Aiming to provide shop floor managers with actionable insight into their production lines, manufacturing intelligence (MI) software provider Parsec Automation Corp. has announced the general availability of a portable performance management tool that contains the core functionality of its TrakSYS enterprise-grade MI offering.
Called LEANTrak, the portable system is a self-contained unit that comes with an industrial notebook PC pre-loaded with the performance management software, sensors, and a data collection device that manufacturers can set up on one line and then move to others as needed.
"Our basic product line [TrakSYS] typically requires a certain level of setup and infrastructure. Although it can deliver a significant level of benefits, some customers are skeptical" about the cost of an enterprise-grade installation, said Parsec President and CEO Eddy Azad, in an interview with Managing Automation. "They might not have the budget for large projects, but they want the benefits."
Parsec's answer is to put the core functionality of TrakSYS into something portable that can be set up quickly, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of a full-featured MI system. Some manufacturers, he added — especially those with smaller production shops or with lots of manual or semi-automated processes — might never opt for an enterprise-level solution, but they still can realize many of the benefits with the portable system.