Compelling Stats Make a Case for IIoT (IMTS Part 4)

When I first heard the statistics, taken together, I thought “Wow, here’s a compelling situation.” The first one was “average spindle utilization is about 65%.” Based on the definition of average, half the spindles out there are running below 65%. Even if you are average, that’s 5.2 hours in an 8 hour shift, plenty of room for improvement. The second stat says that “only 10% of machine tools are connected.” By “connected” we mean plugged connected to a network so you can access the data on your machine tool. If shops can’t see their data, how do they really know what their spindle utilization is?

Get Connected

The answer is, they can’t. Not without being connected (or with guys walking around with a clipboard and stopwatch, which you rarely see these days). So many shops think they know their spindle utilization (everyone thinks they’re over 70%), but when we start recording data, almost without exception, there is a substantial, sometimes dramatic difference between what they thought and what they are truly running.

But there’s good news here, and it’s twofold. One, you have a great opportunity to potentially make large improvements in your productivity. Two, if you’re an Okuma user, getting connected is very easy. There’s no box required, and no complicated installation procedures. It’s as easy as connecting your PC at home, because both your PC and Okuma’s OSP-P control are Intel^® Core™ i7 processors running Windows^®.

Get Started for Free!

The Ethernet or USB port provides the physical connection. Then all you need to do is download the MTConnect agent and adapter, which has been available for free on Okuma’s App Store for more than two years now. (The MTConnect adapter is actually the second most-downloaded app in our App Store.) We’ve also added two more free, open source apps, MTConnect Display and MTConnect Display Mobile, which will read anybody’s MTConnect data. This means not just Okuma’s MTConnect, but other builders’ machine tools, robots, gages, CMMs…anything sending MTConnect.

No One Can Eat Just One

So, you can connect your machine tool as easily as your home computer. You can download a free app to see the data. It’s that easy for you to tap into the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)! Why wouldn’t you check it out? You should try it and see if you have the same reaction I typically witness when someone sees the data from their machine for the first time. It’s addictive, seeing all those telltale clues about what’s really going on in your machine. The amazing thing about data is, once you can see what’s happening, you can work toward making it better. That first experience usually works out just like Lay’s potato chips. It’s pretty hard to eat just one.

Jim Kosmala is Vice President of Engineering & Technology, Okuma America Corporation.