Industrial Intelligence

Wood Product Manufacturer

Case Study

Reducing Downtime

PRoblem

The company is a wood product manufacturer creating OSB boards with a very large press.

OSB presses create a high amount of strain during normal operations. When the press regularly exceeds its endurance limit, the components break down more quickly causing unplanned downtime and maintenance costs.

The downtime was very expensive, into 7-figures.

Wood product manufacturer producing OSB boards with large press.

Solution

An assessment of the situation and the equipment was performed. Recommendations on a solution were provided.

PTC ThingWorx IoT software platform and Kepware industrial connectivity were selected for implementing the solution, along with installing strain gauges, an Allen Bradley PLC. The PLC was connected via secure cellular modem to ThingWorx in the cloud, avoiding security issues with the manufacturer’s OT and IT networks.

A working solution was implemented within under 4 weeks.

Wood product manufacturer producing OSB boards with a large press.

Results

The very expensive downtime has been reduced, saving the manufacturer significant money. Payback timing was estimated to be within 2-3 months of implementation.

The solution is now extendible, where new sets of data and additional valuable information for operators and management can be added. The solution can also be added to additional presses and plants with the same setup of strain gauges and PLC.

An additional benefit has been the reduced time and expense of manual maintenance inspections previous performed because the metal components in question were difficult to access for visual inspection.

Our Client’s Results

Our open technology approach combined with a structured Unified Namespace, focus on solving the business challenges first, and more value through less complexity has helped our customers achieve great success. The result is real-time visibility for solving many plant challenges using a scalable and flexible solution. Clients often achieve 30-50% improvement in OEE within the first 6 months with our solutions, and the long-term value of the data in their company is priceless.