OnTakt President’s Corner: Machine Performance Review

In this video, I dive into the daily operations at the shop, highlighting machine performance and addressing issues. I showcase how I manage alarms, schedule adjustments, and tackle downtime issues to ensure smooth operations. Watch to see how I handle unexpected situations and optimize machine productivity. No action requested, just insights into our shop’s daily workings.

Full Video Transcript

Howdy, welcome to President’s Corner, this is Nathan Byman and this is where I just highlight some of the things that I see and I look at every day when I am glancing in at the shop.

So I have done a filter down to a subset of machines. And um looking at those, this is just for the current day, here’s some of the things that uh that I see. So we had a couple alarms here that I could look at, but the reality is this machine is producing great today so I don’t need to put anything any attention into that.

This machine just entered an alarm state, it stopped 2 minutes and 30 seconds ago, I can pop down and take a look, oh actually, sorry about that, somebody already dealt with it, so if I, wanted to see what the alarm state was, I would have to actually hop into the machine here and see that there was an alarm, but even though I just did that, I wouldn’t have normally because somebody took care of it and advanced the machine. Okay, one thing I do notice though is it is running behind schedule, so it looks like by this green line it’s running faster than our target, but it started late.

Now, I know from our shop that this part is manually loaded, so this is basically midnight in our shop if I look at this schedule. So, lights out, but then they started, and man, they’ve been having a great day here. But I don’t want to penalize them for that, so I’m going to show you quickly how I’m going to turn the shift off for that machine.

So I drop this down, I hit shifts, I’m going to go over here to assignments, and that is TMA-2 chopper. I’ll see and I’ve got it set so that, I’m expecting it to make parts around the clock. And it also, we’re not manned through the weekend, so only one shift Saturday, one shift Sunday, and then the others are drop-in shifts. So I wouldn’t expect that machine to get picked up.

So I hit OK, and, booder do, booder do, booder do. And, we pop on back, and much better. OK. So now, I’m not expecting it to run when it’s not expected to run, and it’s doing great. So, feel good about that. This machine, TMA-4, I’ve got some of this pink shade, which means that we have recorded downtime.

So I jumped into the machine. And I scroll down, and I am curious what that is. And that is a false coolant alarm from a flow sensor. Now, conveniently, even while I’ve been recording, the manufacturer of that flow sensor has dropped by our shop. So, again, I happen to know it’s internally that that sensor is registering a zero, flickering down to a zero flow, while there is still flow in the machine.

So, that is problematic. It is a false sensor reading, and it is costing me money. And we record that, and the dollars are automatically attributed. So, right now, one of our team is having a pointed conversation with that sensor manufacturer about the specific dollars that it’s costing us.

So, hooray for that. Alright, now this one, a little interesting, this is actually a Swiss machine, and I’m I expect it to just run a green line, tracking that blue line flawlessly. It should be running around the clock, but it’s not. So, we got a gap here. So, I’m going to jump in and take a look.

Okay, hit an alarm. I’m curious what that is. They got everything running again. It’s on there. And schedule, but what are we talking about there. So, I can click on it, or I can scroll down and I’ll see a list of them below. But this is failed preflight. And, I am so excited about machine preflight, trademark, I think. I think one of the coolest things to hit systems like this in a long time.

So, basically, I’ve already checked on this this morning. But, this is a little 1mm end mill. it was due for a tool change. There were not enough, uh, parts that it could have made, uh, to, uh, make the night. So, the machine stopped itself. And, regardless of what tool management system you have on the controller. To see it from a distance, and have this level of control across all machines, and all makes and models, uh, of equipment, is incredible. So, I’m clicking around on the alarms. I’m gonna just show, like, I click on the part before. For that one to be completed, I look at the tools, and oh, oh I said 1mm, 6, 6.25, sixteenth of an inch in mil.

Um, yeah, it reached the end of its life, and preflight stopped it. So, it would do the same thing for maintenance items, but here, I close it up, uh, and when the guys show up in the morning, change the tool, get it going.

Alright, just a little bit of how we see the world, uh, and use this every day. Thanks for watching.