1 post from August 2009

I wrote in a previous blog that we have become a partner to Shoplogix to implement their product Plantnode. The best way to describe it is as a ‘device’ that captures machine performance data and presents it in via the web through an outstanding user interface.

As a business we very much like to row our own boat and only enter into channel partnerships it we believe we can do them justice – we don’t collect logos as trophies to put on our website. It’s testament therefore to the quality and usefulness of the Plantnode product that we are fully committed to promoting it.

All manufacturing companies right now are looking to improve their performance and Plantnode reveals ‘machine truth’ by attaching sensors to the machine and collecting data automatically. If you are involved, or have ever been involved, in data collection that is manual for operational improvement activities then you will know that the greatest barrier to improvement is the veracity of the data. With manual data collection the machine operators are often relying on memory to record the job data such as set-up time and run time. They almost certainly record the ‘big stops’ that prevents the machine running but not the ‘little stops’ – and this is an area that can be attacked to improve OEE. Automated data collection overcomes this by recording when the machine is running or not and allowing the operator, through a simple barcode scan, to record the reason for the downtime. With Plantnode alerts can be sent via email or SMS so if a particular event requires an engineer the scan will prompt a rapid response.

Having been an IT Director for a major packaging company the stand out thing about Plantnode that I really appreciate is the ease of implantation for the IT department. I well recall the multitude of demands coming from the business regarding ‘systems’ required that were often ill thought out or simply resource hungry. I was often in the position whereby I was defending the fact that we didn’t have the people available to give support to ‘business initiatives’ whilst also coming under attack for not cutting my costs. If ever there was a rock and a hard place this is it. Anyway, a Plantnode implementation for the IT department consists of providing an Ethernet connection (so it’s on your network and the interface can be presented through a web browser) and a VPN connection (to allow remote support). This is as light as it gets and you, as an IT ‘bod’, get the credit for helping the business!

I have the pleasure of demonstrating Plantnode to prospective users and when I was contemplating how best to do this in the early days I thought it would be good to give a ‘live’ demonstration on a real piece of ‘machinery’. I spent some time thinking about the best way to do this and eventually came up with the idea of a marble run. This works a treat in that I take a small marble run into the demonstration, connect it to Plantnode, and then start and stop the machine, record the downtime reasons and show in real-time the benefit of automated data collection. Mind you, it took a few days before I alighted on the idea of a marble run. There were a couple of false starts – a handheld fan for instance (too boring) a Lego Mindstorm machine (too noisy). Looking for inspiration I typed ‘adult’ and ‘toys’ into my favourite search engine and was about to press enter when my subconscious interrupted and saved me from huge embarrassment by suggesting the marble run.

At the end of September we are going to be demonstrating Plantnode at the PPMA show at the NEC in the UK. I’ve gone one further than my marble run and commissioned a work of art – it’s a rolling ball sculpture that will, I think, show off Plantnode at its best whilst also being a great deal of fun. There is a video of the rolling ball sculpture on Youtube – take a look.

If you are coming to the NEC in Birmingham for the show then come and see it live – and introduce yourself – I’d be delighted to meet you.