operator productivity, we've talked about product quality control, manufacturing and intelligence, asset maintenance and asset tracking. There's a ton of these that would fall in different quadrants on the map here, but let's talk about a few of them, and where you think would best suit your manufacturing needs. We would recommend that you'd want something with a fast payback period, with a high benefit. So instead of looking at all of them, let's actually just focus on that top right quadrant because those are the ones that we'll probably care about most.

So we'll talk about operator productivity and asset maintenance. So like we just saw in that iceberg slide, this is the most noticeable, it's the most visible, but look at everything else that could be significant with monitoring. Other things on this chart could be environment monitoring, smart metering or water management, climate control, energy management. But let's try to pick something that is a quick win, that provides a quick or fast payback with added benefit. Alright. So now you have a solution that provides value and hopefully is a quick win. Now, let's talk about a game plan once you've identified this. Here is your action plan to success. Think big, start small, prove value, and scale fast. All right. So think big, I want you to whiteboard your top initiatives. Settle on what you deem as reasonable to implement based on the current resources that you have, and just focus on more long term revenue, not necessarily short term gain. It needs to be a quick win, like we just talked about in the last slide, but we really want to look at long term revenue in the long run.

Think big, but then start small. Pick one thing. You don't need extensive resources to implement a fully integrated system. So an example, if you want better visualization of your operations, pick one assembly line, pick one machine, or pick one of your plants. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a complete overhaul of everything, It doesn't even mean that you have to completely change all of your processes, at least initially, you may want to in the future. But digitization is really designed to help identify problems to enable you to make educated decisions based on calculations, so we recommend to start small.

The next thing--prove value. So we need to prove that you can be profitable with this. Initially, this may be a difficult thing to grasp, because we've got ... A lot of companies are still realizing their total ROI. Each company has different goals and varying levels of investment into this technology. So let me just quickly add to this prove value, but be patient. Then lastly, scale fast. So once you get that win, once you've implemented a system that is effective, you’ve started with that one business unit, now you can gain traction. You can use that momentum to spread to other divisions, build on your successes. It's really important to be positive and instill confidence in your team. So hopefully, this process worked correctly for you. If it didn't, I want to add here, if you can't scale fast, fail fast. So it's not always going to be a win. But since you started small with one business unit, hopefully you didn't exhaust too many resources, and that you're able to kind of start from the drawing board again. So like I said, think big, start small, prove value, but be patient and scale fast or fail fast.

Just a small piece of advice when you're putting all of this together. It works really well (what we've seen) to have a small team of well-balanced individuals who have a deep understanding of your business. So we're talking about some type of cross functional team, as opposed to readjusting your entire org chart. You're going to also need to empower your IT teams. Hopefully you have one, If not, it's okay too. But they'll need to take ownership, because you're going to need their support throughout this process. As we continue to talk about data, and networks, and cloud infrastructures, and things like that, you're going to need their support. So now we've got the plan. Now, I'd like to take you through one of these solutions that we mentioned earlier, specifically preventative maintenance.

So this is taking you from a reactive environment to a prescriptive environment. So let's talk about what that looks like. So the transition from reactive to prescriptive. Again, I have a nice detailed chart here, the x-axis you see the reactive to prescriptive and the y-axis, low cost or high cost. I'll leave anything in between to your imagination there. So as we move from left to right across this, as we transition from a reactive to a planned or a condition-based system, this is fairly easy to do. It's just incorporating logic into your system. So it's really using the assets that you already have, your current resources and incorporating some type of logic to using those. So it is fairly simple to move from a reactive to a planned or condition-based. I'll show you some examples of how we do it here at Okuma.

Let's move from condition now to predictive. This transition, again, you don't need to change your process, some of the same rules apply, but now you're actually using raw data to make informed decisions. Here's where a potential cost comes in. So here, you're probably going to need to implement something, you're going to need to partner with someone, you're going to need vendors that can provide some type of analytics software to help you use what you've got, so that's where you can incur some cost.

Now let's move from a predictive to a prescriptive maintenance system. All right. Now, this is where you're going to see a lot of change, but this is also where the most growth can occur. Here you're going to gain insights on everything that your business has been doing. The prescriptive analytics provide you with data backed decisions that you can weigh against various models. So here it's actually taking learned models and comparing to previous results. Again, added cost here, but you can step through the process here, you lead to that prescriptive maintenance practice. Alright. Let's go through each of these really quick. Reactive maintenance. Unfortunately, a lot of us live in this world: you walk out onto the shop floor, you look in the lathe and the turret is in the chip pan. I guess it's time to call the maintenance team. Not ideal, right? We want to move away from this reactive environment to more of a proactive system where we can see these kind of issues hopefully before they happen, before it becomes a major issue because you'll have unplanned downtime--costly repairs for the machine.

The only benefit to I guess if there is one, you're keeping your service department on their toes, so there's that. I'm sure they don't appreciate it, but I guess that's the benefit. Let's move the dial. Let's go into planned. So if we want a planned maintenance system, now we've got something that we can work with. Now every three months or so, you're checking hydraulic pressure, you're checking the oil level, you're checking coolant concentration, you're following some type of guide system. You might follow the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule for some items, step in the right direction. A benefit on your Okumas is its free software on new machines. So it's actually included on new Okuma machines. If you've got a machine that was produced in the past 10 or 15 years with a P-series control, you can actually download a free app from our app store and install it onto the machine for a planned maintenance system.

If you're looking on the new machines, this software as you see on the screen is called OSP suite. It's the maintenance feature of OSP suite. It gives you exactly what we're talking about--a list of things that need to get done or PM'ed as a set interval. So we're moving the dial here. Let's continue to do that. Now let's move into a condition-based maintenance system. Now we're actually looking at machining time, or part count, or tool wear. Here's a step in the right direction as well. So another benefit to you for the Okumas is again free onboard software. So this comes free to you with the purchase of a new Okuma, again, in the OSP suite maintenance system. So here we're tracking the time interval for all of these components, all of these features that need to be maintained every once in a while. Now we've got metrics or time in place that will alert you when that component has met its life cycle. Again, we're taking steps in the right direction, let's keep going with this. Predictive maintenance. Now we're getting somewhere, now we're getting better. So now we're talking about connected sensors.

What I'm showing you on the screen is the Okuma monitoring and control system. Basically, we can plug in analog or digital sensors, take your pick, into the OSP control, and set user limits on all of these values. That's great. But along with that, what you'd want to add would be a preventative maintenance service or the analytics that take that raw data from the machine tool and analyze it. So you've got free defined constraints on the machine tool with some type of analytics system, now we're looking at predictive. So that's live readings, plus analytics. So using these connected sensors, you can trend vibration, lubrication, acoustics, any kind of motor conditions, current pH concentration, temperature mapping, take your pick. Like I said, you can plug in any kind of analog or digital sensor into that system. So there's your predictive maintenance system.

Let's move on to the best we've got, prescriptive maintenance, probably a new term. So when we talk about prescriptive, we're talking about AI based, specifically, machine learning. This takes diagnostic models from a cloud service, and basically compares that with your machine tool, but it learns as you use it. We've got these technologies called spindle AI and ball screw AI. Again, technically it's machine learning, but we're calling it AI, because it is under the category of AI. Or detecting failure patterns to eliminate failures to help you to be proactive with maintenance processes. So now we're actually able to predict when that ball screw is going to fail before it happens. So using embedded sensors, using this AI diagnostic model with this cloud service, you're able to get these alerts before something happens, so this is what we talk about when we say prescriptive maintenance. So it uses machine learning to predict failure before it happens. So there's your predictive maintenance system. So hopefully, you'll take some steps here to see if you can move from more of a reactive to a prescriptive maintenance system.

All right, next topic, Okuma Connect Plan. What we're talking about here is operator productivity and incorporating some of these preventative maintenance procedures and making it visible to you. Here's a breakdown of what the Okuma Connect Plan can do for you. So this is making everything more visible to you. It's a very reliable method to carry out any kind of preventative maintenance and help you prevent unexpected downtime. It gives you a basic layout of all of your machines. So it's a quick view of your shop floor. It gives you a summary of all of the machines, so basic operation green, yellow, red. It gives you a list of each machine’s status, and I'm going to get into these features here in the next couple slides. We'll break down what the software looks like. But it also gives you the ability to review and compare machines and export all of this information as well. So let's just take a look at what this Connect Plan software looks like.

First off, you have this factory map. So like I said, green, yellow, red, a quick indicator of what's running, what's not. Another thing that you can visualize from this factory monitor display here is which machines need PMs. So very quickly, I can see right here in the middle of your screen, that red icon, that red oil can looking guy in the middle of the screen. That means that a maintenance item is past due. You're going to want to take care of that immediately because there's a PM that needs to be done. If you saw a yellow icon there on the screen, that would mean there's a PM that needs to be done next week or in the next few weeks. So that way you're able to actually plan ahead of time, you plan downtime before the machine goes down. So there's kind of a nice view that you can use to implement into any kind of preventative maintenance system.

You can also customize that view. So if you didn't like that view, you could literally take pictures of different areas of your shop, so you can really break this down by process, by area, by line and connect various areas of the shop into the system and view it how you wish. So that's the factory map. Machine status. We've got a lot of different reporting capabilities in the system, and this is just one of them to easily locate underperforming machines. So right away, you're going to come to this page and see the machines that are highlighted in red. The one’s in e-stop condition, and the other one has an alarm. You're also going to easily see which machines are running, which are not, and the operating rate of each of these. That's a quick view of the status of each of these machines. You can also quickly kind of see which alarms have occurred on each of these machines as well throughout the course of the day, the month, the week, the year. Next is, operating reports. Again, there's a lot of reporting capabilities in this. This is another one that allows you to see runtime, alarm time, and stoppage time. Also, cutting and non-cutting time, from today, from yesterday, from whenever.

So what's important about this is if there is a stoppage. It also provides another level of detail, it provides some granularity to that stoppage. So it tells you that the machine was in setup mode, or it was in a standby mode, or it was in maintenance. It tells you why that stoppage has occurred. So obviously, you're going to want to look at this and figure out how you can reduce setup times from looking at this information. You're also going to see cutting and non-cutting times, so you're also going to try to reduce non-cutting times to bump up your OEE. So that's operating reports there.

Another great feature about this Connect Plan software is the ability to drill down into machines and find out what happened, to trace those conditions that led to a machine stoppage, so that you can minimize the occurrence of maybe reappearing alarms in this case. So I go to this page, this alarm history, and I'm going to be able to see all of the alarms that have occurred for this specific machine. So if I would click on one of those alarms, it's going to give me the detailed information about that specific alarm, as you would see from the machine control. So I would also be able to see the alarm code, how many times it’s happened. You're going to want to reduce the amount of alarms that are happening, but this is a very quick indicator to tell you what's going on at the machine tool level.

Then operation history. I already said we can really drill down into the machines and figure out what's going on at the machine level. This is an overall view, but if I were to click on one of those machines, I would actually be able to see every single button that that operator was hitting on that machine, every single offset that was being made on that machine through this system. So I can go through and figure out what had happened to cause that crash, or why setup time took so long by drilling down into machine specific conditions. It's also going to tell you who was logged into the machine by the way, which is probably pretty important. Another metric, another report I should say, would be machining reports. So you get a list of each machine’s last program that was ran, how long it ran, the cutting time, non-cutting time, machining time, lots of great information. But what you can do with that is compare it against previous run states. So I could take a machine from this week. So I would take this week's data from that machine tool and compare it to last week's.

I would be able to compare runtime against alarm time, I guarantee you're going to see some correlations there between runtime and alarm time. So it gives you a comparison tool from past history so that you can easily check the effect of any kind of improvements that have been made. So another great reporting tool in the system. Like I said, you can export any of these results. So I can take any machine, any one machine, or the entire group of machines and export all of those as a CSV file, or as an Excel file, and then take that information into your ERP system, your management system, what have you. So you can export it as a customized report for any kind of analytics that you'd want to perform after the fact. So very easy to do as well.

So very quickly, what did we just talk about with Connect Plan? What are the benefits to you? You view uptime and downtime of your entire shop floor anytime, anywhere. By the way, this thing is browser-based. So you don't even need to be on premise to view this information. You can be anywhere and view what I've just showed you here today, and you can share that same information across multiple departments. We're not limiting users to this information. I can drill down into machine-specific events, these alarms that we talked about which buttons the operators were hitting, it's very granular information, so that you can see alarms stoppages, offset changes, or feed-rate overrides as well. Instant notifications when maintenance is due. So the ability to track PMs that have expired or that are near expiration across the shop floor.

Then lastly, these custom reports. So for anything that you'd want to do after the fact, it's very easy to take any of these reports and export that as basically an Excel file so that you can take that into whatever other system you have. So it's formatted for you very easily. So those are the benefits of the Okuma Connect Plan software. Let's just wrap up here with a few ending thoughts. So to summarize everything that we went over today here… We talked about Industry 4.0, and the Industrial Internet of Things. We talked about value. So choose a solution that provides the most value to you, try not to get scope creep. Remember the action plan of think big, start small, prove value, be patient, and scale fast or fail fast. We talked about preventative maintenance, taking steps toward a smarter manufacturing environment. So moving from a reactive environment to a predictive or prescriptive environment. Then finally, the Okuma Connect Plan for operator productivity and predictive maintenance.

I appreciate your time today. So what we're trying to do here at Okuma is really to educate our customers on the value of digital manufacturing solutions. We're trying to demonstrate our capabilities, and we're trying to drive innovation, and this is how we do so. Thank you very much for your time. Alan, I will pass it back over to you.

Well, thank you, Brad. Thanks for a great presentation. We have received some questions and we'll try to get through all of them before our time is up. So let's start with this one which is: Some operators might say, "Our maintenance system works fine. It doesn't need to be changed." How can you convince skeptical personnel that database maintenance is a better approach?

Show the value. I'm sure that people are very content with continuing things the way you're operating right now, but you have to show the value of anything. So as an example, what we talked about with the Okuma maintenance system. If you had the ability to be instantly notified when something needed to happen, at least that gives you the choice to fix it or not. At least you know about the problem. I think visibility is really key there. So we're adding visibility across multiple different devices and making it an easy platform for you to access. So visibility is key. You have to show people that there's value in that visibility.

Okay, terrific. Thanks for that answer. Our next question is: Can Connect Plan operate with other machine tools besides to Okuma? Also, can you connect older legacy equipment?

Great question. So that's actually something that I didn't mention here in the presentation, but yes it can. So we can actually connect different vintages of controls and different control series into Connect Plan. We're not very limited when it comes to that, I'll say.

When we're talking about older vintages of controls, what we might need to do is actually add some type of hardware adapter, depending on the age of that the equipment, because a machine that was manufactured and built 35 years ago, does not have the means to connect via Ethernet to the system that we've got in place here with Connect Plan. We may have to actually take the discrete IO from that machine and transmit that via MTConnect. So we're very open with what we can connect in this Connect Plan system, however, it might limit the amount of data that you're able to collect in the system. So the new machines, you're going to have a very vast or open array of data that you can pull. On legacy, or old equipment, or maybe other controls, it's probably going to be just a little bit limited when it comes to the data that we're able to pull from those devices. But either way, we're very open to connecting to anything that you've got.

Okay, great. That's another incentive to upgrade your equipment. Next question. Oh, sorry, I just started to step on your answer there.

No, you didn't, you're absolutely right.

Alright. Our next question is: How do you license your software (factory monitor or Connect Plan), and what is the ballpark cost?

So I'd ask that you probably reach out to your Okuma distributor, your local Okuma distributor when it comes to costs. I only say that because I don't know which machines and devices you are interested in connecting, like I said, we're very open. It could be 2 machines, it could be 20, it could be 30. The cost is going to be varying according to what you're actually trying to connect. So I'd recommend you first reach out to your local Okuma distributor. If you don't know who that is, you can actually go to okuma.com, and from there, find your distributor based on your zip code. I'd say reach out to them first, and we're going to have to know what you're actually interested in connecting, because the cost is going to vary accordingly.

Sounds good. Now, the first part of that question is about licensing, Is that also dependent on?

Thanks, Alan, sorry about that. So it actually operates on your local server and you purchase a license for that server. So the license gets connected to that server system, and that's a onetime thing. It's not a “by user” license fee or a monthly subscription, or anything like that. So you purchase the install of this plan. As I mentioned, it's browser-based. So you just control who has access to that server system, and you can share that with multiple people in your organization.

Okay, great. Alright. We're right at the top of the hour. We'll answer one more question, and then any questions that come in after that, we can get back to you via email. So our last question is: How is data secured in the system?

I would imagine they're probably talking about the Okuma Connect Plan when they're talking about securing data. So it's stored locally on your server system. So what we do is we work with your IT team to help you basically store that data on your local server and protect it. We are there for the install, and we're also there to provide advice on properly securing that data and that content, but it is owned by our customers. It's owned by you, so it's nothing that Okuma takes ownership of. I hope that answers the question. If not, I can reply to that via email.

Okay, great. Well, thanks for that answer. That's all the material we have to go over at this time. So thank you again, Brad, for sharing your knowledge with us. We really appreciate it.

Thank you, Alan. I appreciate it.

Alright. We'd also like to thank our listeners for joining us as well. As I mentioned just a few minutes ago, any questions that come in after this point or questions we didn't get to, will be passed along to Brad and the Okuma America team and you can expect a reply via email. The entire webinar will be available for replay by 4:00 PM Eastern Time. You can access it by using the same sign in link used earlier. We'd like to thank you all for joining us on this SME Media webinar, we hope you found it informative. We encourage you to sign into future SME Media webinars. Have a great afternoon everybody.