An Intera Insights image from Rethink Robotics’ display at MD&M West [Photo by managing editor Chris Newmarker]
Think easy access to metrics including cycle time, part count, speed and force.
“Instead of just having it be ones and zeros — discreet signals — we’re actually going to package it up and turn into something useful like uptime and runtime, an average cycle time — all those kinds of things that manufacturers can use to better optimize the process and be a little bit more efficient,” Chris Harbert, Rethink’s VP of sales for North America, told Medical Design & Outsourcing last week at MD&M West in Anaheim, Calif.
The Intera 5.2 software expansion, announced in November 2017, is meant to give operators and line managers valuable data at a glance from Sawyer.
Whether it’s Rethink or others, making sure the data is actionable for manufacturers is the next step, Harbert said.
A manufacturer, for example, might figure out through the data that a bottle filler station is slowing down the line downstream. Or perhaps the factory floor layout is placing one line at a disadvantage over another when it comes to delivery of needed parts.
“The real magic comes with, ‘What are you going to do with that?’ … How do you integrate Sawyer’s data into performance data … discreet actions. How do you improve that right now?”
Rethink Robotics (Boston) serves advanced manufacturers in a wide array of industries, including the medical device space.
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