November 2, 2023

G-WPO with RPI partner successfully completes its second CESMII project; several surprises

 

The project, announced almost exactly one year earlier (November 3, 2022) demonstrated the flexibility of the team to deliver value.  It was noted in the More section of that date that the official title of the project, “Utilizing the CESMII SMIP to Optimize Product Quality for Mixer/Filler systems in the Food Industry” that…

 

We’re really not sure how this title pushed its way on top of the proposal.  We’d prefer … “Smart Batch Processing for Food using Low-cost Optical Sensing.”  This gives primacy to the sensing, and a hint at how customized Wind4 can be.  This SMM is eager to push itself – and CESMII – to new limits.

 

Prescient.  As a consequence of unanticipated changes in corporate strategy, the project shifted in two highly desirable ways.  The first was a workforce/upskill emphasis, intensifying and expanding the creation of new, highly user-accessible, intuitive software to operate both standard scalar sensing such as temperature measurements.  Naturally, with the advent of optical analysis, this software push also brought in new mathematical formats – array data. 

 

The second shift was a reliance on workforce knowledge to lead to a most-favored replacement for mixer/filler systems.  By not only identifying that packaged (jar) goods would need to be quality checked, but also building a version of a fixture to perform such checks, the G-WPO/RPI team was reassured that not just the message – but the practice – of Smart Manufacturing had been transmitted.

 

CESMII is committed to standardization and interoperability, and this project introduced both those concepts to the Wind4 suite of capabilities.

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December 14, 2023

G-WPO initiates that third competitively won CESMII project, “Upskilling SMMs to be CESMII-ready in under 6 months” 

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A third award from CESMII provided a two-fold opportunity.  While the agency is often referred to as the Smart Manufacturing Institute, the CE in CESMII stands for clean energy.  Hence, one goal was to work explicitly with an organization with an exceptional track record of climate sensitivity.  NJMEP, the New Jersey MEP worked patiently and thoroughly with G-WPO to find just the right partner.

 

An exceptionally green-conscious manufacturer … wants to address one of its most persistent problems: ink curing. They have been at a loss for how to do so though their corporate commitment to environmental sensitivity would normally obligate them to move forward. Because they have at least seven different sites to monitor; because the issues are not just energy usage but resulting quality, they have a complex problem requiring real-time sensing and feedback. With this significant need to upskill, they can introduce SM methods which, as a green-business, they are eager to grow with.

 

The second goal was to put in place a Train-the-Trainer program to demonstrate that a Scale & Deploy strategy for Wind4 is, indeed, practical.  With at least a third of the workforce pre-digital, but MEP representation available nationwide, a model system was initiated with TMAC/Lamar a Texas MEP. The idea is for G-WPO to train TMAC on the sensing that an end-user, a brewery, needs.  Then the MEP, skilled in the tools of Wind4 would e directly responsible for upskilling the brewery.

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January 18, 2024

G-WPO reports very high commitment – and definitive results – green manufacturer

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To enable the necessary power consumption measurements close contact between G-WPO, its sensor supplier, Swift, and the very able on-site electrician was necessary – and achieved.  Data flowed abundantly and, remarkably, it was the owner/CEO, the energy-conscious good citizen who personally did the analysis. 

 

An excerpt from his report… 

The clear leader among the three tested ink systems being LED UV, which near eliminates maintenance interference until need to change colors and or move print stations.  This clear advantage of LED UV curing leads me to recommend all new incoming assets be equipped with LED.

 

The company got its answer and G-WPO expanded its capability of routine sensing in Wind4 to include power.

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April 29, 2024

G-WPO/RPI team’s Final Report to NYS Pollution Prevention Institute demonstrates value of upskilling food company to Smart Manufacturing

 

The project, announced September 6, 2022, demonstrated that once initiated into the Smart Manufacturing domain, a small company can deepen its commitment and grow more sophisticated.   Nutrition Bar Confectioners – with the assistance of the G-WPO/RPI team – built on its CESMII Innovation Award winning project, establishing at least four significant goals.  Waste due to thermal failures in the tunnel went to zero; simplified monitoring of production using Cloud-based techniques became routine (see figure); energy usage from compressors and air handlers was monitored, quantified and considered as parameters to be optimized; and a permanent, on-the-floor, go-to manager was assigned to coordinate all activities.

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The project illuminated many new opportunities for deeper penetration of Smart Manufacturing for greater throughput efficiencies as well as additional sensors, algorithms and profiles adaptable to other factories employing cooling tunnels.

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September 5, 2024

G-WPO reports to CESMII that it is in discussions with TMAC/Lamar to expand on the Train-the-Trainer idea

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The CESMII-project with TMAC/Lamar continues to demonstrate what the combination of commitment, skills and report can do.  Both sides want to continue to work together; both sides express a deep willingness to assist that third of the manufacturing workforce that is pre-digital to get modern.

 

TMAC parlayed the Wind4 training it got from G-WPO into building its own microbrewery.  It wants a showcase to use as a manufacturing teaching tool throughout Texas.

 

Gavin Jones, the regional director for TMAC in southeast Texas, said in a recorded message for the September 5

meeting …

 

My team has been working with Alan and Henry with G-WPO, following their guidance to develop the set of skills necessary to develop on site smart manufacturing tools. This project has been very successful in our eyes. The university has also decided to launch an innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship program to encourage and mentor small startups in this process, using this collaboration as sort of a template, the

precursor.  … We were able to create a microbrewery here on campus to be able to test their concepts out. What we ended up doing is developing sensor array 3D printed a series of boxes. … In the future, we would like to master the details of machine centered telepresence and to master the techniques of remote virtual learning and teaching.

 

One of the several advantages of working with Gavin and his team is their proactive style, one in which they search for solutions immediately upon discovering a problem or an opportunity.

 

Another is their friendliness, their openness to new ideas – both leaning and teaching. What G-WPO has found in dealing with TMAC is that Wind4 can be more than just an effective method for upskilling; it can be fun to do, to expand upon, to dream.  That seems like the best way we can think of to create a better future for the labor force and for the country.

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