In the daily production and operation of enterprises, equipment efficiency is always the top concern for managers.

Efficient operation and orderly management of equipment can greatly promote the healthy development of enterprise production and operation. However, facing complex factory environments, it is exceptionally difficult for managers to cover all aspects of equipment management comprehensively.

On the afternoon of April 11, 2022, Alps System Integration (Dalian) Co., Ltd. (referred to as "ALSI") hosted an online seminar titled "Do you know why equipment efficiency is low?" on the China Industrial Control Network. Dr. Zhang Xiaowei, ALSI's research leader and a Ph.D. in Computational Engineering from the Department of Information Science and Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology, discussed issues related to improving production equipment efficiency with participants in the live broadcast and proposed practical solutions.

This seminar attracted participants from multiple industries such as electronic equipment manufacturing, mechanical processing, and the automotive industry. The content was comprehensive and in-depth. Through this seminar, everyone gained a clearer understanding of factory equipment management and benefited greatly.

Where exactly is the difficulty in collecting OEE data for equipment?

We all know that to improve production equipment efficiency, the most authentic factory data must be collected promptly. However, in reality, equipment data collection is often the weakest link in factories. Issues such as complex and diverse equipment types, incompatible equipment interfaces, low efficiency, high error rates, and difficulty in analysis of manual data collection are common. Among ALSI's past clients, such situations are not uncommon, indicating that collecting OEE data has become a major challenge in factory management.

2 systems to increase OEE to 81%.

Based on summarizing past service experience and rigorous analysis of current factory conditions, ALSI believes that among the six major losses affecting Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), there is significant room for improvement in minor stoppages, breakdowns, and startup/preparation losses. If suitable equipment management systems can reduce these losses, OEE can be increased to 81%, reaching the OEE standard of world-class enterprises.

During the seminar, Dr. Zhang emphasized the introduction of the ALSI Equipment Condition Monitoring System and the ALSI Smart Maintenance System. After over 30 years of technological refinement and implementation in hundreds of factories, these two systems can be used individually or in combination to help enterprises streamline the entire process from factory data collection to improvement management, easily enhancing factory equipment OEE. This makes the manufacturing floor transparent and leaves equipment data nowhere to hide. Let's take a detailed look at how these two systems promote production efficiency improvement.

ALSI Equipment Condition Monitoring System: Collection + Analysis, keeping equipment efficiency in mind.
The smart add-on device of the ALSI Equipment Condition Monitoring System: the TS-10 data collector can accurately collect Andon data. In use, it only needs to be manually attached to the three-color light. The built-in photoelectric sensor then transmits the collected signals to the terminal device in real-time. Data collection is efficient and accurate, and the usage method is simple and convenient. It has strong adaptability in complex factory environments, making it the preferred choice for many existing factories.

Is it enough to have first-hand equipment data? No, we must also consider how to export and analyze the equipment data. The ALSI Equipment Condition Monitoring System combines hardware and software. The backend application, the Lighthouse system, can perform intelligent calculation and comparative analysis of operational rates while automatically generating statistical reports, making equipment OEE data visually intuitive. Many participants at the scene were very interested and raised questions about system usage. ALSI technical staff provided on-site answers to their inquiries.

ALSI Smart Maintenance System: Mastering data is important, but on-site improvement is even more crucial.

We have obtained data on breakdowns, minor stoppages, and startup/preparation losses, but we must also consider why these losses occur in the equipment. Simply having data is not enough; forming improvement actions is necessary to truly enhance equipment OEE.

The ALSI Smart Maintenance System can become a powerful assistant for enterprise maintenance. Through its six major system functions, it deeply integrates into every aspect of equipment production, fault reporting, repair, maintenance, and inspection, achieving second-level communication between equipment and personnel. Traditional fault repair might take 30 minutes, but now it only takes 1 minute, truly achieving "0" delay in fault repair. This maximizes equipment lifespan and avoids losses from sudden equipment failures causing production stoppages.

ALSI creates a closed-loop for equipment management, making equipment efficiency soar.

ALSI creates a closed-loop for factory equipment management. Factory managers obtain reliable data, enabling them to take targeted actions and make scientific decisions. The changes for factory equipment are: equipment breakdown duration is reduced by 35%, and the average failure frequency is lowered by 30%. For factory staff, communication costs are reduced, and work processes become smoother and more convenient through the intelligent system, achieving the goals of equipment being usable, repairable, and well-maintained. This is highly significant for improving production efficiency. This seminar was also highly rewarding for participants, with many factory managers following the official account and website for in-depth communication.

Conclusion

ALSI has always prioritized user needs, continuously refining information and IoT technologies. Moving forward, ALSI will fully leverage its technological advantages, using high-reputation products, customized solutions, and comprehensive services to help enterprises find the right direction for digital and intelligent transformation in a rapidly changing market, promoting the industrial development process of "Intelligent Manufacturing in China".