Aegis Software, a global provider of Manufacturing Execution Software (MES), announces FactoryOptix, a unique technology that integrates human assembly operations directly into the automated Industry 4.0 environment, using Augmented Reality as an additional method to deliver FactoryLogix paperless work-instructions.
The human operator is the most flexible production asset, and yet is excluded from most discussions and implementations of manufacturing automation, leaving uncertainty and doubt in the accuracy of KPIs, and risk in operational decision-making. The company’s FactoryLogix, IIoT-driven MES, brings two digital worlds together in a single solution, for automation featuring the IPC Connected Factory Exchange (CFX), and for human assembly, test and inspection operations featuring Augmented Reality (AR). Unlike other AR demonstrations in manufacturing, this technology utilizes the same internal digital product model to provide all of the data and documentation needed for AR to work, meaning that cost of ownership and configuration is unchanged from the existing FactoryLogix paperless work instruction solution.
FactoryOptix can double the productivity of human operators, simply by enabling the use of both hands at all times, not having to pick up barcode readers, use keyboards or a mouse, nor even having to look away to read work-instructions from a screen. The latest AR hardware has good battery life and is light enough to allow long-term usage throughout the day without fatigue, in the same way as a heads-up display that features in many cars today. The view through the AR glasses provides critical step-by-step instructions, with confirmation from the operator that each operation is done. Feedback from the operator is captured simply using voice recognition for commands and actions, with barcodes read by the glasses automatically when instructed to do so.
The automated environment for the operator is stress-free, with less dependency on narrowly focused specific skills, meaning that they are more flexible to work on different tasks, products and variants, without risk of “memory-driven defects”. Human operators become more broadly skilled, providing flexibility in the factory to adapt to changing manufacturing demands as is to be expected in the high-mix Industry 4.0 environment.
Industry 4.0 digitalization is incomplete without integrated Augmented Reality. FactoryOptix as a part of FactoryLogix, delivers genuine Smart Factory benefits. Visitors of the show that visit the company’s booth at productronica can not only see this technology in action but also participate in an Augmented Reality assembly competition.
productronica, A3–340
