Data-Driven Manufacturing

A look at how companies are leveraging Industry 4.0 tech for better customer service

MC Machinery Systems remote360

The remote360/preventive maintenance station at MC Machinery Systems’ headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Ill., enables the company to monitor customer machines across the world. Photo courtesy of MC Machinery Systems.

Every day manufacturers face machine failures and downtime. That’s the nature of manufacturing. The goal of any fab shop owner is to ensure that the equipment he or she has invested in is running and cutting as much as possible, because every hour of uptime means more money in the company coffers. Unexpected downtime, especially in a job shop, can cause project delays and dissatisfied customers, negatively affecting the bottom line.

OEMs have heard this call and are using the latest technology to provide better, faster service to their customers. Conventionally, when a machine had a failure or downtime, a shop would reach out to the manufacturer and an experienced engineer or serviceperson would be dispatched to the shop. Sometimes the technician could fix the problem right there and then. If not, the technician would assess the issue, determine if they needed additional parts, order those parts, return for a follow-up visit, then make the necessary repairs. This was not always an easy or fast fix, leaving the equipment sitting idle until parts could be replaced.

Let’s take a look at how two companies are digitizing their technical support and customer service to limit downtime and get a customer’s machine back to cutting efficiently.

Machine Tool-Customer Transparency

Four years ago MC Machinery Systems launched its cloud-based service remote360 to improve transparency between the machine tool and the customer to provide faster, better service. The service allows customers to tap into machine tool data with the click of a button no matter where they are in the world. The data collected through this system enables fab shops to track machine run-times and adjust work flow parameters when necessary.

“It’s about providing transparency between the machine tool and the customer,” said Tim Gelsomino, sales manager, service and parts, MC Machinery Systems, Elk Grove Village, Ill. “The data can determine if the machine is running as efficiently as possible based on run, idle, and stop time, and it can maximize productivity out of the machine.”

The service also is helping MC Machinery Systems to better diagnose problems with the machine or help operators to optimize machine performance.

“We are trying to fix any problem without needing to send our technicians on-site,” Gelsomino added.

As technology advances, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) is really starting to pick up in the manufacturing environment. Gelsomino likened this to people using their smartphones to turn the lights on and off in their house or the ability to go into the thermostat and change the temperature in a room that could be hundreds of kilometres away. This type of technology is the wave of the future, and MC Machinery Systems is leveraging it to allow its customers to make better, smarter manufacturing decisions.

“All of a sudden people were able to digitally access everyday things, why not their machine tool?” said Gelsomino. “We have expensive machine tools; why not monitor them as well?”

Expensive laser cutting machine tools that sit idle are no good to any job shop. After the initial investment, shops can use this remote360 service to optimize the machine, which should help improve the bottom line. For example, one of the features of the system is it allows shops to track power and gas consumption of every single program running on the laser, as well as overall consumption in any given period.

MC Machinery Systems remote360

remote360 allows users to tap into machine tool data with the click of a button no matter where they are in the world. Photo courtesy of MC Machinery Systems.

“We have the capability for a customer to go into the control and input what they are paying per kilowatt-hour and how much they are paying for a litre of compressed air, nitrogen, or oxygen and our system will track the consumption data,” explained Gelsomino. “At the end of each program, the system will determine how much that program cost to run in real time, measuring both power and gas. This is a new feature in the last six months and it’s aimed at helping quote jobs more effectively and helps with predictive quoting.”

It’s also effective in tracking material usage. If a shop cuts more of one material than others, the data points will show the shop that pattern. Similarly, it also will show the shop what lens or nozzle is used most often.

“We showcase what consumables customers are using in a dashboard configuration,” said Gelsomino. “We can also show at what rate consumables are needed—that helps with order planning and ensuring they have all the necessary components in stock to keep the machine tool running.”

The service also can be used to set up maintenance cycles. As shops know so well, many components of the laser cutting machine need to be running effectively to ensure run-time efficiencies. The components have average life expectancies. For example, MC Machinery’s CO2 laser system has four fans, each with a lifespan of about 10,000 hours. The service counts and sends out a notification when it is nearing time to replace this component. Gelsomino said that the company’s CO2 laser system has 10 different areas of hardware and maintenance interval reminders to ensure proper practices.

“The user can look at the program history of a machine, and if there is stop time, track and see if it was caused by a mechanical issue or operator stoppage,” said Gelsomino. “That is where the customers are zoning in, where they are using run-times to see how they can optimize productivity.”

If a customer is having a known issue and activates the remote360 support, technicians centrally located at the OEM’s North American headquarters can tap into the machine and experience what the user is experiencing. With the customer’s per-mission, technicians can go into the machine and diagnose problems.

For Gelsomino, that capability to go in and fix a program problem or change the cut condition is a pivotal feature of the service.

Augmented Reality Service Glasses

The importance of providing fast and reliable service has never been more important, and TRUMPF Inc., Farmington, Conn., has recognized that by investing in a new service technology, AR Smart Glasses. The company currently has more than 200 customers in North America using the smart glass-es for service initiatives.

“When the customer encounters an error or problem, they can call the hotline or use an app on their smartphone to register the case,” said Claire Grégoire, project supervisor, smart services, TRUMPF. “If they have the glasses and they are ready to use them—meaning they are connected to the internet—our engineers can call the glasses directly and connect with the customer. The engineer has the ability to see exactly what the customer wearing the glasses is seeing. We can talk to the person wearing the glasses, but this technology also allows us to send documentation, pictures, and annotations on images via the glasses. It’s much easier than having to describe the procedure on the phone and hope the customer understands. Now we can take a picture of the scene at the customer and send it back to the person with annotations on it and they can see it directly.”

The smart glasses have a camera affixed to them with one or two small screens below the eyes, depending on the model. Grégoire likened it to having a smartphone attached to your face, providing data and information and relaying them back to the engineers, freeing up a user’s hands to make the operations needed for the fix.

TRUMPF Smart Glasses

TRUMPF’s new AR Smart Glasses allows engineers the ability to see exactly what the customer wearing the glasses is seeing. Photo courtesy of TRUMPF.

“We can help customers faster,” said Grégoire. “Our engineers can conduct customers directly through the repairs without needing an engineer on-site. We are also provided with much more information because we can see what the customer is seeing—things we may not be able to determine over the phone, like specific movements of the machine or noises that are abnormal. So, we can identify the problem much quicker and, if necessary, prepare the service case accordingly.”

Even if the engineer cannot walk the customer through the repairs directly with the glasses, the engineers know exactly what parts need to be ordered and what engineer qualifications are needed to be sent on-site.

“When we use our glasses, we can correct an issue in around 50 to 60 per cent of the time and get the machine back on track directly,” Grégoire added. “It can also eliminate the need for a second visit when we are confronted with complex situations. Without the glasses, sometimes the first visit is only used for figuring out what is exactly the problem. Then we need to go back with the correct parts. The glasses help to remove that extra step and save our customers time.”

Off-site engineers have the ability to zoom in and out on the glasses and take videos or snapshots remotely. According to Grégoire, this is really helpful when, for example, a customer needs to stand in front of the electrical cabinet to help solve the problem. The engineer can instruct the person to stay a safe distance away and still have access to the necessary information.

The company evaluated that when the machine was repaired through the glasses, downtime decreased by 80 per cent because customers didn’t have to wait for a technician. Even with such favourable outcomes, Grégoire noted that one of the most difficult challenges is changing customers’ mindset. Machine tool operators are used to doing things the traditional way, and breaking those norms has proven to be somewhat of a challenge.

“For our customers, we noticed it was a big game-changer to implement the glasses,” Grégoire explained. “It caused some adaptations on both sides, and really caused us to rethink our own processes and our way to do remote customer service. But we are seeing this type of technology more and more. It’s now well-established in the U.S. market.”

TRUMPF has seen this trend for the digitization of the manufacturing environment and is focusing more on data analytics and providing transparency to its customers. Data-driven manufacturing is the future, and companies are leveraging the technology to provide fast, more efficient ways to reduce machine downtime.

In an environment where time is money, fabricators need to ensure that their equipment is up and running, maximizing efficiencies, and producing quality parts.

Associate Editor Lindsay Luminoso can be reached at lluminoso@canadianmetalworking.com.

MC Machinery Systems, www.mcmachinery.com

TRUMPF, www.trumpf.com

About the Author
Canadian Metalworking / Canadian Fabricating & Welding

Lindsay Luminoso

Associate Editor

1154 Warden Avenue

Toronto, M1R 0A1 Canada

Lindsay Luminoso, associate editor, contributes to both Canadian Metalworking and Canadian Fabricating & Welding. She worked as an associate editor/web editor, at Canadian Metalworking from 2014-2016 and was most recently an associate editor at Design Engineering.

Luminoso has a bachelor of arts from Carleton University, a bachelor of education from Ottawa University, and a graduate certificate in book, magazine, and digital publishing from Centennial College.