Mitsubishi Electric Automation Teams with Oracle for e-F@ctory Solution

VERNON HILLS, Ill. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mitsubishi Electric Automation, a world leader in industrial automation solutions, today announced the addition of the Oracle® Manufacturing Operations Center to its e-F@ctory manufacturing solution for all industries. The announcement was made at the 14^th Annual ARC Forum in Orlando.

e-F@ctory is Mitsubishi Electric’s vision for manufacturing that unifies its best-in-class control hardware and networks with enterprise IT systems offered by strategic partner companies, including IBM, Microsoft and now, Oracle. Mitsubishi Electric is the first hardware vendor with an Oracle tested and approved connection to the Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center.

“By combining the analytical power of Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center and the integrated architecture of the e-F@ctory solutions, customers now receive real-time information about their plant production,” said Bob Miller, solutions marketing manager, Mitsubishi Electric Automation. “Monitoring machine performance can also reduce downtime. By logging the system performance and run-times more accurately, timely intercession and preventive maintenance can be performed.”

“Production scheduling also can be controlled more accurately, automatically helping to ensure the best overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and delivery times. Since quality can be monitored for individual parts, if a quality issue arises, changes can be made automatically to resolve root-cause, thereby reducing waste and downtime,” said Miller.

Monitoring stock and usage can also increase the efficiency by keeping track of products that have been made and automatically creating new part and product orders according to up-to-the minute on-hand quantities. And when information can flow seamlessly between the plant floor and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, production can increase without expensive expansion. In fact, up to 65 percent increase in efficiency has been realized when using an e-F@ctory solution.

“Working closely with Mitsubishi Electric Automation for data collection allows us to connect to a broad range of industrial hardware platforms,” said Manish Modi, Oracle Vice President, Applications Development. “Having a viable hardware solution provides the ability to reduce the possible points of failure on the plant floor. With the ease of connection and setup of the Mitsubishi hardware, combined with our pre-built Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), we feel our customers will be able to realize a faster ROI, not only on the implementation of the system but on their whole production facility as well.”

e-F@ctory’s enterprise connectivity solution offers numerous advantages over traditional data collection methods and is built to handle high levels of data processing and interaction, not just today, but for the future. As more and more manufacturers use IT systems to remain competitive in the manufacturing space, increasing amounts of shop floor information exchange are required. Without e-F@ctory, the sheer volume of data collection and exchange required would overwhelm the control systems and force costly retrofit or clumsy work-around solutions.

Traditional solutions used today may include open control (OPC) servers, SCADA software, and Excel spreadsheets, or other business applications. Data collection and database connectivity between the business and plant floor was not their intended design. These solutions require complex infrastructures, often with multiple PCs on the floor which need to be constantly maintained and protected. Such multi-layer architecture has many possible points of failure and is can be very difficult to implement and maintain.

Miller said that customers will be able to “test drive” the system. “We will encourage potential customers to demo the hardware. With assistance from Oracle and Mitsubishi Electric Automation, they can connect up to three machines on their plant floor, and run our partner solution. At the end of the trial period, the customer will then be able to place orders for the needed components,” said Miller.

“Customers now have the opportunity to test drive a system that includes plant floor hardware along with Mitsubishi’s eF@ctory solution and Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center,” Oracle’s Modi added. “This will allow them to experience the full potential of the solution and understand the impact it can have across the enterprise.”

About Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc.

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., in Vernon Hills, IL, offers a comprehensive line of factory automation solutions. Products include e-F@ctory solutions, automation platforms, programmable logic controllers, human machine interfaces (HMI), AC variable frequency drives, servo amplifiers and motors, motion controllers, control software, computerized numerical control systems, and robots. For a broad range of factory automation applications, visit the Mitsubishi Electric Automation web site at www.meau.com.

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