Gaps, jams, skewed boards and overheated wood or machines can be monitored. The system is watched constantly in the control room, and many people in production support offices elsewhere in the factory can watch what's going on from their desktop systems. One jam was noticed by an employee in a separate building, who alerted the floor personnel and avoided a production shutdown. We call this technology 'telepresence' to convey the feeling of being where the camera is, since you control what the camera sees. Combining visualization with supply-chain management, one large aerospace customer uses Perceptual Robotics on suppliers' factory floors.
Visualization is increasingly inexpensive.
Existing machines can be controlled if they have a communications port. Wonderware has written drivers for more than 600 different devices, and third parties have written drivers for another 1,100 machines. Taking a cue from office productivity suites, Wonderware bundled its own factory tools into a FactorySuite two years ago. Now, its software helps monitor everything from rides at Walt Disney World to sewage treatment plants. Monitoring a screen from a control room is more comfortable than standing beside a giant machine on the floor, and one person can monitor many screens at once.