Visual analytics enabling optimisation of downtime

Manufacturing is critical to the global economy and is a key sector of businesses in today’s world. The pressures of manufacturing mean that companies are often fighting to survive instead of investing in new technologies and factories in order to implement novel equipment that utilises industry 4.0 technology. This is particularly relevant for many SMEs who need solutions that can provide large benefits to their efficiency without requiring a large financial and/or time investment. The data that machinery produces is an often neglected vital resource that could hold the key to solving this problem, especially if this can be analysed in conjunction with production information. By using novel techniques, new discoveries that provide a wealth of knowledge and give a deeper understanding can be learnt. This allows for more informed decisions to be made and new hypotheses to be tested. This will lead to overall increases in process efficiency whilst still being cost and time effective. This paper will explore and propose examples of how visual analytics can be used to optimise manufacturing processes. The potential impact of analysing data, such as part quality, machine downtime and component life in conjunction, is discussed.