Collect, Generate and Display Production Information

At Stanpac, production is on target and everyone in the plant knows it.

Stanpac has installed monitoring and display systems visible throughout manufacturing which report production status against targets in real-time. Management sets and loads the targets with Palm Handhelds, then collects the results in their Palms.

About Stanpac

Stanpac (Smithville, Ontario Canada) screenprints on glass refillable bottles for milk, and one way glass for wine, liquor, and food products. One key to success in this competitive manufacturing area is keeping the production running at the proper rate. Printing too fast can compromise quality, not fast enough increases costs. Complicating things further, different products and different machinery require different setups. Sounds like typical manufacturing, doesn't it!

Making Data Visible

Stanpac took an aggressive, and visible, approach to production control, using Palm III handhelds to setup production parameters and monitoring machinery to collect production data for display and analysis. Using their Palms, Stanpac supervisors enter production rates, machine utilization targets and volume goals for each job and shift. These are then loaded from the Palm to monitoring and display systems that report real-time results throughout the shift. The real-time data has proven invaluable to Stanpac, improving their utilization and bottom line profits. This happens not only by allowing decisions to be made more quickly by management, it also allows the production operators to see exactly how they're doing on a real-time basis.

Scanning Devices provided an application on the Palm Handheld allowing job setups to be entered in the supervisors' Palms. The application guides the supervisor through data entry to make sure that it is complete and reasonable. Then it is loaded into the Stanpac production monitoring and display system. The interface between Palm and machine was simple and elegant - the Palm Hot-Sync cradle! Supervisors make their Palm entries in their offices prior to start of shift or job, put their Palm in the cradle cabled to machinery controls and push a button to load. Once loaded, the supervisor removes the Palm and the machinery runs, completely secure from any reprogramming or unauthorized adjustment. The Palm Handheld is like a portable touch-screen control for production machinery.

Keeping production on target at Stanpac is now easier with real-time displays of manufacturing status. Setting the targets is the job for Palm.

Counters, Timers and Ratemeters for Data Collection Smart Remote Displays Access Status with Wireless Palm
	Stanpac's Machine Control User Inteface uses Palm III

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