Bottleneck Opportunities
Overview
Opportunities show the potential causes for bottlenecks on the line, and suggestions on how to fix them, with the objective of improving the efficiency of the line.
1. Bottlenecks Cell Summary
The left of the page will continue to show the bottlenecks cell summary with a list of all the bottleneck cells and assets in the selected date range.2. Opportunity Cards
Opportunity cards describe the opportunities pertaining to the asset within the bottleneck cell, the type of opportunity as well as the potential impact of addressing the opportunity. By default when a cell is selected, opportunities for the first asset will be shown.
Opportunity cards describe the opportunities pertaining to the asset within the bottleneck cell, the type of opportunity as well as the potential impact of addressing the opportunity. By default when a cell is selected, opportunities for the first asset will be shown.
There are majorly three types of opportunity cards. These are:
1. Availability Opportunities Availability opportunities are down time opportunities that are caused by assets in a cell being down and unavailable to produce. These generally explain the root cause of bottlenecks but are not necessarily actionable.'
To drilldown into an availability opportunity, click on the card pertaining to availability opportunities for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced a downtime along with the total number of downtimes in that hour and the total downtime duration.
From here, you can select an interval and move into downtime details from the button available below. This will take you to the downtime details page for the selected hour.
2. Stability opportunities
There are two major types of stability opportunities. These are stuck states and stoppages.
There are two major types of stability opportunities. These are stuck states and stoppages.
Stuck states are events in which an asset is cycling but gets interlocked in a suboptimal state. To drilldown into a stuck state opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced a stuck state along with the total number of stuck states in that hour and the total stuck state duration. From here, you can select an interval and move into stuck states from the button available below.
Stoppages are events where an asset is down for 15 minutes or less. To drilldown into a stoppage opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced a stoppage along with the total number of stoppages in that hour and the total stoppage duration. From here, you can select an interval and move into stoppages from the button available below.
This will open the downtimes page for the selected hour, with the stoppage/s highlighted.
3. Performance Opportunities
a. Static Delays
a. Static Delays
Conditions in which the asset is waiting between operations, usually a delay that is added by the PLC programmers that can be eliminated. To drilldown into a Static Delays opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you the state histogram for all the states in the cycles of the selected asset along with each states num instances, modes, means and standard deviations.
From here, you can select a state and click on A/B comparison to compare a fast and slow cycle for the selected state.
b. Variable cycle times
Cycles for the same asset are taking variable amounts of time. This indicates that the same operation can be performed more optimally (in the faster cycles). The fast and slow cycles can be compared to exploit this opportunity. To drilldown into a Static Delays opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you the state histogram for all the states in the cycles of the selected asset along with each states num instances, modes, means and standard deviations.
From here, you can select a state and click on A/B comparison to compare a fast and slow cycle for the selected state.
c. Interface delays
When assets are exchanging signals there are often delays and interlocks programmed into the system. These delays can be removed to improve the cycle time of both interfacing assets. To drilldown into an Interface delays opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced an Interface delay along with the start time and end time for the interval.
From here, you can select an interval and move into interactions from the button available below. This will show you the interaction graph between the selected asset and the asset it is facing interaction delays with.
d. Cyclical Waits
It is sometimes observed that assets are simultaneously waiting on each other - either directly or through a chain of waits. This indicates that the assets are sub optimally programmed to work together. Typical root causes for this type of opportunity are :
i. Sub-optimal priority logic for common zones ii. Sub-optimal wait positions for automation
To drilldown into a Cyclical Waits opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced Cyclical Waits along with the start time and end time for the interval.
To drilldown into a Cyclical Waits opportunity, click on the card pertaining to this opportunity for the selected asset. This will open a section that shows you all the hour intervals in which the selected asset faced Cyclical Waits along with the start time and end time for the interval.
From here, you can select an interval and move into interactions from the button available below. This will show you the interaction graph between the selected asset and the asset it is facing cyclical waits with.
e. Interaction Wait Delay
There are sometimes delays programmed into the asset while interfacing with other assets. This means that even after the asset has been given the go-ahead to process a part / release a part, it still waits for a time before performing the action. These delays can be removed to improve the cycle time.
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