Okuma's Connect Plan: Open Doors to Increased Connectivity

Mike Hampton:

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Mike Hampton, I am the business development specialist at Okuma America, and I focus on after-market parts and services, and today I come to you to share some knowledge and intelligence around a great product that allows you to remotely keep in touch with what's going on inside the four walls of your manufacturing facility, and that product is called Okuma's Connect Plan, so today I'm going to give you some advice on how you can increase utilization and open doors to increased productivity.

Mike Hampton:

So, why is connectivity important? Well, it's important for a number of reasons, but understanding your machine tool efficiency is the start, and to do so, you need data, because without machine data, you're just guessing, and operators manually collecting data could lead to overestimation, and/or it has human error built in.

Mike Hampton:

So, the old days of running around to each individual cell with a clipboard, collecting data on your Gemba walk and keeping Paretos and trying to consolidate it on an hour-by-hour basis, or a shift-by-shift basis, or a day-by-day basis, it's time-consuming, and what this product does is it connects your whole facility, where you have concise, consolidated data so that you can connect, visualize, and improve your processes, because at the end of the day, we want to keep machines running. Uptime is key, and downtime is expensive, so knowing about downtimes, where those shortfalls lie, that's going to allow you to put corrective measures into place and make your processes more efficient and better. At the end of the day, it's just going to help the overall utilization inside your facility.

Mike Hampton:

So, what is the ultimate solution? And the solution we're bringing to the table, the product's name is Connect Plan, so what is Connect Plan? Well, it's a software-based system that collects machine tool data. Our machines have 9,000-plus data points that they collect on a daily basis, and Connect Plan takes those data points, puts it into a nice visual, helps you understand exactly what's going on, so that you can make decisions to improve your process, and it's done with really a couple simple steps.

Mike Hampton:

We're going to connect the controls to a server, we're going to install Factory Monitor Suite, and we're going to give you visuals to better understand when the machine is running, so you're going to know things such as machine status, maintenance status, machining reports or part program history, operation history or commands that have been put into the controls, and alarm history, or all the alarms that have been signaled on that particular machine. And better yet, it's not just one machine, you can visualize your whole factory, and it's going to automatically archive downloadable data so that you can use it for up to two years.

Mike Hampton:

So, what are the benefits of Connect Plan? I just mentioned a couple of different things that it offers, but what are those going to do to help you? And it's going to increase your visibility, it's going to give you the ability to have remote monitoring capabilities inside your organization. It's going to give you access to machine tool data, it's going to increase your productivity, and with one dongle or license, you can connect up to 30 machines.

Mike Hampton:

But you're not limited there, because you can have multiple dongles and/or licenses, so if you have 60 machines, you just use two dongles and/or licenses, if you have 90 machines, you use three dongles and/or licenses, and you can connect every piece of equipment in your facility. And it's not just Okuma machines, we can connect non-Okuma machines, we can connect a cell that has something in it as simple as a bandsaw if you want to make sure that it is running up to your productivity expectations.

Mike Hampton:

So as you can see in this visual, this is actually a visual of the showroom in the Aerospace Center of Excellence at Okuma America, and these are or were the machines at the point that this snapshot was taken. So you can see a couple different things that this visual shows, and this is what you see on the Factory Monitor of Connect Plan. It shows the exact machines with a machine model. It shows your light tower, your stack light indicators showing green, yellow, or red.

Mike Hampton:

And it also shows a maintenance function, so this is out of Maintenance Monitor in OSP suite. If it's red, you're overdue on your maintenance interval, you can click on it, it'll give you a full list of your periodical maintenance items so that you know exactly where to start, or exactly what is overdue. If it's yellow and it's got the little man with the oil can, then you can click on it because you know that you have a maintenance item or a periodical maintenance line item that is almost due, so you can address it before it gets red, and that's just some of the functionality that Connect Plan gives you.

Mike Hampton:

So, let's talk about the operating report. What the operating report does is you can filter this into, well, really any timeframe you want, but you can look at the day, current, you can look at the day previous, or you can specify any period of time that you would like. If you would like it to look at the past week or the past month, you can look at that, and what different categories is it going to give you for those timeframes?

Mike Hampton:

Well, it's going to tell you when the machine was running, what percentage of the time, when the machine was under an alarm, what percentage of the time, when the machine was stopped, what percentage of the time. And as you can see, those same colors are what were indicated previously on the stack lights for each model, so green is run time, red is alarm time, and yellow is stop time. It also is going to tell you the operating time when the machine is cutting, and/or non-cutting, and you can see we have these nice visual pie charts that give you just a very fast indicator on what's going on within that machine, so we can look at this data for every machine in your facility.

Mike Hampton:

So, let's talk a little bit about the alarm history. So the alarm history, it does the same thing as the operating history. It has the current day, the previous day, or any specified time period, and it remembers all the alarms that have gone off for that machine that you're looking at. And you can see behind the main window here, it has every single alarm. If you click on that alarm number, then guess what? It's going to pull out the whole alarm description so that you can read through it, learn about it, and fix the problem.

Mike Hampton:

So as you can see here, we're looking at the operation history and/or commands. These are all the commands that have been put into the control of that specific machine, so let's say unfortunately you had a crash, you can go back, look at line-by-line of every single command that was input to that control, and figure out probably why the machine was crashed so you can stop that from happening in the future.

Mike Hampton:

And here what we're looking at is we're looking at the Machine Monitor, and you can see what this is telling us is this is telling us whether it's programmed, running, operating, and/or cutting, and what percentage of the time, so this is line-by-line for any specified period of time, full machining report so that you know exactly what is going on with that machine.

Mike Hampton:

As you can see here, this is a single machine layout in Factory Monitor, and you might see that this is Connect Plan lite. This is a standalone view of one machine, and I'm going to get into a little bit more detail about that. Connect Plan lite is a Factory Monitor, like I mentioned, for one machine, and Connect Plan lite is a sales tool and/or a taste of the flagship product.

Mike Hampton:

So you can see, it's the same main tabs that you can click on, with limited functionality. So we can still look at the machine status and/or the alarm history, we can still look at the operating history with not the pie charts, but you have simple bar charts that still give you a taste and feel for the data for the specified time periods. You can still look at the operating rate, when the machine's running, when it's under alarm, when it's stopped, the same green, red, yellow indicators that you'll see with our flagship product, Connect Plan. And let's talk about what Connect Plan lite and what Connect Plan can do for you.

Mike Hampton:

So as you can see, we did a case study with a very valued customer, Dysinger. Their operations manager, Ian Anderson, was a great asset that pushed getting Connect Plan into his facility. They have currently connected 11 Okuma machines that are integrated to this product, and since they integrated Connect Plan at Dysinger, they have seen a 15% increase in spindle utilization. Now, that's huge. Any shop owner, supervisor, operations manager, maintenance manager, they would strive to see a 15% increase in spindle utilization, and this is a testimonial, this product has worked for a valued customer. So Ian said, "The install was pretty seamless. Both Okuma and Gosiger did a good job of planning up-front and let us know what software we needed to have installed on our server, and what they needed connection-wise from us. Connect Plan is a real eye-opener."

Mike Hampton:

So as I mentioned, Connect Plan lite, it's the demonstration, it is the free demo application of the flagship product, Connect Plan. It is available on the Okuma App Store, and it still gives you the features that I just described, so you can still see alarm and operating history, production rates in a bar graph format, and you can access live dashboards of your machine status.

Mike Hampton:

So, let's dig in a little deeper, it might still be a little bit fuzzy, what are the main differences between this demo product that's a free application called Connect Plan lite, and Connect Plan? Well, Connect Plan lite is a standalone application that runs on machines that are only P300 or newer. Connect Plan, we can connect any machine, like I mentioned, even a simple bandsaw, and they're all going to be connected together, and they're going to be connected through a server that lives inside your facility.

Mike Hampton:

So the user access for Connect Plan lite, you're going to be able to view this on the machine and on the machine only, not remotely, but we're just trying to give you a product where you can test the ability that this data can give you access to increase utilization. So Connect Plan, it's going to be accessed through a web browser, where you can access anywhere you want within the world.

Mike Hampton:

So, is a computer required to run Connect Plan lite? No, it's going to run directly on your open-architecture, Windows-based P300 control. With Connect Plan, yes, a computer is required, other than OSP, because you're connecting multiple pieces of equipment, and that is going to run through a server.

Mike Hampton:

So, Connect Plan lite, is it networked? No, Connect Plan lite is not networked, but Connect Plan will be networked. Are these two products internet and/or cloud-based, and are there recurring fees? And the answer for both Connect Plan lite and Connect Plan is no. No, there are no recurring fees. Once you install it, Connect Plan lite will live on the desktop and/or a USB stick and run on the control, and Connect Plan will be accessed through a web browser that is going to connect to the server.

Mike Hampton:

So, can you get email or text notifications? And this is really an open-ended question. You'll see that this chart says "No," but for Connect Plan, you can view the data anywhere from any device. There are additional applications that complement Connect Plan that will give you the ability to get email and text notifications, but it is not a Connect Plan product. So can you get email and text notifications? The answer is yes. Does it come with Connect Plan lite or Connect Plan? That answer is no. Are some of these applications that send these notifications free? The answer is yes.

Mike Hampton:

So, how many machines can you connect? Well, with Connect Plan lite, you can only connect one single machine, it's a standalone application just to give you the look and feel of the flagship product, Connect Plan. With Connect Plan, like I mentioned, you can connect 30 machines per license and/or dongle, and you can view all connected machines in one single place. So how long does Connect Plan lite and/or Connect Plan retain this data? Well, since Connect Plan is only a demonstration, it will only retain the data for up to two days. For Connect Plan, it will retain the data for two years.

Mike Hampton:

So, will Connect Plan lite ever need updates? And the answer is no, the free application that you get off of the Okuma App Store is always going to be the most up-to-date version. And with Connect Plan, after it's installed, yes, we're going to let you have any updates that could possibly make the product better, so there are updates that could possibly be used with Connect Plan.

Mike Hampton:

So, is Connect Plan lite integrated with Maintenance Monitor that's on OSP Suite? And the answer is no, but with Connect Plan, yes, it absolutely is, and that references the little oil... The man with the oil can. When you click on that, it pulls up your periodical maintenance chart out of Maintenance Monitor. Maintenance Monitor is an additional piece of software that is part of OSP suite, so if you have OSP suite on your Okuma control, then you have the full functionality of the Maintenance Monitor software.

Mike Hampton:

So, AI analysis of downtime, is that part of Connect Plan lite? And the answer is no, but guess what? The flagship product, it does have an AI analysis of downtime, which is going to be huge for you to understand where your shortfalls are, and improve your processes.

Mike Hampton:

So, we talked about the functionality and the data of Connect Plan, you saw the more in-depth charts and graphs. For Connect Plan lite, it's just going to be the simple bar graph format, with operation history and rates, along with alarms. Connect Plan is going to have full functionality, and some of this functionality even consists of spindle override, axis loads, work counters off a program count, speeds and feeds, and more.

Mike Hampton:

So, let's talk about the prices of these products. Like I mentioned, Connect Plan lite is an application, and it's free, $0. Connect Plan, the license and/or dongle starts at $7,220, and with that said, there is going to be some installation dollars that will be part of the overall cost of the product, along with the hardware that you need to integrate the machine to the server. So if you're interested, please reach out to your distributor, we'll work with you, we'll look at all of the machines and pieces of equipment that you have within your facility, and we'll point you in the right direction on how to connect them, and how much the overall connection of all of your equipment will cost.

Mike Hampton:

With that said, I hope you learned something today about Okuma's great product, Connect Plan, that's going to help you connect, visualize, and improve your processes. If you have any questions, please reach out to your local distributor. My name is Mike Hampton, as I said, I am the business development specialist at Okuma America, and if I can help you, I would be more than happy to. Thank you, and have a great day.