The new UK agent was present at the Factories of the Future event held in Manchester earlier this week, where Machinery caught up with the founder and CEO of the two-year-old software firm, Matti Tiano.
Highlight of the exhibition stand was Visual Factories' Performance Improvement Manager (PIM). This software takes its information from any machine, automatically, with that data then analysed in the cloud, using algorithms that support machine learning.
Tiano pointed to other companies at the show in general, suggesting that they collect masses of data and then try to make sense out of it. His company's starting point is to understand what to collect first, he said
Machinery was shown a screen that highlighted several machine performance bar charts. Tiano selected one to illustrate a point. Each bar represented an hour of actual output; horizontally set across the screen was a line that represented expected hourly output, based on known cycle time. Bars that went above the line were green; those below, red. In a very visual manner, the system helps direct action at the issues underlying under-performance.
The PIM methodology “enables optimisation by learning the existing resources and processes in parallel with motivating and encouraging people to manage themselves in achieving these goals”, says the product's official descriptive text.
One company exploiting the benefits of PIM is grinding wheel maker Tyrolit of Austria. Tyrolit, together with Visual-Factories, implemented the PIM system at some of its key customers, allowing Tyrolit to demonstrate its strategy of delivering system solutions and innovative but cost-effective tools.
Another user is Pratt & Whitney-owned Blades Technology International's TurbineJet operation based in Israel. Says Haim Levi, CEO: “I’ve worked with many, many consultants over the years and I’ve seen a lot of machine monitoring and data collection systems. I would rank Visual Factories' PIM system as one of the most insightful and strategic systems that I’ve worked with.
The unique combination of a reliable data collection system with a well thought working methodology, effectively challenged our thinking, helped us better analyse our business insights and performance. It always ensured the team keep the main focus to drive fact-based strategic choices to exploit our available resources to the optimum.
I would recommend Visual-Factories PIM system to any business that is making strategic decisions to optimise their performance and grow their business whilst using their existing resources.”
