At Augury, we focus on delivering the best digital machine health solution for our customers, but every November we take the time to remind ourselves, and our customers, about another type of important health — our own human health. That is why Augury has participated in the Movember campaign for the past 4 years.

The Movember Foundation is a global charity focused on raising awareness for men’s health. By sporting mustaches through the month of November, we aim to help bring awareness to men’s health issues and support research that can help address some of the biggest health issues faced by men: Prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health issues like suicide and depression.

I hope you all enjoy seeing the Movember mustaches on zoom calls or through our social media. Check out our team page if you would like to donate, or leave us a comment if there is a ’stache that you find particularly majestic!

Happy Movember!

Want to learn move about what it’s like to work at Augury?

The post Movember – An Augury Tradition appeared first on Augury.

Having worked with dozens of enterprise-level manufacturers, I can safely tell you that product quality and efficiency always matters. Whether they are bottling water, making diapers or packaging pizzas, efficient production is a persistent challenge for manufacturing organizations.

But it’s a challenge that can be solved by listening to machines.

In the consumer packaged goods industry, every bit of scrap represents a loss of time, raw material, and end product. Reducing this waste, while at the same time increasing overall production efficiency, is one-way plant managers can conserve resources while still meeting consumer demand. And I’ve seen how successfully scrap reduction can be achieved using machine health data.

Where Scrap is Happening

To implement a scrap-reduction plan, the first step is to predict where it’s likely to occur. You start by gathering data.

Unfortunately, mechanical vibration and temperature data don’t tell the whole story. To get a complete picture of what’s happening with the machines, and understand the underlying causes of product quality issues and scrap, you need to overlay the mechanical diagnostics with operational data like line speed, unit size, pressure changes, and so on.

Look at a diaper converting line, which operates at top speed, and the potential for scrap is huge. Hundreds of servo motors drive raw material through the conveyors, roll units, and cutting blades to form and build the finished product. The machines sandwich absorbent layers and moisture barrier layers into a long strip that’s sliced into individual diaper segments, all at an incredible pace.

Cutting dozens of diapers every second, the slicing blades need to be razor sharp to ensure each diaper is perfectly shaped. If the blades become dull or misaligned, they could break, or cause incomplete or inaccurate cutting that will show up in the quality control camera. The resulting substandard product gets flagged as scrap, and pulled from the line, along with potentially thousands of units that were created in the minutes before the error was caught. Each unit needs to be perfect, or it will be scrapped.

Why Scrap is Happening

To pinpoint why scrap is building up, I’ve found it’s crucial to combine operational and mechanical data. Looking at operational data around an inefficiently cutting blade will reveal that scrap is building up but interpreting that operational data requires an experienced technician to identify the specific issue, often through trial and error.

Combining mechanical data, such as vibrations, with information about variations in magnetic signatures and data collected across each servo motor, delivers more precise fault detection. Machine learning models can overlay operational data such as line recipe, speed, velocity and torque command — against actual performance, to begin predicting deterioration in specific components, like cutter blades that dull with use.

At that point, you can prevent scrap buildup before it happens, because you can perform maintenance actions, like replacing the blades or cleaning suction units, much sooner.

This same methodology can be applied to any industrial process. Take, for example, bottling filler/labeler systems. Combining mechanical data from the main drive shaft and supporting pumps, with operational data on pressure, fill rate, and product size gives predictive models the information necessary to predict filling or sealing failures, and reduce the scrap build-up of wasted product that results.

Food packaging operations are also exploring the benefits of combining both mechanical and operational data to reduce scrap. On a frozen pizza packaging line, for example, quality control and product appearance must be strictly maintained. If toppings wind up in the wrong place because the equipment is misaligned, the whole unit gets scrapped. Being able to detect machine issues prior to disruption — instead of dealing with the scrap and efficiency loss that occurs with single-source, lagging indicators — can mean the difference between meeting supply chain demand or falling short, and wasting tasty pizza!

A Bigger Picture Means Better Decisions

Clearly, achieving production efficiency means going beyond simply monitoring machine health through mechanical data, or looking only at the operational data already collected by your PLCs. By tying together mechanical and operational data, operators gain a complete overview of what’s happening on the line at any given moment.

This bigger picture lets technicians determine better maintenance practices and make better decisions—for example, whether it’s better to take the line down for forty-five minutes to change a knife blade, or to continue to run and possibly generate more scrap, but also produce more product.

Regardless of whether a line is producing diapers, beer, or pizzas, I’m now convinced that the process of coupling mechanical data with operational data can help reduce scrap, benefitting production efficiency, as well as the bottom line.

Let’s talk about what Augury can do for you.

The post How Machine Health Data Reduces Scrap appeared first on Augury.

The following takes place between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on Monday, October 6, 2017. Events occur in real time.

06:00:27 a.m. Pacific Time

PACIFIC HOSPITAL, LOS ANGELES.
In the basement of the largest hospital in Los Angeles, Jack Bowzer, Chief Engineer and Reliability Manager clocks in for the day.

Beginning to brew his morning coffee, he changes into his uniform.

06:02:44

Jack sips his coffee as he turns on his computer and looks over the maintenance plan he has set for the day.

With routes that include the thirteenth floor operating room ventilation fan, he grabs an Auguscope, his portable machine vibration analysis tool, and straps it to his belt.

06:07:32

CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES.
Mindy Cantalone exits the bus in a hurry and a few minutes late for work. She doesn’t notice the oncoming car that strikes her in the side. Panic ensues as the vehicle delivers a crushing blow. Onlookers immediately call 9-1-1.

06:13:07… 06:13:08… 06:13:09…

06:15:14

PACIFIC HOSPITAL, LOS ANGELES.
Jack Bowzer arrives on the thirteenth floor at the Operating Room ventilation fan. He recalls struggling in the past with predefined preventive maintenance checklists, endlessly wasting time checking for problems that aren’t there. Breathing a sigh of relief that their team moved towards a predictive maintenance strategy, he pulls out his Auguscope to begin recording vibration and ultrasound emissions from each bearing point to pinpoint any developing malfunctions.

06:20:25

Completing the vibration recording, Jack submits the data to Augury for immediate machine diagnostics.

06:20:55

AUGURY HQ, NEW YORK CITY.
Data recorded from Jack’s operating room fan is securely streamed to Augury’s database where machine learning algorithms run full diagnostics across all recordings. Noticing high vibrations and ultrasonic sounds being produced at the horizontal axis of a motor bearing, Augury’s algorithm immediately flags an issue.

CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES.
Mindy Cantalone is ushered into an ambulance as medics rush to save her life. With every minute counting and morning rush hour traffic building, they take off for the nearest hospital.

06:21:54… 06:21:55… 06:21:56…

06:22:25

PACIFIC HOSPITAL, LOS ANGELES.
Jack’s phone alarm sounds; it’s a report from his submission from the Auguscope. Looking at the report, he notices that Augury’s diagnostic algorithm has flagged his operating room exhaust fan as “DANGER.” Jack’s heart rate rises. He immediately opens the app to find the issue is calling out a faulty bearing located on the non-driven end of the motor. Calling his maintenance office from the thirteenth floor mechanical room, he asks his team for an update on spare bearings. Hearing they have just one left, he issues the request to replace the fan bearing immediately.

06:30:43

Jack’s team shuts down the operating room exhaust fan. Implementing Augury’s suggested repair, they begin dismantling the rear of the motor. With no time to lose, they utilize a bearing puller to remove the bearing with minimal hammering. As they remove the faulty bearing and replace it with the spare, they notice visual bearing wear, confirming the diagnostic report. Had they not fixed it, it would have shut down mid-operation. Adding lubrication and slipping on the new bearing, the team rushes to get the fan back online.

06:55:12

HOSPITAL ICU.
Mindy is wheeled into the ICU, as doctors begin to suit up and prepare for immediate operation. Her vitals are rapidly diminishing. With the only available operating room open being currently shut down due to loss of an exhaust fan, staff call the maintenance office requesting expedited onboarding of the exhaust fan.

06:57:01

Putting the final motor components back in place, and now with a new bearing, Jack and his team start up the operating room exhaust fan. They are relieved to see it’s running smoothly and with minimal vibrations. Jack returns to the maintenance office, logs onto Augury’s machine health platform, and records a successful repair.

Seconds later, Mindy enters the operating room and staff begin performing immediate measures to save her life.

06:59:57… 06:59:58… 06:59:59… 07:00:00

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With the hot summer months approaching and customers beginning to start up their HVAC equipment, Service Companies everywhere are gearing up for an increase in calls. And while it is the job of a sales team to develop relationships that lead to new service requests and contracts, it is in fact the service technicians who are responsible for driving commercial outcomes with customers.

Not surprisingly, most commercial opportunities for Service Companies present themselves on-site, when the tech who has been dispatched is face-to-face with the customer and the customer’s equipment. These “pull-through” opportunities are high-margin, high impact sales opportunities that can happen in the blink of an eye.

Empowering field service techs on the front lines to actively search for pull-through opportunities helps not only increase sales, but also strengthens customer relationships. Diagnostic inspections performed by techs onsite can provide customers with new mechanical insights that can be meaningful to their operations. Customers typically reward their service providers for these insights by providing them with deeper customer loyalty and ultimately, increased work.

4 Ways to Enable Your Service Technicians to Find Additional Revenue

In this post, we’ll look at four ways you can empower your technicians to create an environment that harvests an increase in pull-through revenue for your mechanical service company.

1. Create an Environment Where Technician-Driven Sales Is a Priority

It’s important for technicians to keep their day-to-day focus on addressing mechanical issues. But equipping them with the ability to look for additional opportunities doesn’t have to get in the way.

The key is to drive the right mindset: don’t just fix the problem, dig deep to understand when it’s time to replace the product or offer an extended service agreement. Gathering machine diagnostics can go a long way in providing a holistic approach towards servicing your customer’s facility.

Techs should be encouraged to build relationships, ask the customer questions, and facilitate a conversation that leads to a better understanding of their customer’s machine history and future maintenance goals. Rather than an “in and out in as little time as possible” attitude, allow for proper time with the customer for that comfort level to grow. Time spent talking technician-to-customer can often shed light on a new angle of maintenance that a sales rep wouldn’t have been able to facilitate, strictly because of their role and focus.

2. Provide Technicians with the Proper Technology

With advancements in technology today, tools that assist in gathering machine data and shedding light on equipment conditions have become quick and easy to use. Infrared guns and vibration analysis devices, for example, can be utilized efficiently as easy ways to field test additional equipment.

Easy to deploy, easy to train, and quick to use tools such as a smart-phone-enabled PdM vibration analysis portable diagnostic tool provides the ability for technicians to record and discover machine issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. What began as a simple service call for one machine can easily turn into diagnostics on all sorts of other equipment the customer has on hand — and more often than not, that means more things to fix.

In fact, we’ve found that statistically, up to 33% of machines that are diagnosed via vibration analysis suffer from mechanical disrepair. A little bit of additional effort by your techs during each service call could go a long way towards harvesting previously unknown streams of revenue.

3. Nurture an Environment that Promotes Collaboration through Technology

It’s one thing to have your technicians detect an issue that needs fixing, but another thing altogether to get the green light to service it. Closing these pull-through deals requires the ability to accurately provide the data from collection point to headquarters and on through to the sales team.

Simply put, knowledge is power and providing an environment where this knowledge can easily transfer from a technician to sales through technology provides details in real time, allowing for quick proposals and faster sales cycles.

The same tools used to empower the technicians to uncover pull-through work could be used to transfer, store, and communicate opportunities between the technicians and sales team. Using a cloud-based machine health management platform allows customer data to be stored and accessed on the spot (including all assets -> machines on site). Tools that help aggregate and share this data along with real-time machine diagnostics enable your entire service team to collaborate on the best sales approach. In the end, technology like this provides your technicians with the means necessary to approach your customers with fully vetted, sales-department-approved proposals for additional work while still on site.

4. Create a Field-Service-Specific Team of Technicians (and Treat Them as Their Own Business)

As we’ve seen, field service can be a key revenue generator for any mechanical organization. And yet, it can often be overlooked as a simple call-to-deploy team reacting to the sales division and inbound leads.

By creating a specific division within the company, you can begin to empower this independent department by investing in it directly and holding the team financially accountable. When framing their role in this manner, technicians are prompted to look at their hard costs, revenue generators, and time spent in a new light. This proven structure encourages and motivates the service team to create more business and aligns them to the overall company growth goals.

Begin the Empowerment Today

Following these steps to create an autonomous service organization that is supplied with the proper tools and technology can help your technicians to sell in the field. The sooner you set it up, the sooner they will be able to generate pull-through revenue. Your technicians may be the best salespeople you have. It’s time to put them to the test.

Find out how Augury can enable your techs to sell in the field. Get a demo!

The post Empowering Your Mechanical Service Technicians to Sell in the Field appeared first on Augury.