Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler Profiled Shoplogix in Quality Digest
By TR Cutler, Inc. June 19, 2006 |
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Quality Digest Profiles Shoplogix's Plantnode
PR9.NET June 19, 2006 - Canada, Oakville, ON - Manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler profiled real-time shop floor technology by Shoplogix in the current issue of the online version of Quality Digest.
According to Cutler's article, At the Shorewood Packaging Midland Avenue facility in Toronto, real-time information helps yield world-class lean manufacturing results. Shorewood Packaging is part of International Paper, which has operations in more than 40 countries and sells its products in more than 120 nations. Shorewood Packaging has three plants in Ontario, Canada, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of premium packaging.
The company could identify machines that were ahead or behind in productivity through key performance measurements, but these numbers weren't relevant to machine operators. Management needed to find a way to provide relevant information to operators and give them the ability to set efficiency goals on a per-job basis. In an attempt to increase efficiency, Shorewood Packaging first looked for a device to identify machine status via light emitting device (LED) display marquees connected to their equipment. They implemented four test devices to see if lean manufacturing results would be possible. The company implemented a software solution by Shoplogix, with which the employees became engaged. This solution offered real-time cost and job variances on the LED display boards to help operators and management visualize and graphically understand where they were versus where they needed to be in the production process. Shorewood evaluated other solutions based on these criteria and assessed typical server-based data-collection systems. The Shoplogix software enabled a direct connection to existing production equipment and allowed the company to capture real-time machine-productivity information, quantifying improved performance and contributing directly to the bottom line.
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Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler Profiled Shoplogix in Quality Digest
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