Waste reduction in production for plasma cutting process by applying the MES system

Abstract

This research aims to improve the plasma cutting process to increase the efficiency of the process by applying the MES system (Manufacturing Execution Systems). This study focused on increasing efficiency in the plasma cutting process for supporting future customers’ needs, reducing the cost of waste in the plasma cutting process, and creating a more standardized production process. The MES system directly linked pc and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to increase operational efficiency. The system allows auto-input of all parameters needed for the plasma cutting process through the connection. Furthermore, this system enables the robot to receive the cutting program command based on the customer’s command data in the MES Server by creating conditions from the Kepware application. The experimental results show that improvement by the application of the MES system can reduce the production time by %07.55. The amount of waste caused by the plasma cutting process due to cutting errors by %100. Furthermore, it allows the company to reduce the cost of repairing time and reduce the cost of producing new parts to replace the scrap.