Particle Case Studies Power Better Business Decisions

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Power Better Business Decisions

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Technology Category	Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems Sensors
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Use Cases	Factory Operations Visibility & Intelligence
Services	Hardware Design & Engineering Services
Challenge	The problem is, in order to determine the actual utilization percentage of their factory,Service Thread had to rely on frequent and selective in-person inspections of the machines. However, the shortcomings of such a system were not lost on Service Thread. The inspectors would spend approximately 10 hours per week, or 500 hours per year, performing these analyses. Another concern with this method is the possibility of human error and its impact on overall shop performance. Finally, because the scope of the data was rather limited, their final estimates were not necessarily accurate. Read More
About Customer	Service Thread is a leading American manufacturer of commercial thread and yarn. Their factory in Laurinburg, NC houses over 3,000 spindles (operating positions) across 115,000ft2 of floor space and 24 different machine types. In their efforts towards optimization, these variables stood as barriers to Service Thread’s effective monitoring and analysis of factory performance. Read More
Customer Name	Service Thread Read More
Solution	The team decided to design their very own hardware solution using the Particle Photon to gather data from the machine's existing sensors. Logical Advantage’s final hardware solution is able to gather data from 16 spindles simultaneously. That data is then passed through the Particle Cloud and onto Microsoft’s Azure IoT Hub using Wi-Fi. Logical Advantage then built a simple, mobile app for spindle sensor provisioning. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

Sensors

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Factory Operations Visibility & Intelligence

Services

Hardware Design & Engineering Services

Challenge

The problem is, in order to determine the actual utilization percentage of their factory,Service Thread had to rely on frequent and selective in-person inspections of the machines.

However, the shortcomings of such a system were not lost on Service Thread. The inspectors would spend approximately 10 hours per week, or 500 hours per year, performing these analyses. Another concern with this method is the possibility of human error and its impact on overall shop performance. Finally, because the scope of the data was rather limited, their final estimates were not necessarily accurate.

About Customer

Service Thread is a leading American manufacturer of commercial thread and yarn. Their factory in Laurinburg, NC houses over 3,000 spindles (operating positions) across 115,000ft2 of floor space and 24 different machine types. In their efforts towards optimization, these variables stood as barriers to Service Thread’s effective monitoring and analysis of factory performance.

Customer Name

Service Thread

Solution

The team decided to design their very own hardware solution using the Particle Photon to gather data from the machine's existing sensors.

Logical Advantage’s final hardware solution is able to gather data from 16 spindles simultaneously. That data is then passed through the Particle Cloud and onto Microsoft’s Azure IoT Hub using Wi-Fi. Logical Advantage then built a simple, mobile app for spindle sensor provisioning.

Impact #1	[Cost Reduction - Data Management] Using long-term data collected from the pilot program, Service Thread estimates that this IoT solution will reduce their per-spindle operating costs by at least 50%.

Impact #1

[Cost Reduction - Data Management]

Using long-term data collected from the pilot program, Service Thread estimates that this IoT solution will reduce their per-spindle operating costs by at least 50%.

Benefit #1	With revenue potential of some departments of more than $800 per operating hour, even a ten percent increase in machinery uptime can make a huge difference to overhead, labor, and operational efficiency,
Benefit #2	The company anticipates annual savings of approximately $117,000 from reduced maintenance overtime and overhead costs.

Benefit #1

With revenue potential of some departments of more than $800 per operating hour, even a ten percent increase in machinery uptime can make a huge difference to overhead, labor, and operational efficiency,

Benefit #2

The company anticipates annual savings of approximately $117,000 from reduced maintenance overtime and overhead costs.

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Overview

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Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit