How do I craft a production dashboard in my plant using Microsoft Excel? Let's start from the very beginning. In another article, we told you about the pitfalls of managing your entire factory using excel. It happens that many companies want to start their digital transformation and need to start internally, with a pilot project, and then hire an appropriate tool. Digital Maturity in the Packaging Industry Benchmarking Report: Download it now for free! Our Chief Data Officer, Eduardo Weingartner, has shot a video on the subject. On it, you will see how to use your machine data to create a production analysis dashboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKwnFykf_AE&feature=youtu.be To complement this, Eduardo mentions some tools that can be integrated into the dashboard in Excel. When to subscribe to a production analytics software? First of all, nice question! Excel has very sensitive limitations (like Human error/data reliability, Data availability/information flow, Dashboards, and views / Important data can be hidden) and at some point, you will no longer be able to get relevant insights. This will impair your decision making for operational efficiency and cost reduction. Three of the main times to look for a professional solution are when you need more…

When I first heard about PackML, I understood it as a set of states and concepts to model how machines present themselves and behave, and thus, helping different machines from diverse OEMs to easily integrate and work together as a single line. Digital Maturity in the Packaging Industry Benchmarking Report: Download it now for free! But as I started to dive deeper into it, I can now say that PackML is much more than a definition for communication between machines and software. PackML Interface State Model - Source: OMAC What is PackML? So what is PackML then? PackML is short for Packaging Machine Language and it is an industry-standard for the control and monitoring of packaging machines as an area of OT - Operational Technology and industrial automation. From the 3 main categories that comprise the Manufacturing Automation Industry: Continuous, Batch, and Discrete control, PackML focuses on the last 2 and although it was primarily created for the packaging industry, its definition is valid for any discrete process.  It was created by OMAC  Organization for Machine Automation and Control in conjunction with the International Society of Automation (ISA). Both entities were working on separate definitions until it…

We don't need to explain that much right? If you are here, you might know a lot about this important tool. While you are reading this text, millions of people are using Excel right now.  Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It has been a very widely applied spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-3 as the industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of the Microsoft Office suite of software. Digital Maturity in the Packaging Industry Benchmarking Report: Download it now for free! Among its important use cases, one of them is to help factory managers to collect and manage data on a daily basis. It's been an important tool for the past decades, but some issues can be perceived as companies have new demands on their management environment. On this matter, we bring to you the biggest problems running your factory with Excel. Human error/data reliability First of all, this is the most common issue in Excel. In the reliable part…

Based on the Chapter 3 of the book: “Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an era of Mass Extinction” by Thomas Siebel By Mario Ishikawa, CTO of PackIOT In his recently published book “Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an era of Mass Extinction”, Thomas Siebel, Founder, and CEO of C3 IoT addresses the fact that the moment we are living now is unique. Digital transformation, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is bringing massive changes to how we live as a society, and especially for companies, it is a moment to thrive or die. Digital Maturity in the Packaging Industry Benchmarking Report: Download it now for free! CEO’s are playing a core role in this process. Digital transformation in a company is started and supported by the CEO, in contrast to earlier technology adoptions on enterprise, usually led by IT and Engineering teams. By going to the very core of the organization, digital transformation requires the CEO to understand the fundamentals of his business. If you are a car manufacturer, is your business fundamentally about making cars or is it about delivering transportation and mobility? Once the importance is understood, then comes the digital transformation plan, and the…

Where will we allocate the retrofit budget for our machines? This question had been asked over and over, every year by one of our customers, a major player in the packaging industry. Imagine the situation and even try to remember if it happens in your company: the CFO gathers 4 or 5 managers and launches this question in the room, projecting the budget for the following year. The industrial director made the same challenge with his factory management. And that's where the "opinion fight" begins. (We like to say that without data, you are just another person with an opinion). Each one brings his/her side, wanting the best for his/her line. But no one can prove why retrofit money should be allocated to a particular machine, since downtime and scrap data are difficult to gather without a proper system. So, did you identify yourself within the situation? In the past, the company used solve this situation in an unsatisfactory way: CFO, CEO and Industrial Director ended up dividing the retrofit budget into equal parts. This ends up not being an effective strategy, not even measurable in the medium term of the plant but at least it made everyone in the…

Despite automation, the rise of new technologies and the growth of industry 4.0, factories employees still play and will continue to play a key role in the industry's success. According to a Gallup study, employees in production jobs are now the least engaged compared to other sectors. This clearly shows us that the industry as a whole is still struggling to actually increase employee engagement. While industry 4.0 technologies - such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and mobile solutions - are being implemented in manufacturing plants around the world to transform manufacturing processes, little has been done to transform the employee experience. For years and years, managers for all kinds of industries have been trying to implement new processes and tools based on their own decisions and ways. And I can assure you this is one of the most common problems when companies are trying to get into new approaches and technologies. Usually, those who make a decision are those who are not going to effectively will use the new tech/process. To really achieve great results in digital transformation, the industry sector must bring the operators to the center of this discussion. And by saying this,…