Any production optimization is best started with a solid knowledge of the existing production and the bottlenecks/challenges that exist already. This way the funds can be prioritized on the basis of facts as opposed to financial allocation based on gut feelings – even though these can be correct from time to time. When you learn your Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) through data collection you know if you are a market leader or laggard in regard to efficiency. Thereby you also have the option to evaluate if a new factory is needed or if the existing equipment can be used better. The same data collection will also reveal where to focus the optimization and where bottlenecks exist as well as enable a faster and more precise diagnosis of any production problems or unplanned stops. This will naturally increase the up-time in the long run.

AN GROUP has the knowledge and expertise to handle OEE projects which has been acquired through our ongoing OEE-projects as well as our own OEE/Data collection system. Together with the customer we evaluate if an existing OEE-suite is suited best (e.g. GE FANUC or Wonderware) or if a more dedicated and flexible system perhaps better fulfill the customer´s requirements. We will make sure that sufficient hardware, software and implementation is included in the package, so the system can be implemented in the organization quickly. We implement all types of data collection and reporting systems and recommends the most appropriate one based on specific customer requirements such as “need for integration”, flexibility, innovation and price. It is possible to use e.g. the GE Fanuc Historian database, while the reporting system from AN GROUP is selected for the rest of the functionality. We focus on getting the relevant information for the operators as well as making the operation as easy and user friendly as possible e.g. using touch-screens when reporting stop-causes. Totally different information may be required for the operations management for the long term planning even though the data is taken from the same database using the same application. We make sure this is planned well before the implementation.