Abstract
In the new era of manufacturing with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the smart factory is getting much attention as a solution for the factory of the future. Despite challenges in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as short-term strategies and labor-intensive with limited resources, they have to improve productivity and stay competitive by adopting smart factory technologies. This study presents a novel monitoring approach for SMEs, KEM (keep an eye on your machine), and using a low-cost vision, such as a webcam and open-source technologies. Mainly, this idea focuses on collecting and processing operational data using cheaper and easy-to-use components. A prototype was tested with the typical 3-axis computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine. From the evaluation, availability of using a low-cost webcam and open-source technologies for monitoring of machine tools was confirmed. The results revealed that the proposed system is easy to integrate and can be conveniently applied to legacy machine tools on the shop floor without a significant change of equipment and cost barrier, which is less than $500 USD. These benefits could lead to a change of monitoring operations to reduce time in operation, energy consumption, and environmental impact for the sustainable production of SMEs.
Highlights
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, based on the latest advances in information and communication technology (ICT), is leading the overall change in the way we live, work, and relate to one another [1]
The results revealed that the proposed monitoring system is easy to integrate and can be conveniently applied for legacy machine tools on the shop floor without a change of equipment, such as the integration of an additional electric circuit
The evaluation confirmed that human machine interface (HMI) of machine tools could be monitored via a low-cost webcam, which leads to easy integration and reduction in time and difficulty, needed for changing control logic and wire configurations of the control system
Summary
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, based on the latest advances in information and communication technology (ICT), is leading the overall change in the way we live, work, and relate to one another [1]. To monitor the operational status automatically in SMEs, experienced operators and expert knowledge are required, as well as additional sensors or communication devices and software, not equipped with most legacy machine tools As mentioned earlier, these requirements have been barriers to adopt monitoring systems in SMEs. As mentioned earlier, these requirements have been barriers to adopt monitoring systems in SMEs Despite all these challenges, to remain competitive and sustainable growth in the current market challenges of highly customized products and stiff global competition, manufacturing companies, especially SMEs, have to find a way to increase the productivity and reduce environmental impacts on their shop floor [57,58].
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