JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 6

JEC WORLD 2018

For quality control and audit purposes the smart software logs a two-way digital thread from raw-material to end-product

Tool maintenance
with the Digital Assistant
IIoT allows a tool maintenance management
process which relies on tags and sensors affixed to the tools, to automate the monitoring, tracking and logging of a tool's use, while
also scheduling maintenance sessions. The
digital assistant takes it one step further. It
understands the preventative maintenance
requirements of each tool and, by monitoring the tool's autoclave duty cycles in real-time, optimizes tool utilization, optimally
effecting future production planning.
Moving from 'time-based maintenance' to
'duty-cycle-based maintenance' is critical for
the efficiency of operations, avoiding maintenance for tools to be scheduled earlier than
necessary.
With the digital assistant, when a tool needs
to undergo scheduled preventative maintenance, staff are alerted in time for them to be
able to reschedule production plans accordingly, avoiding delays and bottlenecks. The
digital assistant also updates other systems
to hold up work orders that require the same
tool avoiding congestions on the factory
floor.
In highly regulated industries such as aerospace, manufactures find it necessary to provide audit reports at any given time. Accurate
tool maintenance records allow the digital
assistant to instantly generate reports, validating that the manufacturer has followed all
necessary regulations and procedures.

Quality control
with the Digital Assistant
When an AI-powered digital assistant is put in
charge of quality control at a composite component facility, the outcomes are highly impressive. For example, if a batch of raw material is found out to be defective due to a freezer
malfunction and the process is being handled
manually, factory staff could be forced to trawl
through paper trails to identify and retrieve
all affected raw material units, WIP, kits and
finished parts. Remaining exposure time will
need to be manually recalculated, and kits will
have to be individually inspected to ascertain
their suitability for use.
This process can take many man-hours, so
that waste due to elapsed exposure time will
surely be high. The cost to the factory could
ultimately be immense due to the reduction
in production capacity during the several
days it takes to contain the problem. The digital thread means all materials, kits and parts
have been traced from the raw-material phase,
through fabrication on the production floor,
and on out to deployment in the field.
With the digital assistant in place, if a freezer
malfunction is detected threatening to damage raw material or kits, the system instantly
identifies all effected materials, kits and finished parts. For all raw materials, exposure
time left is automatically recalculated, and
staff are notified of the status of all materials
and kits.
According to their status, materials and kits
can be either discarded, or sent for quality

jec composites magazine / N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

inspection. Those flagged for expiration are
marked for urgent completion. This means
that a task which formerly took hours, now
takes only minutes and is done automatically.
It ensures no faulty parts leave the factory, and
that production delays due to quality issues,
are detected immediately and can be minimized and quickly controlled. The digital assistant is also able to offer 100% certainty that
all affected kits and parts have been identified
and located. In addition, software alerts are
instantly prompted for parts that have already
left the factory for shipment to customers.
These are either stopped on route or customers are immediately notified, minimizing inconvenience and reputational damage for the
manufacturer.
Closing the loop:
IIoT, AI and the Digital Assistant
With the digital thread information at hand,
providing two-way part traceability - from
material to product and from product back
to material - if the unexpected does happen,
manufacturers will have full control over the
production process, allowing them to react
quickly with minimal disruptions to their production schedule and work orders' on-time,
on-quality fulfilment.
Robust sensors, secure connected technology, and powerful, scalable cloud computing
power are now widely available and affordable, and the need for artificial intelligence is
clear. As the quality and cost demands made
by OEMs become more onerous, and production volumes increase, the composites
manufacturing process becomes ever more
complex. It is necessary to augment factory
floor staff with smart software that would allow them to make optimized decisions at any
given time.
AI solutions should be implemented across
the composite manufacturing process, they
should be fully integrated with existing IIoT
solutions, and they must be constantly reviewed and upgraded. Factories that do this
will enjoy major rewards in terms of efficiency
and quality control, allowing them to remain
viable and competitive.
More information:
www.plataine.com

http://www.plataine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report