Aegis iMonitor 2.0 dashboard improves production tracking

The company claims that iMonitor represents a real revolution in information visibility by supplying customers with a simple means to custom-configure monitoring dashboards, right out of the box. Dashboards are constructed by dragging-and-dropping 'gauges' and 'charts' and other active elements into a design view similar to PowerPoint slide construction, along with user-provided graphics such as line pictures or plant drawings. The user then activates each element by simply indicating the Aegis xLink data source for that machine, tester, station or area of the process -and the dashboard instantly comes alive in real time.

To create unlimited drill-down investigation of real-time data, iMonitor works much like a normal website: users link any gauge or chart in one dashboard to another dashboard, creating a 'dashboard site structure' for unlimited interactivity.

Lineside displays

Many manufacturers want their real-time dashboards running above their lines on flat-panel displays. For these applications, iMonitor enables users to build 'slide shows' of multiple dashboards that rotate at user-defined time intervals without user interaction.

For customers using Aegis' Manufacturing Operations Software (MOS), iMonitor's Mini Dashboards can be made available within any Aegis shop-floor interface to provide each operator with whatever real-time information the engineers believe would benefit them at each station.

Additionally, iMonitor users may create unlimited numbers of dashboards and store them for viewing on the web. Dashboards can be secured to precisely limit access to a particular person or group of people and do not require refreshing as they automatically update their content in real time.

Server load management

For extensive deployments, Aegis invented an architectural technology to minimise server load as usage of dashboards increases in the enterprise. As the number of dashboards opened simultaneously increases, the load on Aegis servers increases at a far lower rate than dashboard technologies of the past.

Here is a sample of the types of real-time information an iMonitor-empowered enterprise has in real time in its web browsers:

• Quality: yield, paretos, counts, standard and in-process DPMO, DPU
• Materials Depletion: Materials Levels: at reel, feeder, cart, machine-factory wide
• Performance/Utilisation: state, utilisation, CPH, cycle time, production rate, machine faults
• Alarms: view Aegis system alarms instantly for resolution
• Production Control: Factory wide active WIP by customer, assembly, job, location, revision, etc. predictive job completion, progress, estimated time complete, line completion projections
• Predictive Line Down: number of units, number of components or time until materials depletion causes a line down condition
• Materials Setup Status: setup condition of every station system-wide
• Tooling Life and PM: usage and remaining total life as well as inter-service life periods for every tool, machine and fixture, system-wide

Aegis CEO Jason Spera says: "Manufacturers know real-time process information is valuable to everyone, from the line operator to the executive, but getting access to this information in an easy, cost-effective, and process-wide manner has proven elusive. iMonitor 2.0 makes the dream of factory-wide dashboards a reality by empowering the user to build their own dashboards and connecting them to Aegis's industry leading data acquisition systems within the factory. By supplying the customer with all the resources they need to be completely self-sufficient from a data visibility standpoint, we offer them an elegant and economical solution - the hallmark of Aegis products. From the early adopters of iMonitor, we have learned the only limit to its enthusiastic adoption is determining how to mount the plasma displays above the lines quickly enough."