Background
A corrugated carton box manufacturer operating 23 production machines needed to bridge the gap between its production planning department (PPIC) and the factory floor. Work orders were distributed manually, production counts were recorded by operators at shift end, and waste data was tracked on paper forms unlinked to any specific job. Management had no real-time view of output, downtime, or job progress across the facility.
PT Phase Delta Control was engaged to implement a Production Monitoring System that connected all 23 machines to a central platform, integrated live work order data from PPIC, and provided continuous visibility into production performance without changing the existing machine infrastructure.
System Requirement
The system needed to fulfill the following requirements:
Connect count and speed sensors on 23 corrugated carton machines over the existing local Ethernet network
Receive work order lists from PPIC and push them to operator stations on the floor
Display real-time production data per machine: actual count, production target, estimated completion time, active downtime, and setting time
Allow operators to select a work order, start and stop the count record, and manually input waste product quantities — all from the same interface
Send live machine status signals to each Tower Lamp (signal light) on the production floor
Project Implementation
ADAM-6051 — Digital I/O module for sensor data acquisition per machine
ADAM-6217 — Analog input module for speed sensor reading
ARK-6320 — Fanless IPC as the local HMI and data processing unit
Local Ethernet Network — Machine-to-server communication backbone
System Description
Each of the 23 machines was equipped with ADAM I/O modules wired to the existing count and speed sensors. Sensor data was transmitted over the facility's local Ethernet network to the ARK-6320 IPC, which served as both the data processing unit and the operator interface.
Work orders issued by PPIC were pushed directly to the floor system. Operators selected the active work order at their station and initiated a count record at the start of each production run. The system tracked actual output against the work order target in real time, continuously updating the estimated completion time and logging downtime and setting time automatically from sensor readings.
Waste product quantities were entered manually by the operator through the same interface, attached to the active work order. This kept waste data traceable to specific jobs rather than collected in a separate, disconnected log.
The system sent status signals to the Tower Lamp on each machine throughout the run. Supervisors on the floor could read running, setup, and stopped states visually from a distance without checking the monitoring screen.
A remote display at the PPIC station received live production data from all 23 machines, giving planners visibility into job progress, actual vs. target counts, and current machine states across the entire facility.
Summary
The implementation connected 23 machines to a single monitoring platform with no changes to existing machine hardware. PPIC gained real-time job tracking without waiting for shift-end reports. Production management could respond to downtime events and schedule deviations during the shift rather than after it. Waste data, previously scattered across paper forms, became structured and job-linked from the moment of entry.
23 machines connected without changes to existing infrastructure
Live PPIC integration — work orders pushed to floor, job status reported back
Real-time count, target, estimate, downtime, and setting time per machine
Waste product entries linked to work orders at point of input
Tower Lamp status driven automatically by the monitoring system
