Thermoforming efficiency: a matter of data

Team WM Thermoforming Machines SA discuss in this guest blog about Thermoforming efficiency.

Having the data is not the same as being able to analyse and use them to improve procedures and production.

Applying the Pareto Principle, we could say that 20% of the problems cause 80% of the losses.

The market requires fast decisions and practical actions, but without real data there is no true improvement in the rationalisation process.

Industry 4.0 has brought machine manufacturers and their customers to work together to create effective systems to analyse, manage and improve operational efficiency.

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WM can provide the end-user with thousands of machine data, thanks to the OPC UA protocol, a data exchange standard that connects Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI), servers, clients, and other machinery to increase interconnectivity and information flow.

But WM has decided to go one step further, and realise also a final analysis that enables the Customer to collect concrete data to define machine efficiency.

The WM team had to define the most significant machine data that were to be integrated with the production data and could be entered by the operators on-board the machine.

These data, which define Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), are Availability x Performance x Quality.

• Availability = Total machine operative mode time / Machine effective run time
• Performance = Normal forming speed / Actual forming speed
• Quality = Total product output / Actual good product

An effective factory is one with a high Overall Equipment Effectiveness.

The result is a very efficient system of data collection, management and processing in real time

To offer specific support to all customers and their needs, WM has teamed up with a technological partner highly skilled at data integration, the Italian company PiùSviluppo, which will assist the customer in the process of data integration in the company CRM.

A turnkey integration in accordance with Industry 4.0, which in many European countries also enables the machine purchaser to access tax and business incentives.