Spurred by customer requests for assistance in lowering overall manufacturing costs, Linden Industries has enhanced the remote monitoring capabilities of their MicroProcessVu program.

MicroProcessVu has been embraced by the polyurethane processing industry as a method to collect the metrics and data analysis tools to support a Six Sigma, QS or ISO manufacturing environment.  The data is organized and served in meaningful way shows what is really happening in polyurethane production lines.  Processes can be compared and best practices shared. Over the past several years, the applications for MicroProcessVu expanded beyond polyurethane processing to the conveyors, molds, robots and all the equipment integrated into the line.

The new technology that Linden introduced is remote monitoring.  Linden customers, who consist of automotive suppliers, appliance manufacturers and polyurethane molders, were looking for methods to reduce downtime in light of cutbacks in process engineering and maintenance staff.  Remote monitoring of manufacturing processes allows variations in processing parameters, alarms etc. to send notification to maintenance personnel and process engineers via pager or PDA.  Knowing the exact nature of the problem wherever the troubleshooter maybe allows them to judge the severity of the problem and gather the necessary tools/replacement parts on their way to the line. The latest versions of MicroProcessVu incorporate a knowledge base that records exact responses to alarms, equipment and processing problems to reduce downtime. The knowledge base is complimented by an on-line image library of all the equipment components to quickly identify the defective part and associated part number.