What Is the True Cost of Running the Equipment?-Cathy

With such a large investment, a manufacturer needs to know at what level of efficiency the equipment is operating. You need to know more than just if the machine is running or not running. This is where equipment performance monitoring comes in.

It’s important for you to find out if software can measure the laser cutting machine’s overall equipment efficiency (OEE) in real time. If so, do your other laser cutting machines also can use the software. If you have them, so that you might discover “hidden capacity” where you think there was none?

With the cost of about 1 percent of the equipment price, monitoring software can provide a 10 to 50 percent productivity gain with paybacks of less than four months.

Will We Need New Software?

In many instances, manufacturers are already using a software package that everyone is used to. Will that software be able to work efficiently with the new laser cutting machine. Or will you be better off purchasing the OEM’s software? If the latter, what new capabilities come with the new software?

As more of the manufacturing world is talking about increased interconnectivity among machines and software systems. It behooves you to ask if the new software is capable of running other machines already in place on the shop floor. Additionally, it’s worth having a conversation as to how the laser might integrate into the company’s network. Laser cutting speeds aren’t the only thing increasing at an incredibly fast pace; collecting pertinent manufacturing information in the blink of an eye is leading to more timely and impactful decision making for manufacturers.