Original Date: 07/23/1996
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Nascote developed an Automated Production & Process Information eXchange system to correct an ineffective shop floor data collection process. Shop floor data was previously stored on paper and filed away by department and shift. Obtaining reports using the data was extremely difficult. Schedules were distributed by hand or verbally communicated often resulting in lost, outdated, or misinterpreted schedules. Workcenters lacked feedback about performance. Information written by each shift and sent to the material control group indicated which productions were completed at each workcenter in the department.

Development of the Nascote Automated Production & Process Information eXchange began in 1991 and concluded a year later. This real-time data collection and retrieval system provides inventory, process and labor information to production departments, engineering, material control, and management. Concurrently, the Nascote Automated Production & Process Information eXchange provides access to process-related feedback for the machine operator and technician on the plant floor.

Nascote’s Automated Production & Process Information eXchange consists of over 30 industrial-strength PCS with touch screens, Ethernet cards for network access, wedge and badge scanners 17 OHAUS scales and 22 Intermec label printers. Software consists of in-house applications (customized to each department’s requirements) written in Visual Basic/Access to collect and display information to the plant floor; in-house applications written in Basic running on the factory computer (Unix based system) for faster processing; and, in-house applications written in Accessory Manager to connect to Nascote’s PC-LAN and to transmit data between each touch screen and the factory computer.

As a result of the installation of the shop floor control system, Nascote employees now have immediate access to the company Business Operating System (BOS) procedures on the manufacturing floor through any factory Nascote Automated Production & Process Information eXchange workstation. This has allowed the company to progress toward a semi-paperless factory and made manufacturing information available immediately to anyone within the plant. Information on total units produced, scrapped, or reworked, is available at any PC or terminal in the plant and can be electronically transmitted to production at the end of each shift. Scheduling, labor tracking, tooling maintenance, and machine monitoring information is also available anywhere within the plant. SPC data, collected on the shop floor, is also accessible to the entire plant as needed.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.