Article by: MAZAK Thailand & MEGA Tech
The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 to improve the effectiveness, improve the product’s quality to become faster. Accordingly, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) then plays an important role in moving the economy, machines, equipment, as well as the systems of production process in factories must be able to better communicate as a network. It should have the integration in perception, information exchange, result showing, controlling, or working together by transcending the limitations in terms of time and place, in order to truly encourage the establishment of smart factories.
In this article, MEGA Tech proudly presents the evolution of creating smart factories by Mazak, a successful world class CNC machine production factory.
Our first Mazak iSMART Factory™ concept was first implemented in our global headquarters in Oguchi in early 2017 and it’s Singapore manufacturing plant in June 2017. In November 2019, the large-scale “Mazak iSMART Factory™” is completed in Minokamo Plant 1and Plant 2.
Collecting and analyzing big data, production can be optimized and production quality can be improved. All Mazak manufacturing facilities, in Japan and other countries, will be upgraded to Mazak iSMART Factories in their continuing evolution incorporating the state-of-the-art and best technologies as they become available.
The Mazak iSMART Factory™ facilitate real-time sharing of manufacturing data between the production floor and offices, ultimately resulting in shorter lead times, reduced in-process inventory and lower indirect labour expenses for manufacturers.
It is centred on three main key pillars, namely
- Smooth Technology
- The new SmartBox, which provides faster data analysis with increased security, and
- The MT Connect standard communication protocol.
Smooth Technology, incorporating fast CNC and Smooth Process Support factory management software, sits at the heart of Mazak’s Industry 4.0 infrastructure, due to its ability to reduce machining by 30%, connect entire machine shops and provide real-time monitoring and analysis capability.
Efficient and secure data processing is made possible by Mazak’s new SmartBox. Utilising Cisco’s FOG computing concept, the SmartBox effectively extends cloud computing closer to where the data is produced. This enables sensitive data to be analysed and acted upon securely with optimal speed, with only selected data sent to the cloud for historical analysis and long-term storage. Cybersecurity is maximised by a Cisco networking platform and Layer3 Managed Switch, industrialised for the factory environment. The SmartBox can interface with any machine fitted with an MT Connect adaptor regardless of manufacturer, age or CNC type. Older legacy machines can also be connected to the SmartBox with the addition of Mazak’s new SensorBox.
SmartBox to work with any machine regardless of make, model or age and will offer it in various configurations/kits based on the scenarios and challenges in which the units will be used. The device physically mounts to the side of machines without having to integrate into a machine’s electrical cabinet. With several standard input/output connecting ports, SmartBox lets users quickly and easily connect any standard off-the-shelf sensors to the system for machine data gathering and condition monitoring. One SmartBox may service several machine tools along with other associated manufacturing equipment, depending on the application.
The final pillar of Mazak’s iSmart Factory concept is the use of the MT Connect open communications protocol which works with process support software and provides connectivity and capability to monitor and harvest data from all the different production floor machines, cells, devices and processes.
