October 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 75

Digging for treasure has gotten easier:

Manufacturing systems hold a treasure

trove of operational data waiting to be mined

by smart shop-floor managers, who need

fast and reliable delivery of factory status

information to stay competitive. The latest

versions of shop-floor data collection and data management

systems boast more robust database architectures, better doc-

ument management of CNC program files, and improved use

of shop-floor metrics, with data-sharing kiosks and electronic

touch-screen whiteboards even appearing on shop floors. And

while virtually all software developers of data management

systems boast fast or real-time data delivery today, that may

not mean the same thing to all end users.

Shop foreman at Custom Mold & Design (New Hope, MN) uses Exact Software’s ShopBoss scheduling tool to quickly

visualize current jobs, prioritizing and shifting the workload in real time to meet customer demand.

Fast, Accurate Decision MakingHelps Keep Shops CompetitiveWith advanced data management software, shop managers get timely information to handle factory-floor operations more effectively

Patrick WaurzyniakSenior Editor

Manufacturing Software

Photo courtesy Exact Software North America

Most shop-floor data management systems today are

relational database management systems (RDBMS) that can

quickly and efficiently process high-volume transactional data,

and many systems also use the Structured Query Language

(SQL). Some shop data management systems also are sup-

porting the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which make

it easier for machine tools and software to communicate data

and is central to the data communications protocol pushed by

the MTConnect Institute (McLean, VA).

Focusing on Job Shops

With its latest update, Exact Software

North America LLC (Minneapolis) has

added a revamped application program-

ming interface (API) to its JobBoss Ver-

sion 11.7 shop-floor data management

software that includes customer-driven

enhancements targeting custom build-

to-order job shops. In the Version 11.7

released to beta testing in September,

the enterprise resource planning (ERP)

software allows customers to deploy

one of two SQL versions, Microsoft SQL

Express or full Microsoft SQL Server.

“Probably 90% of our customers

today self-identify as a job shop,” David

Lechleitner, pre-sales principal, Exact

North America. “We’ve seen a shift

though in recent years, where more

companies are entering into long-term

contracts with some of their customers,

but they would still identify what they do

as custom make-to-order.”

The upgraded API and the new XML

functionality help JobBoss communicate

with other software, Lechleitner said.

“We’re upgrading our API enabling

other applications, be it design pack-

ages like SolidWorks or nesting software

for fabricators, to have a better founda-

tion by which they can communicate to

us in real time.

“What Web services allow us to do

is leverage a different level of infrastruc-

ture—less moving parts, more seam-

less communication back-and-forth,

using really the same technology that

MTConnect is using, which is that XML

programming language.”

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76 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013

Manufacturing Software

With prior versions of JobBoss, users had the option to

deploy Microsoft’s Access relational database, which has a

2-GB database size limit, he noted. Originally written in CO-

BOL in 1984, the software later moved to the Access platform.

Lechleitner said the package has had a mixture of Access

and SQL components, but Version 11.7 will be a 100% SQL

database platform. JobBoss comes in three versions—Starter,

Professional and Enterprise Editions. The Professional and

Enterprise versions include a ShopBoss

scheduling tool for prioritizing and al-

locating workloads in real time based on

customer demands.

“The big reason that both we and

other solutions have moved away from

Access is really because of its under-

lying technology. Access was really

designed for low transactional data

sets—not a lot of activity hitting on a

literally minute-by-minute basis,” he

added. “So what SQL provides the end

user is more comfort and security, and

much less database corruption issues—

the database is rock-solid.”

With quality holding high priority,

Exact signed a partnership agreement

in July with uniPoint (Winnepeg, MB,

Canada), a developer of quality soft-

ware, under which uniPoint’s quality

management software modules will

be offered within JobBoss. “What we

found in the marketplace is that a lot of

ERP solutions would have embedded

solutions for quality but when it comes

to nonconformance, corrective actions,

and maintenance, that’s where most

embedded solutions stop,” Lechleitner

said. JobBoss Quality by uniPoint adds

quality-specific modules for auditing,

AS9100 compliance, customer service,

supplier management, validation and

many other quality elements.

Managing Data More Effectively

Shop-floor management software

developer Cimco Americas LLC (Stream-

wood, IL) offers a suite of data manage-

ment and collection tools including its

MySQL-based MDC-Max, a manufactur-

ing data collection package for real-time

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78 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013

Manufacturing Software

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monitoring and analysis of shop-floor productivity. The North

American unit of Cimco A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark), Cimco

Americas also has CNC-Calc, a basic CAD/CAM program for

the shop floor, plus other applications including Edit 7, DNC-

Max 7 (distributed NC) software for communication of CNC

programs, and a Product Data Management (PDM) package

for managing, controlling and securely storing all production-

related data.

Cimco’s database products come standard with MySQL,

an open-source SQL database—unless users want to upgrade

to the full SQL versions, which require a license. “MySQL is a

free database,” said Jody Romanowski, Cimco CEO. “It’s part

of our installation, or we can connect MS SQL, but then the

system will be more costly because the customer will have to

purchase and maintain a SQL server.” In many circumstanc-

es, Cimco's software actually performs better and has lower

administrative requirements with MySQL, which is now owned

by Oracle, Romanowski noted.

“To compete, machine shops have to find any way possi-

ble to make efficient use of personnel,” she said. “That means

eliminating work that is redundant or that can be automated,

and having the data you need exactly when you need it, so

production is not slowed down. Our customers are looking for

products that will help them do more with less people, and

they’re using technology to help them.”

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October 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 79

With Cimco’s PDM software, shops easily manage and track

the latest CAD/CAM part programs, helping to reduce

scrap and errors caused by using outdated part programs.

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Along with the MDC-Max data collection package, Cimco

offers a part program database, NC-Base, that Romanowski

said is its most popular product. “Our DNC and the Edit soft-

ware are very widely used, but for higher-end database type

products, NC-Base is very popular. It’s an easy-to-manage

database. It’s part-program centric, and it will track all the

revisions for a customer that a part program goes through,

while letting you associate other documentation with the part

program. And of course, it has security so you can do read-

only access on the shop floor.”

Having the right part program at the right time cuts down

on errors and improves quality, she added. “What’s always

been a big driving factor for us and those systems is to elimi-

nate errors. When we go in, a lot of times the data isn’t orga-

nized very well. It’s fairly common for somebody to go grab a

file and in it is an old print, or it’s an old NC program they find

on some drive somewhere—they run that and it ends up not

being the current version or the most accurate version. We’re

trying to prevent that with our software for our customers,

by reducing scrap and mistakes, and getting the data to the

people who need it more quickly and efficiently.”

Sharing Data through Shop Kiosks

As access to shop-floor data proliferates through hand-

held devices, customers are also looking to push that data

out onto the shop floor to reach a wider audience. After

introducing its iVet app for iPhone and iPad at IMTS 2012,

ERP software developer Henning Industrial Software (Hud-

son, OH) has added the Visual EstiTrack Shop Kiosk for dis-

playing ERP information more freely on large LCD monitors

on the shop floor, noted Rich Henning, president, Henning

Industrial Software.

“We’re seeing more people who want to share key

performance data with their staff to provide timely feedback

on how well they’re doing,” Henning said. “Traditionally

this type of information sharing has been through posting

Manufacturing Software

paper reports on a bulletin board in public areas. Our new

electronic Shop Kiosk provides shops an alternative to post-

ing paper reports. It provides an electronic and interactive

dissemination method for content via a touchscreen LCD

using a modern, tiled Windows 8 interface.”

Real-Time Analysis is Key

To be competitive, manufacturing operations must collect

and analyze factory-floor data in real time in order to more ef-

fectively gage overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and other

factors. Until fairly recently, however, the costs for machine

tool data collection have been prohibitive, with only larger

manufacturing operations able to easily afford them. “It’s criti-

cal that manufacturers focus on things in real time,” said Greg

Mercurio, president, Shop Floor Automations Inc. (La Mesa,

CA), a manufacturing integrator for collection and manage-

ment solutions from Predator Software and Scytec Systems.

Since last year, shops looking to lower data collection and

monitoring costs have been using the Scytec Consulting Inc.

(Greenwood, CO) cloud-based data monitoring system that

Shop Floor Automations distributes. “We’re the sales, service

and support partner for them, which includes demonstrations

and on-site visits,” Mercurio said. “The difference in this ap-

proach is it’s a ‘try before you buy.’”

Some years ago, it was commonplace to pay $2000–

$3000 per machine for shop monitoring, Mercurio said, but

with the Scytec cloud-based alternative, it costs shops a frac-

tion of those prices. “For the medium-sized to smaller shops,

Scytec’s cloud-based low-cost shop-floor monitoring

system offers users real-time views of factory equipment

operational status.

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Shop

Flo

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utom

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c.

typically 50–100 users or less, the reality is they don’t have

that type of money,” Mercurio said. “With this system, the cost

is much lower up-front.”

The Predator MDC (Manufacturing Data Collection) suite

of machine data monitoring, collection and analysis software

features real-time performance with reports, charts and

dashboards. The software suite tracks key manufacturing

metrics such as OEE, cycle time, idle time, setup time, and

machine downtime. Available as Predator MDC, MDC Express

or Enterprise editions, the package is based on open-archi-

tecture client-server database standards with users selecting

from either Microsoft Access or Microsoft Server or Oracle. In

August, Predator released an update of its PDM application,

adding performance improvements for users viewing vault

data and increasing the maximum number of vault items.

“Productivity, reliability and revision control have been

and will continue to be the hallmarks of modern shop floor

DNC networking and communication software,” said Jim

Abbassian, president, Predator Software Inc. (Portland,

OR). “MDC or Manufacturing Data Collection and machine

monitoring provide actual shop-floor metrics that feed back

into improved scheduling and improved ROI on shop floor

utilization and management. PDM has traditionally been

used on engineering drawings, but lately we have developed

manufacturing-based document management that addresses

the requirements of CNC program management and manu-

facturing shop-floor document management.” ME

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82 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013

Manufacturing Software

Cimco Americas LLC Ph: 888-DNC-7858

Web site: www.cimco.com

Exact Software North America LLCPh: 800-777-4334

Web site: www.exact.com

Henning Industrial Software Ph: 330-650-4212

Web site: www.henningsoftware.com

Predator Software Inc.Ph: 503-292-7151

Web site: www.predator-software.com

Shop Floor Automations Inc. Ph: 619-461-4000

Web site: www.shopfloorautomations.com

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