Wastecycle (part of Enva) is the leading waste management and recycling company in the East Midlands, processing over 500,000 tonnes of material through its recycling facilities each year, more than 95% of which is recycled and recovered.

Initially looking to monitor just one waste conveyor, the company realised the benefits that PlantRun could offer them across all their facilities. This led to the company investing in a PlantRun system at the Nottingham and two Leicester sites, in a two-phased approach on REDOX, Reuse and SRF lines.

Although OEE measures were being made, they were a result of manual form filling and manual data entry, both of which are prone to errors. In addition, the manual data collection process couldn’t accurately monitor when the lines were running or stopped, for all 24 hours of the day.

Integration with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES): In larger manufacturing setups, production monitoring systems can be integrated with MES software. MES systems manage the entire production process, from orders to scheduling to quality control. Integration with CNC machine monitoring data provides a holistic view of production operations and helps in making informed decisions at various levels of the manufacturing process. 

A computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) can also be integrated with PlantRun, allowing operators to raise tickets from their operator interface without having to leave the machine.

PlantRun uses data visualisation to make the data collected by the system more understandable and actionable. Data visualisation techniques, such as charts, graphs, and dashboards, are used to present the data in a way that is easy to understand and interpret. This allows users to quickly identify potential problems and take corrective action.

KPI dashboards provide a high-level overview of the CNC machine production process. These dashboards can be used to track KPIs such as OEE, products made, downtime, and scrap rate.

These dashboards can also be used to track information such as the current status of the machine, the current and last downtime reasons, setup times, changeovers, etc.

Production reports provide a more detailed view of the bottling line production process. These reports can be used to track information such as the number of bottles produced, the amount of product produced, and the time taken to produce a bottle.

In addition to the benefits and data visualisation capabilities that are common to all production monitoring systems, PlantRun's CNC machine production monitoring system can also offer the following optional features:

Process Measurements for Extended Tool Life: Monitoring cutting forces, temperatures, power usage and other relevant data helps optimise tool usage. Operators can adjust parameters to reduce excessive wear and extend tool life, reducing tool replacement costs.

Regulatory Compliance: In industries with stringent quality and regulatory requirements, production monitoring helps ensure compliance by providing traceable data on process parameters, machine performance, and product quality.