SoftwareUpdateDeals, Openings, Acquisitions, Partnerships, Orders, Expansions, Awards

28 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | November 2013

Manufacturing Engineering: How crucial is it for manufac-

turers to use shop-floor data management today?

Greg Mercurio: One of the challenges we face every day is

trying to educate the manufacturing industry on how criti-

cal this data is. It’s at our fingertips and it’s not being utilized

because a lot of manufacturers think it’s too complicated or

it’s cost-prohibitive. In reality, it’s really available to us and the

cost has been driven down quite a bit. If we have the ability

to monitor e-mails and texts constantly 24/7 with our smart-

phones, why aren’t we monitoring the shop floor?

Shop owners can get this information from the factory floor

instantaneously to quickly resolve problems, put out fires, and

focus in on problem spots. It’s a critical piece, because every

second counts in manufacturing. Time is money, and the

challenge is everybody’s been doing this on paper. With the

technology we have, we can capture that data real-time, make

informed decisions and reduce problems with materials, tool-

ing, or sometimes company culture. It’s critical, because we

all want to be competitive. We find more and more of our cus-

tomers looking into this today because the technology’s there,

and the machine tools allow more of this capability today.

ME: Is it mostly larger manufacturers monitoring the floor?

Mercurio: In the past, it has been the larger companies

that were using it, because they can afford it. Typically you

would see costs for monitoring anywhere from $2000–$3000

per machine. These prices are if they’re simple machines. If

you’re dealing with older equipment that would require more

hardware, those costs could be in the area of $5000 per

machine. Technologies including wireless, barcode readers,

touch screens and tablets have started to drive implementation

prices down. IT departments are now involved with the shop

floor. They’re embracing wireless on the shop floor, where five

years ago, that wasn’t something that was typical—the shop

floor was isolated—and that has helped bring down the cost.

ME: How have cloud-based monitoring systems, like the

Scytec system you sell, helped reduce costs?

Mercurio: Customers are looking into utilizing the cloud.

We’re storing our data in the cloud more frequently these

days, and because cloud is being embraced, the costs are

being driven down. SFA is working with Scytec as the sales

arm for the cloud solution. We do the sales, the demos, and

help with all other aspects of customer service to ensure a

smooth implementation and ongoing success. One big dif-

ference with this approach is with Scytec DataXchange you

can try the system on many Ethernet-enabled machines for

a very low price and no long-term commitment. The initial

fee is $1000 and then for $45 a month per machine, you

can be set up in hours and quickly monitor that equipment.

Real-Time Manufacturing Data, Monitoring Systems Key to Shop-Floor Success

PASSWORD

“The reality is most shops run only at about 60-65% machine utilization.”

Greg Mercurio is president, Shop Floor Automations Inc. (SFA; La Mesa, CA), a distributor and service center for Predator manufacturing data collection software and the Scytec cloud-based shop monitoring system. He can be reached at gregm@shopfloorautomations.com.

SoftwareUpdateDeals, Openings, Acquisitions, Partnerships, Orders, Expansions, Awards

Typically when you’re buying an application, like Predator or

another application-based product, they charge you by seat

of the software—that can cost you $1000 per seat for licens-

ing, whereas in cloud-based

systems, there is no cost per

number of seats of the software

or users. It’s based on the num-

ber of machines connected, so

the cost is driven down.

ME: Who is your typical cloud

customer?

Mercurio: Customers range

from a few machines to mul-

tiple plants with hundreds of

machines. Many larger com-

panies, like Boeing, have a lot

of management to go through,

and approvals, they may want

to do a pilot. With an application-based system there are a

lot of up-front costs, and it can be anywhere from $5000–

$10,000 for a pilot. However, with a cloud-based system,

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30 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | November 2013

Software Update

The Scytec cloud-based monitoring system from Shop Floor Automations offers

users real-time views on key metrics including cycle times, spindle utilization,

and machine downtime.

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See us at FABTECH Booth #S4654

there’s nothing that we need to do except plug in your

network cable to your machine and you’re up and running.

The ability to do a pilot is much easier to do on a cloud-

based system, and there are no term contracts. So you can

do it month-to-month, or you can do

it for six months, there’s no long-term

commitment. If you have two ma-

chines in your shop and you want to

try it for a month, you give us $90 and

we’ll hook up your machine.

ME: What’s new with Predator’s

solutions for tracking and analyzing

shop-floor data?

Mercurio: Predator is an applica-

tion base, and works on the customer's

servers, databases and company

network. It’s our approach that not

every customer is ready for the cloud.

Maybe an application is best, and you

can afford it. Other people may want to

approach it cloud-based and try before

they buy.

With new machines coming out with

multiaxis machining capability and au-

tomation, Predator’s new CNC Service

is a new way to interface with these

types of equipment. Before there was a

lot of hardware involved, but Predator’s

embracing new technology, such as

MTConnect and FANUC FOCAS, which

are protocols that allow you to di-

rectly connect to the machine. There’s

technology that allows us to directly

track the control—to know exactly what

program it’s running, what the feed rate

is, what error codes are triggered in the

machine, so you can see in real-time

what’s happening on the machine.

ME: How does a shop-floor manage-

ment system differ from ERP or MRP

systems?

Mercurio: There is a distinction.

People get this confused because when

they see the term shop-floor manage-

ment, they think of business systems,

like an ERP and MRP system. We’re not interested in the

accounting side of things. For instance, typical systems will

tell you an operator clocked in at 8, clocked out at 3, and he’s

made 100 pieces. All you know from those business systems

“GibbsCAM software provides you with the powerful capability an wide range ofsupport you need to create real-world programs for your parts and YOUR

machines, while its industry-leading ease-of-use ensures that your employeesbecome more productive quickly. Together, as members of

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November 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 31

is that from a shop-floor management side, the guy ran his

machine for X amount of hours and made you 100 pieces,

and ideally you can react through scheduling.

What’s different about these shop-floor management

systems is we’re more machine-centric—we know exactly

what’s happening with the machine side of things. When we

go into companies we ask, ‘What is the business problem

you are trying to solve?’ and they’ll say, ‘We want to see

our utilization of the machines.’ How much time out of an

eight-hour shift are they really running? Is it 100%, 90%,

70%? The reality is most shops run only at about 60-65%

machine utilization. ME

New Releases

The new Celos line of applications will simplify and accel-

erate the process from an idea to finished product, according

to DMG Mori Seiki (Hoffman Estates, IL), which demonstrated

12 new Celos apps at EMO. The Celos applications will be

available for all new DMG Mori Seiki machines starting in the

second quarter 2014.

Celos applications include Status Monitor, Job Manager,

Job Assistant and others that will help with collection and

analysis of key shop-floor manufacturing data. With the

Celos Control app, customers are given the option to switch

to the usual control environment of the CNC by tapping on

an icon on a multitouch screen This Control app is avail-

able with Siemens Operate 4.5 offered with the Siemens

Sinumerik 840D solution line and on MAPPS V-equipped

Mitsubishi controls.

Gibbs and Associates (Moorpark, CA) announced Oct. 4

the availability of two new CAM options for GibbsCAM software

aimed at simplifying the five-axis programming used to make

turbomachinery parts. The user interfaces are optimized for

fast selection of geometry and toolpath parameters to program

machining of impellers, blisks (bladed disks) and blings (blad-

ed rings). These bladed parts, which are used in compressing

gas and liquids, or transporting them under pressurized flow,

are common components in the aerospace, automotive and

power generation industries.

Each of the software options targets different levels of

specialization and part complexity in bladed-part manufac-

turing. Gibbs’ 5-Axis MultiBlade Level 1 option is designed

for parts of simpler to moderate complexity, and the 5-Axis

MultiBlade Level 2 option increases the selectable toolpath

32 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | November 2013

Software Update

options to accommodate the most complex bladed parts,

which may have multiple smaller blades, known as splitters

and sub-splitters, between the main blades. The options

operate within GibbsCAM for five-axis machining centers and

multitask machines, and are available immediately.

Apriso Corp. (Long Beach, CA), developer of the FlexNet

manufacturing execution system (MES), on Sept. 26 an-

nounced availability of Apriso for Paperless Manufacturing.

Built on FlexNet, this new solution lets manufacturers better

manage complexities and details of plant floor operations

without paper. With this solution, engineers can better interact

with shop-floor operations by updating design and manufac-

turing instruction without paper-based sign-off processes.

Acquisitions

Invensys (Houston), a unit of Invensys plc (London) and a

supplier of industrial software, systems and control equipment,

announced Sept. 24 that it has acquired InduSoft (Austin, TX),

a developer of HMI and embedded device software. Financial

details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Software Update is edited by Patrick Waurzyniak: pwaurzyniak@sme.org.

34 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | November 2013

Software Update

GibbsCAM’s new MultiBlade option simplifies programming

of turbomachinery parts such as this impeller.

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