In the global mania of intelligent manufacturing, transforming a traditional labor-intensive factory into an intelligent factory is a trend and an objective of most factories today. The time-consuming and inefficient labor-intensive operation of many small-scale metal fabricated product factories in Taiwan poses a major production management problem. Accordingly, creating an intelligent factory that manages the factory machinery via cloud monitoring has become a prime issue, so that maintenance technicians may keep track of the operating status of machines in a timely manner.

MIRDC is highly experienced in system integration. In traditional production lines, the state of equipment has to be determined by judgment of seasoned technicians. Traditional operation relied on meter readers for obtaining data, which is prone to errors and inaccurate. Thus, productivity can only be enhanced through production scheduling based on past experiences. No accurate data is available to serve as a reference for the equipment utilization rate, material statuses, etc. MIRDC has offered the Cloud Stamping Line Monitoring System to help solve the problem of the industry. Sensors are installed on stamping molds to collect various signals such as sound, vibration, force, temperature, and light, for building a large database and generating visualized charts with the compiled data. A notice will be automatically issued to the workers of production line in case of any abnormal signals indicating that some molds are cracking or having other problems, and the equipment will be stopped for mold repair. By increasing management transparency of factory equipment through integration of telecommunication and IoT technologies, not only data concerning the status of critical equipment in the production line can be obtained immediately, instant monitoring can also be implemented on various factory affairs and facilities.

MIRDC is looking forward to collaborating with Advantech Co., Ltd., a global leader in the intelligent system, to include a machine-to-machine communication module in the system, which will help many stamping product manufacturers develop the necessary Cloud-SCADA monitoring system required for their production lines by using together with the remote monitoring tool WebAccess. With this system, managers can easily keep track of information such as the number of punches, processing time, on/off times of each stamping machine in the factory via a personal computer or mobile device. Thus, management can be streamlined, and production transparency, synergy, and leaning as well as dashboard management can be achieved. The system also allows a perfect integration of the manufacturing equipment on a company’s production lines with the information system, thus boosting response time of all departments, shortening delivery time, increasing efficiency, and cutting costs. Manufacturers may expect to stabilize their order processing capability and enhance global competitiveness after introducing the system under MIRDC’s guidance.