We are grateful for the good reception of the event organized by SMARTPM, which brought together professionals from the industrial sector.
OPEN HOUSE 2023 was attended by the companies MAQcenter, Hexagon, ZOLLER, ABB and Hoffmann Group, who shared their vision of the smart factory today. Also, a real production process was performed where they could check the positive impact of the MIC platform on the flexibility of the plants.
A current vision of the smart factory
The event was held on March 30th at our facilities in Elgoibar (Gipuzkoa), where the doors of the FACTORY Lab remained open all day. The morning and afternoon sessions were attended by professionals from the industrial sector, such as operators, engineering managers and industrial management.
After welcoming the companies and collaborators in attendance, there was a brief introduction to the so-called smart factory, sharing the vision of what a flexible factory is today, proposing a future that is already present with technologies and products available on the market.
Professionals from SMARTPM, MAQcenter, Hexagon, ZOLLER, ABB and Hoffmann Group shared a very convergent view on the importance of digitizing what we manufacture and the importance of integrating that data layer with what happens on the shop floor. And they did not forget one more key element: process management.
José Castellanos, CEO of SMARTPM, pointed out the importance of avoiding technological silos in factories. "The partners who have participated in OPEN HOUSE have top-notch tools and products and the MIC platform plays a key role in integrating them into a flexible process operation, capable of adapting to short runs, with multiple references and with a lot of continuous improvement capability."
He also referred to intelligent integration. "That is, that that important data that we are capturing is used for something really useful, such as the cell and the processes working more and more autonomously."
Live management of 5 workflows for different references
With their sights set on the manufacturing cell and control panel, the SMARTPM team set the automated process in motion.
During the demonstration, 5 different references were manufactured with short series, even unitary, and each one of them with its different processes, programs, tools and even different tooling.
While the center was milling, the robot was polishing another part and the 3D was busy inspecting another part. Simultaneously, the magazine managed a buffer of parts already prepared with a presetting to feed the machining. Once the machining was finished and while the inspection was being carried out, the robot performed third operations. At the same time, new references were being added, managing alarms and even incorporating material from outside the warehouse.
The whole process worked correctly, autonomously and intelligently. Gathered around the cell, the attendees watched how the MIC platform platform is capable of managing multi-piece and multi-reference processes with autonomy and fluidity.
Likewise, the monitoring was constant, visualizing on the control panel the KPIs generated, the quality of the parts (viewing on screen the reports of the Hexagon inspection solution, in this case). The workflow went according to plan in terms of quality and timing.
The 3 main advantages of MIC highlighted by the audience were the greater use of assets, the greater capacity for production planning and the centralization of production knowledge.
Bringing the Smart Industry concept down to earth
The celebration of these conferences is essential to bring the concept of Smart Industry closer to the companies. The attendees valued very positively to see a real flow in operation and 100% would recommend the event to other colleagues in the sector, according to the answers received in the satisfaction survey we conducted afterwards.
"At SMARTPM, we are developing a solution that is a new product category. There are different solutions for data capture, program management, and even specific solutions for optimizing machining processes. However, there was no solution that could orchestrate the operation of different assets with the flexibility that is demanded in the market today," says José.
In short, the demonstration at the FACTORY Lab made it possible to show the impact that the system can have. MIC. system can have on the processes of each company, improving the productivity and flexibility of the plants.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH! ESKERRIK ASKO!
