About
In manufacturing, production processes involve material feed. A material feed can happen automatically (e.g. through a conveyor-belt system) or manually, depending on the set-up of the manufacturing step.
Challenge
In the tyre-building industry, creating a tyre is a complex process. Because of the used material components, it is also challenging and delicate to produce a high-quality product which does not compromise the safety of the future vehicle. Rubber is an organic substance and the main component of a finished tyre. Still, at the same time, it must be used within a specific period before it loses particular properties. Therefore, it is crucial to feed a curing machine with rubber that is not expired.
Manual feeding of material includes selecting a material container from stock, positioning it at the machine, and feeding it into it. Picking the correct material container among dozens or hundreds can be a difficult, sometimes impossible, task to do. If the worker gets the wrong container, he has to return to stock in the best case, looking for a suitable one; in the worst case, expired material is fed into the producing machine and creates a low-quality product or scrap. Both lead to the waste of resources and loss of money, decreasing productivity and profitability.
Solution
Asset Agent addresses this challenge by connecting all material containers with digital data. Creating digital twins in the database enables the Manufacturing Process Software to choose the flow of material containers based on the "First in, first out"-principle. Following, Asset Agent informs the worker which container to collect by the "pick by light" functionality so only the correct material is being fed into the production machine. As a result, waste is avoided, and productivity is increased.
