Downtime Monitoring

Downtime monitoring system for high accuracy automated measurement and reporting of machine downtime and stoppage reasons.

Shop Floor Overview Screen

The system was designed to provide management with an accurate assessment of downtime reasons for eleven welding machines. Previously, the customer had adopted a manual paper based method of collecting downtime reasons but this had proved to be inaccurate.

Down time periods were not timed accurately, reasons were only assigned at the end of a shift and errors were made reading the paper forms. In addition, a great deal of time was wasted transferring the data from paper into a computer database.

The system monitors for the running / stopped state of each machine. This is determined by counting each weld and calculating a running speed. If a machine stops, a short period of time is allowed and then a hardwire interlock is asserted. This prevents the operator from restarting the machine until a valid down time code has been entered.

Multiple codes may be used to indicate different reasons during any one down time event and the system logs all events into a daily batch database. Every Monday morning, a report on the previous weeks operations is generated by the system and sent to the senior management. Currently this is paper based but it is soon to be automated by electronically transferring the data directly into the company’s EIS.

Read more about the features and benefits of using a Prodigy system for machine downtime monitoring.

If you have a machine monitoring application and would like more information please contact us.