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Legacy Blog – Edition XV

shop floor automations blogIn this Legacy Blog, Shop Floor Automations thanks these digital publications for sharing our recent news about DNC software, machine monitoring, hardware, and more:

Manufacturing Tomorrow posted a piece we wrote about return on investment (ROI) for shop floor automation solutions. “A great example of actually showing your ROI comes from one of our customers who had an ROI sheet showing that their company had 30 machines, they ran two programs per day, and they loaded 300 programs per week…they then showed how expensive this older process was where they were using outdated shop floor media to transfer programs and estimated how much time/money would be saved by upgrading to DNC.”

MFG Talk Radio published quite a few of our pieces lately. They shared news of our new technology, the LAN-USB Connect. They also shared a piece where we shared with manufacturers how to approach decision makers with ways to prove automation ROI.

FabShop Magazine hosted SFA in the MFG ETC section once again. OSHA’s Top 10 safety violations in 2017 that apply to the shop floor were explored and how some automation solutions can help address some of these issues for 2018 onward.

In a throwback, Manufacturing Engineering published a blog about managing and collecting shop floor machine data. Within this piece, SFA owner Greg Mercurio was interviewed.

For our latest appearances in manufacturing trade magazines, check out our press page. Otherwise, we would love to start the conversation with you about automation! Call (877) 611-5825 or fill out a contact form.  

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Legacy Blog – Edition XIV

shop floor automations blogHere is more archived SFA press coverage. Controlling CNC programming with DNC software is part of the focus.

MFG News published a piece from us that lists 4 reasons medical manufacturers can benefit from machine monitoring software.

Moldmaking Technology also published a piece touching on how DNC software is crucial to moldmakers.

MFG Talk Radio published a piece on our new hardware product, the LAN-USB Connect.

Our 20th anniversary of being in business has been graciously covered by many publications in our industry.

We thank these publications for helping us continue our success: Modern Machine Shop, CNC West, Modern Metals, Cutting Tool Engineering, Fabricating & Metalworking, FabShop, and many others!

Need a laugh? Check out our latest Shop Floor Man comic strip, in which his recent absence is explained.

Otherwise, if you need solutions to increase productivity, call (877) 611-5825 or fill out a contact form to get in touch with us! 

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Legacy Blogs – Edition XIII

shop floor automations blogDocument control. Gcode editing. OEE calculation. Documentation of any variety is important to us at Shop Floor Automations, and not just for our customers. We welcome you back to our Legacy Blog series, where we archive past press coverage.

We appeared in the October 2017 issue of MFG News, with a piece reviewing the top three benefits to machine monitoring appearing from us. Updates to DataXchange and an overview of Touch HMI features were also in the issue. We were also in the August 2017 issue of MFG News.

The benefits of cloud-based machine monitoring are reviewed in this piece from us, published in Modern Machine Shop this past January, plus we were mentioned in this piece on R&D Manco. Speaking of Modern Machine Shop, we were also in the February issue with an ad and an article. We have photos of our appearances in this issue on Instagram, too, so be sure to network with us and the #instamachinist movement!

Finally, in the January 2018 Production Machining Magazine issue, we were part of the annual product directory. You can find us under Software>CAD/CAM, Software>ERP & Other Shop Management, Software>Data Collection Devices, and the general directory.

For more information, we would love to start a conversation with you for your productivity needs. Call (877) 611-5825 or fill out a contact form so we can get back to you on your time. 

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SFA Legacy Blog – Edition XII

shop floor automations blogA big focus of Shop Floor Automations is to help customers access crucial, real-time data. We also value historical data for manufacturing productivity. Here is another edition of our Legacy Blog where we cover past media coverage.

MoldMaking Technology covered our upcoming 20th Anniversary. Speaking of event-related news, MFG Talk Radio shared our piece about MFG Day 2017, as well as Manufacturing Tomorrow sharing it.

Our solutions and how they go hand-in-hand with safety in the manufacturing process was mentioned on the WitzShared blog, which is part of the WarehouseFlow Advisors. Gear Solutions posted our piece on the benefits of machine monitoring software.

In an amusing piece of news – our Marketing Coordinator won a manufacturing talent contest last summer for performing a spoof of a Beetles song. AMT also wrote about our comic strip Shop Floor Man in a past update. Fabricating and Metalworking also shared our piece on why spreadsheets are deadweight.

If you would like any further information on our solutions or any articles mentioned above, please contact us. Call (877) 611-5825 or fill out a contact form. 

2017 MFG Review & Looking Ahead

American manufacturingLast year was quite successful for American manufacturing. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Fourth Quarter survey from December of 2017 confirms it.

94.6% of those surveyed in December said they were positive about their company’s outlook. It was only 89.8% in September.

Confidence was only 56.6% in Q1 of 2016. According to NAM, companies expect their production to increase 5%, with an anticipated 5.2% growth in sales, and an expected 2.2% increase to employee wages.

58.7% feel American manufacturing is heading in the right direction. Those who felt it is going in the wrong direction were in the minority at 21.4%. 32.2% told NAM they were “unsure,” but it is in our nature to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Read on!

Read more

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Modern Machine Shop – January 2018

modern machine shop

Our customers at R & D Manco were on the January 2018 cover story for Modern Machine Shop.

Shop Floor Automations, the company’s machine monitoring provider, shares the story.

“Machine monitoring has been another important factor in R&D Manco’s success,” states MMS editor Peter Zelinski within the feature piece.

Basic machine status data and studying the data to find downtime causes was very important. It was noted as “the shop’s most powerful resource for realizing machining capacity improvements.”

OEE monitoring is crucial for manufacturers. Knowing the utilization of all production equipment is becoming a daily need on the shop floor.

Read more below!

Read more

SFA Legacy Blogs Edition XI

Shop Floor Automations Blog – Legacy Edition 11

shop floor automations blogWelcome to another edition of the Shop Floor Automations legacy blog. Our archive is full of news about the CNC software and hardware we provide to manufacturers. Here is what we have to share for Edition 11:

In the October 2017 issue of Modern Machine Shop, a case study we did with one of our customers is featured. FabShop Magazine also featured us in their “MFG etc.” section, talking about machine monitoring for fabrication machines plus other unknown monitoring benefits in October 2017.

Here is a throwback: we also remember when Industrial Machinery Digest first wrote about our comic strip called Shop Floor Man. We were also grateful when Manufacturing Global wrote about Shop Floor Man, proclaiming it was a step to “make an impact on a younger generation of manufacturing professionals.”

Fabricating and Metalworking wrote about how DataXchange and MTconnect were two great combined solutions on the shop floor to increase OEE.

That will do it for this edition of the SFA Legacy Blogs. If you have any questions about combatting shop floor downtime, please give us a call at (877) 611-5825. You can also fill out a contact form and we will get back to you when it is most convenient. 

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October 2017 Shop Floor Automations Case Study

We love learning about the results our customers get after integrating our productivity solutions.

In this new Shop Floor Automations case study, our customers at Stollen Machine talk about how our hardware helped combat downtime.

shop floor automations case study

Thanks to Stollen Machine’s Instagram Account for this photo of the MMS article

In this October 2017 case study published in Modern Machine Shop, Doug at Stollen Machine says his inferior cabling was causing communication issues with his machines. After researching and weighing the pros/cons, he decided to go with our Wireless Connect devices in his multi-generation shop.

Investing in six hardware devices from Shop Floor Automations helped to replace an old system that wreaked havoc on Stollen Machine’s shop floor. The study found that they were able to get back 15% more time daily, which is invaluable in the manufacturing process.

Hardware isn’t the only way we help customers, either. Another customer of ours, Tech Manufacturing, attributes using machine monitoring through Shop Floor Automations for helping with overall productivity just by monitoring utilization. With many other solutions on hand, we look forward in the future to sharing more of these case studies with the manufacturing industry.

Check out our other case studies, or if you would like to share your story of how we helped your productivity, participate in a case study today. For more information, call Shop Floor Automations at (877) 611-5825

A little info about Shop Floor Automations: SFA was established in 1998 and will soon be celebrating our 20th anniversary in business. We support efforts to fill the skills gap, such as MFG Day and writing about organizations who focus on this cause. Our focus is to help the Made in America movement by supplying tools and support to combat downtime, increase OEE, organize your shop floor, and help with machine communication issues. Contact us today!

SFA Legacy Blogs – Edition X

shop floor automations blog

SFA Legacy Blogs – Edition X

Shop Floor Automations is always grateful to manufacturing trade publications that take the time to publish our press releases on new products, technology or industry news.

Here is the 10th installment of our SFA Legacy Blog series, with past instances where we have been published.

Fabricating and Metalworking published a piece about our Wi-Fi USB Connect and updates to one of our hot-selling products DataXchange.

Canadian Metalworking published a blurb about the Wi-Fi USB Connect. For product coverage, Modern Machine Shop covered Predator MDC updates

To further stay in touch with Shop Floor Automations, we would love to chat with anyone on social media about our solutions. We are located on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

For more information on solutions from Shop Floor Automations, please contact us here or call (877) 611-5825.

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SFA Legacy Blogs – Edition 9

shop floor automations blog

SFA Legacy Blogs – Edition 9

The Shop Floor Automations blog is dedicated to preserving the history of our company. Here is the latest news we would like to share.

Our popular piece about millennials in manufacturing jobs continues to make its way through our industry. Haas Technical Education Centers published the piece on their blog recently.

We also have some vintage news pieces we would like to share. This piece from Manufacturing Engineering Media (from SME) in 2014 features an interview with our company President Greg Mercurio. This piece from June of 2012 by MFG News was from a time when our floppy drive emulators were still fairly new. American Machinist also published this piece in December 2016 about how recent Scytec updates meant even more MTConnect compatibility.

We were also honored to be in the following recent publications: the CNC West April/May 2017 issue (pages 69 and 73), the MFG News March 2017 issue (in each edition – page 53 Midwest, page 65 West, etc), and the MFG News June 2017 issue (in all editions – page 76 Southwest, page 71 Midwest, etc.)

If you would like more information about how to increase productivity on your shop floor, call (877) 611-5825 or fill out our contact form. Want to see some reasons why customers have stayed with us? Check out our reviews!