FreePoint Ups the Ante on ShiftWorx Production Software
Often, we run across press releases at WHN that pique our curiosity. Such was the case with the new ShiftWorx Plus production data software package. We had a conversation with Lisa Bailey, Director of FreePoint Technologies about the reasoning for the enhancement and more of the details. Following are excerpts from that conversation, followed by FreePoint’s official press release.
Lisa began by discussing the rational for the “Plus” in ShiftWorx Plus. “We’re always talking with our customers about how they are using the product, and how we can connect with other systems within their companies,” she informed. They found two very separate islands of information within the manufacturing environment. “One is the plan, and it generally comes from the MRP/ERP/MES systems, and it tells me things like what is my job, how many hours, materials required, etc.,” she detailed. The missing link, or other island of data, is what is actually happening on the shop floor. “How do we connect the plan to actual? That’s where we had to fill in the blanks.”
FreePoint released a new version of ShiftWorx in general, and also released a new bundle being ShiftWorx Plus. Lisa tells us that with ShiftWorx Plus, you are able to track things like job information, machine activity, scrap and other real-time data. This key information can be shared with MRP/ERP/MES systems.
If you’ve ever seen a ShiftWorx demo at one of the shows, you will, no doubt, be familiar with the blue bar charts it uses to display data. “It’s the exact same concept,” Lisa described, “but now you are able to put a particular job/machine/operator on a screen and have that visible to the operator, or from a higher-level [manager] standpoint.” You can still have the graphical representation as before, but now you can have key performance indicators displayed on tiles (Figure 1). She underscored the ability to fully customize and organize the screen to the user’s preferences.
Another interesting key feature of ShiftWorx Plus is its ability to be used as a digital call box system. It can totally replace expensive hardwired andon lights in the production setting. “We actually created a digital version so that, at the tap of a screen or click of a mouse, you can activate a call to engineering, maintenance, quality control or to a supervisor,” she announced.
Lisa concluded our conversation relating the success story of an early adopter to the system:
“We have one manufacturer in New York who used to outsource 30% of their work because they didn’t have capacity on their machines. Since they’ve installed our system they’ve actually eliminated outsourcing and now they’ve opened up enough capacity to our source for other companies. They were able to visualize and change their processes and behaviors enough to increase their capacity.”
Following is the official press release:
London,ON–FreePointTechnologies,anaward-winning industryleader in the industrial internet of things, announces the release of ShiftWorx Plus; an advanced machine monitoring solution that manufacturers are using to greatly increase their production capacity. Existing customers using FreePoint ShiftWorx have seen production improvements of up to 50%. Now, in addition to tracking and explaining machine downtime, manufacturers can use the new product to track production and machine uptime by job, part, and operator, and to document scrap, workorders and more. Now manufacturers can significantly increase the amount of actionable data being collected.
With ShiftWorx Plus, manufacturers see machine data presented in easy-to-understand dashboards that can be tailored to operators, supervisors and managers. With live, actionable data immediately visible on the shop floor, workers and managers alike become more engaged and can quickly take action to keep production moving at full speed. Collecting more data leads to richer reports, and deeper insight into the manufacturing process—highlighting nay bottlenecks that are present. And by displaying relevant metrics for everybody to see, manufacturers can produce more with less while driving meaningful, continuous improvement throughout their shop. With highly flexible configuration options, each manufacturer can scale out a ShiftWorx Plus solution that’s tailored to their unique needs.
“Customers are telling us ShiftWorx Plus is a game changer” says John Traynor, CEO of FreePoint Technologies:
“We’re always looking to provide manufacturers with the metrics they need to be successful. With the latest addition to our machine monitoring platform, we’re helping manufacturers better understand their data, while getting a 360° view of their downtime.”
Manufacturers can use FreePoint ShiftWorx Plus to identify and eliminate bottlenecks, inefficiencies and production issues within their shops. Now, manufacturers can experience end-to-end visibility on their shop floor, with no blind spots. Visit getfreepoint.com for more info.
