Integrated Visual Work Instructions for The Factory of the Future

In Booth B-8951, Visual Knowledge Share (Chateauguay, QC) will demonstrate VKS, an Electronic Work Instruction system designed to help manufacturers improve profitability through improvements in quality and productivity. It helps make the creation, deployment and management of work instructions simple and efficient through a scalable system that can collect live quality and productivity data. Originally created by a medium-sized sheet metal fabricator in Montreal, it was designed by manufacturers, for manufacturers, to help small to medium-sized shops thrive in a hyper-competitive, fast changing business environment. VKS is a quick and easy system that helps share best practices and provide a path towards Industry 4.0. Being a module based software, it can scale from purely a software to create and share visual work instructions with pictures, video, and text, to an easily deployable Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that actually allows shops to upload different types of media, add annotations and highlight key details, translate the instructions to a wide variety of languages by the click of a button, and guarantee that operators are always following the most recent, up to date procedure.

VKS provides a more visual platform to operators and shaves off an average of 50 percent of time spent by managers creating and maintaining work instructions. Shops can create and share visual work instructions and quality checklists, while monitoring productivity and work order data. The operator can simply scan a barcode to pull up a job, select the Work Order they are processing, pre-loaded from the ERP, begin following the instructions and inputting any necessary quality data as prompted. Managers can view all of the data through the reporting section, live KPIs or via custom built dashboards. ToolConnect capabilities allow the software to receive signals from machines and tools in real time, as actions are performed. A typical example is in an assembly environment where VKS shows the operator what screws to insert and where. Upon insertion of the screw, the device sends a signal back to VKS identifying the torque value to be saved in the report and advancing the work instruction to the next step automatically for the operator – the next steps toward the factory of the future where all systems will be fully integrated with seamless data exchange and reduced manual entry.

Visual Knowledge Share,1241 Rue Des Cascades, Chateauguay, QC J6J 4Z2, 855-201-4656, www.vksapp.com.