Rabbit® Helps Ritech Inc. Increase Manufacturing Efficiencies
Using the Dynamic C libraries also lowered costs by saving on development time and royalty fees. All these advantages also increased the OPI’s reliability.
With pressure on manufacturers to constantly improve lean manufacturing processes, Ritech Inc. has selected the Rabbit RabbitCore RCM4200 module to collect data for their performance monitoring solution from all the critical process points.
For over 25 years, Ritech has been providing custom electronics designs which include equipment testing and manufacturing equipment management and monitoring. Ritech’s Performance Management Monitor is a highly sophisticated monitoring system comprised of a main PC, MPM 2008 management software, and OPI4200 operator interface modules.
The OPI4200 module, which is powered by the RabbitCore 4200 core module, serves as an end node to the performance network. An OPI is placed at each manufacturing machine throughout the factory where it communicates with the PC running the MPM 2008 software responsible for control and monitoring. The operator interface is capable of a variety of networking standards including TCP/IP, UDP, SMTP, FTP, HTTP, AJAX, RabbitWeb, RS-232 and graphic display control.
The RCM4200 enables the OPI to accomplish the following:
- Track production in real-time
- Count units made, scrapped, or reworked
- Count daily totals, setup time, downtime, and uptime
- Calculate target, average time per part, availability, performance, quality, and OEE
- Record when the first and last parts were made
- Count when a user defined input occurs (or doesn't occur within a specified time)
- Data log everything for analysis (including operator actions)
- Display live results on Andon or Factory Vision Displays
- Play tunes on Andon or Factory Vision Displays when problems occur
- Send e-mails when problems occur
- Escalates problems when they are not dealt with appropriately
- Optionally restrict access to specific operators
- Host a website that reports live results
The OPI4200 uses an OLED 128x64 bit grayscale display, keypad, and magnetic card reader to interface with an operator. There is also an option to use the RS-232 port to connect a barcode reader or other customer specified devices such as a PLC. The information gathered by the OPI is sent to the main PC over an Ethernet back bone via the RCM4200. The MPM 2008 software takes the information from all the OPIs and analyzes the production at anytime. Reports and email alerts are sent to management and decisions to implement lean manufacturing will be applied to increase efficiency and reduce cost.
“The RabbitCore® RCM4200 module was the logical choice,” said Janet Rice of Ritech. “It has a fast processor, 512K flash and 512K fast SRAM, 10/100 Ethernet connectivity, serial ports, external memory bus for OLED display, keypad, digital I/O lines, and eight channel A/D.”
“Using the Dynamic C libraries also lowered costs by saving on development time and royalty fees. All these advantages also increased the OPI’s reliability,” said Rice.
As a complete solution Ritech experienced the cost-savings that Rabbit has brought to the performance monitoring system. The Dynamic C® integrated development environment also helped to bring Rabbit’s ease-of-use to Ritech’s performance monitoring System application.
For more information on Ritech, visit: ca.geocities.com/ritech@rogers.com/index.html
Submit your design application success story to press@rabbit.com
Read more Customer Success Stories