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According to Janet Chaffin, president of Stanley Aeroscout Industrial, that's the attitude that enabled Stanley Black and Decker's Reynosa plant to improve their operating performance with the Industrial Internet of Things. The 500,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Reynosa, Mexico manufactures DeWalt and Porter Cable professional power tools. The plant has 40 manufacturing lines running multiple products per line, and three main areas; molding, motors, and assembly.
Among the challenges Stanley Renosa faced was that they could only detect defects at the end of the shift. Driven by the "Let's just try it" mentality, they had already installed a Cisco Wi-Fi network throughout the plant. So it was easy to decide to try a simple solution that let them detect defects at the end of the line instead: they placed an active RFID tag at the quality scale at the end of the line, which allowed them to know immediately when a defective product occurred. This simple solution also let them understand whether or not they would meet their shift targets, and how and when to reallocate resources to compensate for problems as they arose.
The Reynosa line workers also had an idea: Why not add some call buttons to notify maintenance when there was a problem? The sooner problems were resolved, the sooner they would reach their targets. Using the same technology, Wi-Fi call button stations were installed to signal problems in safety, quality, materials, maintenance, and at the end of line tester. This resulted in much faster and more responsive line support.
"Let's just try it" paid off. OEE increased 24%, defects decreased 16%, labor utilization is up from 80 to 92%, and line throughput is up 10%. In addition they now have empowered employees, improved labor ergonomics, reduced labor training, and better visibility for line supervisors. Next they will roll out the solution plant wide, add temperature monitoring of molding machines and chillers to predict overheating and reduce downtime, and add a real-time locating system for the line side parts supply.
Not surprisingly, other Stanley sites are already asking for the solution, and planning for this is underway. But what if a plant hasn't already taken the plunge and installed a Wi-Fi network? It turns out that that's not a hurdle, because the savings generated at Reynosa showed that the improvements more than paid for the Wi-Fi investment.
When it comes to the Industrial Internet of Things, my advice to industry is the same as Janet Chaffin's: "let's just try it."
Among the challenges Stanley Renosa faced was that they could only detect defects at the end of the shift. Driven by the "Let's just try it" mentality, they had already installed a Cisco Wi-Fi network throughout the plant. So it was easy to decide to try a simple solution that let them detect defects at the end of the line instead: they placed an active RFID tag at the quality scale at the end of the line, which allowed them to know immediately when a defective product occurred. This simple solution also let them understand whether or not they would meet their shift targets, and how and when to reallocate resources to compensate for problems as they arose.
The Reynosa line workers also had an idea: Why not add some call buttons to notify maintenance when there was a problem? The sooner problems were resolved, the sooner they would reach their targets. Using the same technology, Wi-Fi call button stations were installed to signal problems in safety, quality, materials, maintenance, and at the end of line tester. This resulted in much faster and more responsive line support.
"Let's just try it" paid off. OEE increased 24%, defects decreased 16%, labor utilization is up from 80 to 92%, and line throughput is up 10%. In addition they now have empowered employees, improved labor ergonomics, reduced labor training, and better visibility for line supervisors. Next they will roll out the solution plant wide, add temperature monitoring of molding machines and chillers to predict overheating and reduce downtime, and add a real-time locating system for the line side parts supply.
Not surprisingly, other Stanley sites are already asking for the solution, and planning for this is underway. But what if a plant hasn't already taken the plunge and installed a Wi-Fi network? It turns out that that's not a hurdle, because the savings generated at Reynosa showed that the improvements more than paid for the Wi-Fi investment.
When it comes to the Industrial Internet of Things, my advice to industry is the same as Janet Chaffin's: "let's just try it."