Software pinpoints productivity problems
companies boost efficiency levels, its developer claims.
Parsec Automation Corp. says its TrakSYS 4.04 software includes additional capabilities that enable food and beverage manufacturers to rapidly boost capacity, improve productivity and asset use and reduce unit costs.
The software uses real-time performance management (RPM) techniques as a tool automated food and beverage plants can use to gauge productivity. Parsec Automation claims TrakSYS can help such plants pick out areas for improvement.
"Many food and Beverage plants believe they are operating at efficiency levels in the high 85 to 90 per cent range, according to their traditional methods of measurement, using operator collected data and excluding certain losses," said Parsec. " When these same plants switch over to overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which is a world-class metric of productivity, they often find that they are operating in the 50 to 70 per cent OEE range. By fully exposing all losses due to OEE's three components -- availability, performance, and quality -- the plant team is able to focus on the most critical issues that will produce real benefits for the business."
Scott Klages, Parsec's vice president, said the improvements include a complete personalisation of plant performance information based on job function using the Internet to deliver the data.
"This is important since ease of use, and the ability for users to quickly gain an understanding of the issues that are hindering performance, are keys to gaining user acceptance of such systems and acceptance and support lead to productivity growth within the factory," he said.
All of this is coming at the right time for the food and beverage industry, since many companies are investing in lean production techniques or other production improvement methods.
TrakSYS provides a set of tools that provides each performance team with accurate, real-time data so they can spend their time working on real improvements, rather than collecting and sifting through data manually, the company claimed.
In addition, TrakSYS includes tools that engage operators and maintenance technicians in the improvement efforts as well, with all team members focused on the same goal of boosting OEE.
"There is a tremendous multiplying effect associated between OEE improvement and profit improvement," Klages said. "For example, for a plant starting with an OEE of 50 per cent, a five point gain in OEE provides a 10 per cent boost in plant output per shift, and this can translate into a 60 per cent profitability gain for that particular product line."
