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The New Automation Calculation Supplement - This collection of articles comes from a supplement introduced with the May 2005 issue of Modern Machine Shop:

• Overall Equipment Effectiveness: The Formula For Finding Your Plant’s Hidden Potential - (Sponsored Content) A metric that captures availability, performance and quality highlights the many places where today’s automation makes sense.
• Release The Potential Of Your Machine Tool - (Sponsored Content) Probing can improve OEE in many different ways throughout the machining cycle.
• Automation For Information - (Sponsored Content) There is a wealth of information already in the shop. Here is how to profit from it. Move Parts
• Don't Move Production - (Sponsored Content) Robotic automation can make manufacturing in North America the most profitable choice.

The New Automation Calculation And Shopfloor Information - A collection of resources from MMS:

• A Manager's Guide to Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) - (Sponsored Content) As this online exclusive explains, it pays to consider both creative and proven methods that manufacturers can use to bring their product to market at minimum cost.
• Expanding Capabilities For Existing Controls - There was a time, not too long ago, when computer numerical controls were notoriously closed and proprietary. Adapting or upgrading an existing CNC was difficult. It may be a sign of how much control technology has changed that one major supplier now offers a range of options for upgrading not just its own CNCs, but other CNCs as well.

Probing As An Automation Tool - A collection of resources from MMS:

• How To Perfect A Machining Process (Or At Least Make It More Trustworthy) - There will always be uncertainty. For this reason, it may not be possible to truly “perfect” a machining process—at least not in literal terms. But what if the scope of all of the uncertainty in the process could be known in advance? What if the error was known to be small enough that it wouldn't compromise the precision that the part required? Such a process could be considered “perfect” as far as that particular part was concerned. The process could be trusted to make that part, and this trust alone could deliver substantial savings.
   
• Using The Machine Tool As A Gage - On-machine inspection probing keeps jet engine production flying.
   
• Accepting Parts Off Your Machine Tools - Monitor, diagnose and improve the performance of your machines, and use in-process feedback to control your machining to traceable standards.
   
• The Technology Of Lean Machining - This plant offers a lesson in lean cell design. The plant makes different choices for its machining cells depending on whether the parts are known or unknown.
   
• Under Control - This small-parts machining operation combines superbly automated workholding and handling with total machining process management.
   
• Break The Accuracy Barrier - "Reference comparison" uses probing to hold accuracies tighter than inherent process error.

Robotic Automation - A collection of resources from MMS:

• Is Robotic Automation Becoming Practical For Low-Volume Production? - High-volume manufacturing and robotic automation go hand in hand. Machine-tending robots used in these production schemes need not be very flexible, as they may just load and unload one type of part hundreds of thousands of times.
• Sourcing Automation - A new kind of 'automation project manager' helped this company install a roboticized machining cell, the first of several now operating in its plant.
• Reinventing The Robot For The Job Shop - A compact robot that rolls out of the way when not needed/wanted provides the perfect solution to this shop's automation needs.
• Moving, Machining And Testing Parts 24 Hours A Day - "The pressure to cut costs and increase the frequency of deliveries meant that we had to figure out ways to be competitive. So, we faced a dilemma— increase productivity and quality for less money," according to this manager.