Short stoppages nobody adds up
A four-minute stop doesn't get written down. Twenty four-minute stops are eighty minutes of a machine that costs the same idle as running. The system adds them up by itself, with a reason.
Systems · Manufacturing
Parts per shift, stoppages and forecast, read from the machine.
A system that connects to each injection press or line's PLC and counts what the machine does: parts, cycles, stoppages and mold changes. With that it calculates each shift's efficiency and forecasts what time the target is met. The supervisor stops filling in the hour-by-hour on the whiteboard and the manager sees the plant from their phone.
Plant · injection floorPLC · Modbus TCP · --:--
Shift target: 4,500 · 0 PartsAt this pace the shift closes at 0−4,500 parts under target
Press · OEE 0%Shift stoppages
- Hydraulic failure0 min
- Material shortage0 min
- Mold change0 min
- Process adjustment0 min
Live simulation · sample data
The number comes from the machine and reaches the manager's phone.
Switch shifts or click a machine. The forecast recalculates with every cycle.
- Direct PLC reading over Modbus, OPC UA or Ethernet/IP. No extra sensors on machines that already count.
- Good parts, scrap and real cycle against standard cycle, per machine, mold and shift.
- Stoppages with a reason: the machine reports the stop and the operator picks the cause on the tablet. Afterwards, the ten costliest reasons.
- End-of-shift forecast: at this pace the target is met at 21:40, or falls 380 parts short. With time to react.
Where the money goes today
What a plant loses when the count lives on the whiteboard
Typical plant OEE sits around 60% and world class is 85%. There are more plants below 45% than above 85%. The gap between 60 and 85 is capacity that's already paid for and walks out the door in stoppages, slow cycles and scrap.
The shift found short the next morning
When the shortfall is known at the eight o'clock meeting, there's nothing left to do. With the forecast at five in the afternoon, the supervisor can still move people or a mold.
Slow cycles that become normal
A 22-second standard cycle running at 25 is 12% fewer parts with the same power, people and mold. The system compares real cycle against standard on every machine.
What the system measures
Start with the machines that cost the most. The rest connect later, one at a time.
- Parts per hour, shift and day
- Real cycle against standard cycle
- Stoppages with reason and duration
- Mold changes and their time
- Scrap per machine and per cause
- OEE: availability, performance and quality
- End-of-shift forecast
- Resin consumption against parts produced
- Board on the floor and on the manager's phone
- Shift report to email, at close
How it's done today, and how it ends up
Three moments in an ordinary injection plant.
Today
The operator writes down the parts every hour, when they remember. The supervisor types them into a spreadsheet at the end of the shift. Production and quality have different numbers.
With the system
The count comes from the PLC on every cycle. The floor board shows parts against target in real time and the same number reaches the manager.
What you get
One number for the whole plant, without anyone typing it.
Operation example
An injection plant with 14 presses and three shifts
This is how the system looks in a plant this size: all 14 presses report every cycle over Modbus, each operator has a tablet for the stop reason, there's a big board on the floor and the plant manager opens the same board on their phone.
Get a quote for one like this14machines connected via PLC
3shifts with target, progress and forecast
8 semfrom the first meeting to the first four machines live
10costliest stop reasons, every month
Decision manual
Questions worth answering before automating
Scope, return, data, integrations and infrastructure, with concrete answers and visible boundaries.
Q/01How do you connect to an injection press's PLC?
Over the protocol the machine already speaks: Modbus TCP, OPC UA or Ethernet/IP on modern ones, and a cycle signal via relay on old ones. A small device on the floor reads the signals and sends them to the system. The machines aren't modified and the machine vendor doesn't need to be involved.
Q/02What is OEE and why measure it?
OEE is the percentage of planned time in which the machine produced good parts at standard speed. It combines three losses: stoppages, slow cycles and scrap. It's useful because it turns everything that goes wrong into one figure per machine and per shift, and that figure says where the missing money is.
Q/03How does the end-of-shift forecast work?
With the real pace of the last few hours, the stoppages so far and the shift target, the system projects what time the target is met or how many parts will be missing at close. It recalculates with every cycle and alerts the supervisor when the projection drifts from the target.
Q/04Does it work for lathes, presses or assembly lines?
Yes. Any machine that emits a per-cycle signal or has a PLC connects the same way. For machining shops there's a page with what changes: orders, material and scrap per part.
Q/05How much does a production metrics system cost?
It's quoted per connected machine, with a four-machine start in about eight weeks. The number it's compared against is the OEE the plant is already paying for: every percentage point recovered on a machine is output that ships without buying anything.
Find the process costing you the most margin
Tell us where work repeats, where information gets lost and which metric moves the business. We'll tell you what to measure first and whether automation makes sense.
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