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MEMEX - Machine Monitoring

To Measure Is To Know – MTConnect book

The world’s first book on MTConnect, an open and royalty-free interoperability standard and the application of open systems in manufacturing has been released and it is titled,  MTConnectTo Measure Is To Know”.  Written by Dave Edstrom, CEO/CTO of MTConnect, the book discusses the many lessons learned in the world of open systems and the value this means to the manufacturing industry.

Dave Edstrom has spent over 35 years in the computer industry.  He helps the reader understand that MTConnect is not just an evolution in manufacturing, but that it is a revolution, a true game changer.  “MTConnect will be more important in the 21st century for manufacturing than CNC was for manufacturing in the 20th century” said John Byrd, former president of Association Manufacturing Technology, www.amtonline.org   (MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg xiii).  MTConnect is making the dreams and desires of generations of manufactures possible.  Machine tool builders and manufacturing equipment providers alike all want to see the same goal of different devices having a common connection on the plant floor.  With MTConnect, anything is possible.

A few excerpts from the book:

“Only one to two percent of all shops monitor their shop floor.  The ability to know what is happening on your shop or plant floor anywhere, at anytime, is vital to the manufacturing process.  As a comparison, the next time you go in for a surgery, tell the surgeon that you want to save money and not monitor any of your vital signs.  Drop me a note and tell me what the surgeon tells you.  Then why is it that 98% to 99% of all shops don’t bother monitoring their shop floor?

Think of MTConnect as the Bluetooth of manufacturing that makes it easy to get information off your manufacturing equipment.  MTConnect is not an application, but it makes it very easy for applications to read data in a common and universal format.

Different Devices, Common Connection.
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg xii).

“The process of standardization is always a political struggle with winners and losers.  The primary winners will be those companies that understand it is co-opetition (competition and cooperation) that drives thriving markets.  The primary losers will be those companies holding on to proprietary solutions at all costs.  With a standard screw, you could now have standard tools, standard assembly lines, and the growth of mass production.”
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 3.)

“If we look at the manufacturing companies that are embracing open thinking and open collaboration, these companies report secondary benefits in morale as their employees typically tell their management that they have a much higher job satisfaction.”
(MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 22).

Memex is mentioned in the acknowledgements

“Huge thanks to Dave McPhail, president of Memex Automation.  Dave is a great guy, and so is his business partner, John Rattray, who is the vice president of sales and marketing, as well as the whole Memex Automation team.  Thanks as well to Bob Hansen of R.C. Hansen Consulting for his help at [MC]2 2013 and educating me on OEE”
(Dave Edstrom, MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know. Ashburn: Virtual Photons Electrons, 2013. pg 209).

There is a paperback version that is available at Amazon.

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Memex Automation participating at IMTS since 1992

Memex Automation invites you to meet us at IMTS 2010, at our booth in the Automation Center, East Building.
Memex is participating at IMTS, as it has for the last 18 years, since 1992, in Chicago for September 13-18, 2010, booth number E-3868 at McCormick Place.

Memex has a medium sixe 20 ft by 20 ft booth and is showcasing it’s advanced OEE+DNC software, Ax9150 Universal Machine Interface, Mx1053 Universal Network Interface for Serial to Ethernet communications and Ax2200 HS-FS File Server hardware.

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Memex Adopts New XML Connectivity Standard MTConnect

The next evolution in manufacturing connectivity was unveiled by Memex Automation Inc. and MatrikonOPC™, the world’s largest OPC connectivity provider, at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held this week in Chicago. Utilizing MatrikonOPC’s standards-based connectivity, Memex is now able to connect virtually all CNC machine tools leveraging our Dynamic Computer Aided Machining (DCAM) model. Our goal is to provide a universal machine interface that makes every machine a node on the corporate network.

Production Managers can now monitor the status of every machine in their plant, giving real time visibility of production. The benefits of machine monitoring and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) numbers lead directly to increased productivity. Our customers have seen up to 20% increase in shop floor efficiency, delivering more value than the cost of a new machine. Large multi-national manufacturers and leading aerospace companies have started adopting this technology. It’s like a low cost retrofit – we now can start Automating the Automation.