Shop Floor Automations Celebrates Milestone
The manufacturing integrator marks two decades in business with a redesigned website and new logo.
Posted: March 21, 2018
During March 2018, Shop Floor Automations (SFA; La Mesa, CA) is celebrating their 20th year in business in San Diego. They have redesigned and optimized their website and changed their logo to celebrate the milestone. They specialize in assisting manufacturers to increase productivity, are the number one reseller of Predator Software and Scytec DataXchange, and can engineer various hardware systems to fit customer needs. Shops that can’t replace legacy machines or those who suffer from the manufacturing skills gap can especially benefit from SFA’s help, which includes:
- DNC software – Managing and sending machine programs efficiently with DNC software helps to increase overall productivity. This type of system replaces laptops or portable media throughout the shop floor to allow for more control over CNC programs.
- Machine monitoring – Improving OEE on a shop floor is often a priority for manufacturing operators. Increasing utilization helps to measurably change productivity. Machine monitoring is also crucial for those looking to take on lights-out manufacturing in 2018.
- Production scheduling – Real-time scheduling of jobs on the shop floor helps to eliminate inaccurate spreadsheets and helps to get more jobs on-time to customers. Being able to see how moving jobs effects all other jobs up to 365 days into the future is crucial in understanding your capacity and increases the ability of taking on new jobs.
- Improving legacy machines and replacing old media – Shop floors often need to prioritize hiring more skilled workers over buying expensive new machines. Hardware implementation for legacy machines allows for adding USB ports to machines, replacing floppy disks via floppy drive emulators, and being able to read/write files over a wireless signal. For small machine shops that don’t want to make a DNC software investment, the USB Connect Portable option tends to be a popular alternative.
- On-site service from professional technicians – SFA technicians are well versed in dealing with CNC machines, as well as Industry 4.0 and protocols such as MTConnect. Customers of SFA also find themselves surprised when technicians can diagnose and fix other problems they were not even aware of previously. Technicians can also service customers over the phone and via remote services.