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Manufacturing / Industrial IoT

Industrial IoT on a precision-engineering shop floor

A precision-engineering firm ran its CNC machining lines well below industry benchmarks for equipment effectiveness, with downtime recorded on paper and maintenance entirely reactive. We connected the machines and gave the floor live data, OEE dashboards and predictive alerts.

ClientPrecision-engineering manufacturer (confidential)
IndustryManufacturing / Industrial IoT
What we deliveredIIoT platform, machine connectivity, OEE dashboards, maintenance alerts
Industrial IoT on a precision-engineering shop floor
Live OEEEvery line, every shift
HalvedUnplanned downtime
Condition-basedTooling and maintenance

01 The challenge

Unplanned downtime was running at several hours per line per day, but nobody could say reliably why — downtime causes were written on job cards after the event, and the data was incomplete. Tooling was replaced on a fixed schedule rather than on condition, and maintenance only found out about problems when a machine stopped.

02 What we did

  • Machine connectivity to every CNC line via controller protocols and retro-fitted sensors for older equipment
  • Live OEE dashboards — availability, performance and quality per line, shift and product
  • Automatic downtime capture with operator reason codes on a tablet at the machine
  • Condition-based tooling and maintenance alerts from spindle load, vibration and cycle data
  • Maintenance work-order workflow with response-time tracking

03 The results

  • OEE lifted from well below to within industry benchmark range
  • Unplanned downtime roughly halved across the lines
  • Tool changes moved to condition-based, cutting tooling spend
  • Maintenance response measured in minutes instead of hours

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