In times of high costs for materials and energy, the search for savings is now part of daily business. Process flows offer very good approaches for this. Sometimes it is possible to optimise production with small changes, for example, and thus increase productivity. These factors need to be found. Digitalisation provides the necessary data for this.
What exactly must be done to make use of digitalisation to increase productivity?
The first step is to collect the actual data. For example, how long is the arc time? How many components are welded per shift? This provides a starting value that can be determined digitally for both manual and automated welding.
In automated production processes, data is collected automatically around the clock. For production processes with a focus on manual welding, the consumption data is obtained via the data management system of the power source. This is already integrated in the power sources of most manufacturers. It records measurement data such as arc time, current, voltage, wire consumption and shielding gas consumption per time unit or per weld seam. For example, the energy consumption for welding can be calculated from the current and voltage data. The number of welds is also determined via this system.
The number of welded components per shift is either counted in manual welding or the software of the welding power source has an optional function that can be used to enter the number of welds for components. In this case, the system automatically counts the number of welded parts.
The next step is to compare the welding workplaces – also in the different shifts. This is possible for manual workplaces as well as for robot-assisted workplaces. When comparing these data, productivity differences become visible in most cases. For example, productivity is typically lower in the third shift or the night shift than in the early shift or the late shift.
Differences in productivity can have a variety of causes. For example, non-productive times such as preparing the workplace, assembling materials, etc. may be higher at one workplace than at another. Or the arc time is lower in comparison because the fixture is not optimally adjusted.
With the help of the digitally recorded parameters, differences in process flows become visible and causes as well as optimisation potentials can be uncovered. Digitalisation is therefore an important tool for increasing productivity.
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