OEE in Isolation

OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness continues to pervade the world of manufacturing as evidenced by the number of OEE templates that are downloaded each and every day from our downloads page.  In this regard, it is interesting to note the number of OEE solutions that operate in complete isolation. A medium to large sized company typically deploys some form of […]

The Problem with Solutions

The value of a solution is a problem not worth repeating. ~Versalytics.org The 5 Why process is one of the many tools that serve to help us to state a given problem, identify a root cause, and ultimately derive a solution to resolve the concern. One of the caveats that potentially undermines the effectiveness of the 5 Why process is repeatability. […]

SQL Queries For Mere Mortals

Databases are capable of storing incredible volumes of data.  However, their true value is found when we learn to mine and manipulate that data.  Structured Query Language or SQL is the language of databases and is common – with some exceptions – to all of the major databases on the market today. A custom front end is typical of most […]

SQL and Excel

Microsoft’s SQL Server is the database solution of choice for our company.  However, like many of the database solutions available, additional data mining tools are required to provide the top level reports needed to manage the business itself. Not surprisingly, one of those tools is Excel 2016.  The correlation between a database table and a spreadsheet is intuitively clear.  While […]

Chaos in Paradise …

Have you ever wondered why or how so much time can be wasted performing what should have been a simple task?  I recently encountered a situation that could easily have been avoided if the information I received provided a little more detail including tips and traps to avoid. I’m currently writing a database application in Python that will solicit data from an SQL […]

Windows Error Code 0X80072F8F

Upgrading to Windows 10 I decided it was time to upgrade my Samsung Premium Ultrabook from Windows 8 to Windows 10.  From what I understand, the Windows 10 upgrade may not be free forever and upgrading to the new operating system was something I could do while I working on other things. The dead battery suggested that a lot of time had passed since I […]

OEE and ERP

Implementing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is a lot of work and happens to be where we’ve been spending most of our time and resources over the past few months.  The OEE reporting spreadsheet we planned to release some time ago is complete and we’ve been using it on some of our core production processes.   Some have emailed, […]