Aegis iMonitor redefines real-time factory monitoring
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/27/2008 3:45:00 PM
Aegis Software iMonitor 2.0 enables manufacturers to create their own dashboards to view the enterprise, factory, and lines in real time through Web browsers.
iMonitor allows creating unlimited numbers of interactive and real-time production tracking, materials, utilization, and quality dashboards as easily as one would design a Microsoft PowerPoint slide. Such dashboards are constructed by dragging-and-dropping gauges and charts and other active elements into a design view—similar to PowerPoint slide construction—along with user-provided graphics such as line pictures or plant drawings. The user then activates each element by simply indicating the Aegis xLink data source for that machine, tester, station, or area of the process—and the dashboard instantly comes alive in real time.
To create unlimited drill-down investigation of real-time data, iMonitor works much like a normal Web site: Users link any gauge or chart in one dashboard to another dashboard, creating a "dashboard site structure" for unlimited interactivity.
Many manufacturers want their real-time dashboards running above their lines on flat panel displays. For these applications, iMonitor allows users to build slide shows of multiple dashboards that rotate at user-defined time intervals without user interaction—all as easily as making a PowerPoint presentation.
For customers using Aegis’ best-in-class factory-wide Manufacturing Operations Software (MOS), iMonitor’s Mini Dashboards can be made available within any Aegis shop-floor interface to provide each operator whatever real-time information engineers believe would benefit them at each station.
Additionally, iMonitor users may create unlimited numbers of dashboards and store them for viewing on the Web. Dashboards can be secured to precisely limit access to particular persons or groups of persons, and do not require "refreshing" as they automatically update their content in real time.
“Manufacturers know real-time process information is valuable to everyone from the line operator to the executive, but getting access to this information in an easy, cost effective, and process-wide manner has proven elusive," says Aegis CEO Jason Spera. “By supplying the customer with all the resources they need to be completely self-sufficient from a data visibility standpoint, we offer them an elegant and economical solution. From the early adopters of iMonitor, we have learned the only limit to its enthusiastic adoption is determining how to mount the plasma displays above the lines quickly enough.”
