A breakthrough visual intelligence tool for measuring manufacturing performance
What’s going on right now on the production floor? You can spend hours reviewing reports and taking Gemba walks around the shop floor, and it still doesn’t add up. Why are our capacity numbers up compared to last week?
Even smaller manufacturing operations can become so complex as to defy understanding. For starters, a typical factory is equipped with diverse machinery from different eras, ranging from:
- Sophisticated automated systems — and perhaps robots — loaded with sensors and touchscreens
- Older systems with limited sensors and gauges
- Legacy machines without sensors that are too expensive to replace. (Maybe next year!)
Equally diverse is the rotating cast of frontline employees who operate the machinery, move the product down the line, and often perform highly skilled production steps by hand. There are never enough skilled workers, and scheduling is a constant challenge.
Then there are external factors over which you have little control. The production line is buffeted by an unreliable supply chain and increasingly demanding customer requests for custom runs. Just when you feel you have a handle on it, a new product line or supply crunch changes the rules.
You know you need to cut waste and improve capacity, but where to begin? The first step is to find the courage to believe in the art of the possible. You need to believe that your operation can improve and then share that spirit with key stakeholders from the front office to the front line.
The next step is to improve visibility into your operations to find out where the waste, inefficiencies, and best practices are hiding. This requires measuring performance at every step within the production process – not once, but continuously.
Is that even possible? Thanks to AI and machine vision, it is now.
Operations Made Visible
For the first time, there is a tool that can capture, measure, and help explain every facet of your operation, including the human-related tasks between the machines. With Leela AI’s Visual Intelligence Platform, manufacturing executives can illuminate the links between hundreds of production steps and the big picture of plant performance.
Our AI-driven visual intelligence system recognizes and compares every production step across different workstations and shifts. Based on Leela’s metrics and insights, manufacturing executives can achieve an unprecedented view into operations and discover hidden sources of waste and best practices.
Tracking performance in real time
Now Leela AI has expanded its Leela Platform with the Leela Performance Module. The new module can do something that has never been possible: visually track completed production units as they pass down the line and automatically detect value-add direct labor input.
Based on production targets entered for each workstation and shift, Leela Performance Module visually counts the number of pieces completed per hour and measures and categorizes time usage into planned downtime, unplanned downtime and changeovers. The software measures actual production vs planned production and offers insights into why the team is performing particularly fast or slow.
Combined with Leela Platform’s other capabilities, Leela Performance Module enables managers to discover the root cause of performance changes. The result is a tool for continuous improvement at every workstation for every hour of every shift.
Start Small, Think Big
The cloud-SaaS deployed Leela Platform is fast to deploy and train. Start by adding a camera at the most productive stations and then expand from there. Frontline workers are not required to enter data or learn new software skills, and there is no need to change existing software or hardware.
Leela generates graphical metrics in the mobile-friendly Leela Viewer dashboard along with video drill-down with VCR controls. The platform can also export data to other software via industry-standard protocols including MQTT and OPC-UA. Facial blurring and options such as time-limiting or disabling video storage help to ensure privacy and frontline acceptance.
With Leela Platform, amplified by Leela Performance Module, your operation will become far more visible – and thereby measurable and improvable. Leela’s visual intelligence illuminates the performance of every activity on the floor, not only on the machines equipped with sensors. For the first time, you have access to all the data you need to drive operational excellence.