YCM Turns to Advantech to Co-Create a CNC Management Solution for Intelligent Metal Manufacturing
Interview with YCM
Metal manufacturing industries have faced countlesschallenges in recent years. China is no exception to the challenge. Commonproblems that face China’s metal fabrication industry include a lack ofstandardized communication interfaces, low level intelligence in existingequipment, and low level of informatization in existing systems.
With more than six decades of experience in machine toolmanufacturing, YCM (Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co. Ltd.®) have deep tradeexperience in China’s metal manufacturing industry. However, with the advent ofIndustry 4.0 and new trends in IoT, even leaders such as YCM face hugechallenges in making their manufacturing smarter using digitized informationand visualized data intelligence. Challenges such as rapid changes in themarketplace, emerging market competition, limited resources and sustainability,slow growth, labor shortages and transitioning business integration are commonproblems in China’s metal manufacturing industry.
So how can China’s metal manufacturers turn today’sproblems into tomorrow’s success? The key is to focus on process managementthat yields decreased time-to-market while delivering high-quality andcompetitive product pricing. To meet this challenge YCM looked to Advantech andits CNC Machine Management Solution, a Machine-to-Intelligence Solution ReadyPackage that implements CNC machine management (M2I/CNC SRP), to meet theirdemands and simplify manufacturing by rapidly upgrading legacy systems forsuccessful transition into the Industry 4.0 era.
Advantech also has a wealth of industry experience inindustrial automation, including metals processing. With more than 35 years inproviding manufacturing customers across the globe with IoT hardware andsoftware solutions such as the WISE-PaaS IoT Edge Intelligence Platform andAIoT SRP, Advantech delivers custom IoT solutions in an increasinglycompetitive global market.
By employing Advantech’s M2I/CNC SRP, YCM has been ableto integrate IoT cloud features directly with its CNC controllers to facilitatemachine data acquisition through the WISE-PaaS industrial cloud platform.
In subscribing to the M2I/CNC cloud service onAdvantech’s WISE-PaaS Marketplace, YCM was able to easily examine overallequipment effectiveness (OEE), performance, and event history for individualCNC devices by viewing web-based dashboards. Cloud-based solutions allowed forthe collection of data for instant machine-to-cloud management without havingto install a server room infrastructure. The OEE dashboard, in combination withhistorical performance data and real-time trends, provided a comprehensiveoperational overview. Through additional optimization, critical andnon-critical issues alike are easily identified— minimizing system downtime andproviding insight into proactive maintenance forecasting.
By utilizing Advantech’s M2I/CNC SRP, YCM has been ableto realize reductions in operational costs. In a recent metal processing order,YCM saw operational cost reductions through the rapid deployment of Advantech’sSRP solution. By eliminating unnecessary costs and loss-of-businessopportunities, YCM was able to rapidly deploy smarter manufacturing processes,and deliver customer products to market faster than otherwise possible.
As a new service business dedicated to further meetChina’s growing CNC and metals production and fabrication market demands, YCMhas also teamed with Advantech to co-create Dot Zero®. By offering a broadrange of smart manufacturing solutions, Dot Zero has been able to deliversignificant savings across industries. With solutions such as CNC MachineManagement, Equipment Management System (EMS), Work In Process (WIP), andStatistical Process Control (SPC), Dot Zero can assist in combining smartmanagement with smart machines to realize the ultimate in smart automation –your Smart Factory Dream.