One of the largest machine tool manufacturers demos MTConnect open source protocol with Canada’s Memex

Mississauga – Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show (CMTS 2013)Mazak Corp. is conducting a live demonstration of leading edge machine tool automation with MERLIN real-time industrial machine monitoring and control technology from Canada’s Memex Automation Inc. The Mazak-Memex demo will take advantage of MTConnect, the open source, royalty-free manufacturing protocol that helps unite islands of unconnected information on the shop floor.

The Mazak-Memex collaboration at CMTS 2013, Canada’s premiere manufacturing event for buyers and sellers, follows a decision by Mazak to co-market Memex solutions on Mazak’s product list, and install Memex’s MERLIN solution throughout the machine tool manufacturer’s recently expanded 800,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Florence, KY. This U.S. plant produces 100 different models of machine tools, including sophisticated 5-axis and multi-tasking machines. Many of these models are designed, and manufactured in the United States, then shipped across North America and also to export markets.

Memex Automation’s flagship product MERLIN is a Manufacturing Execution System application that tracks manufacturing operations bi-directionally from the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) work order to each machine’s detailed operations. MERLIN is able to connect to all machines on the shop floor using various protocols, MTConnect adapters or network connectivity devices. It measures capacity utilization and Overall Equipment Effectiveness metrics, and tracks up to the second detail about every event at a machine, all automatically.

“Using MERLIN’s capability, Mazak is taking another positive step in further increasing the productivity of our North American operations, ensuring the strong competitiveness of our Kentucky manufacturing,” said Brian Papke, President of Mazak Corp. “We continue to take a leadership position in propagating the MTConnect open protocol. MTConnect’s value to our customers is in the ability for them to establish extensive and open channels of communication for plug-and-play interconnectivity between devices. MTConnect allows software to be universally applied between different types of machine models so that information is readily available for improving machine tool utilization.”

Earlier this month, Memex won the 2013 Frost & Sullivan North American Machine Monitoring Systems Technology Innovation Leadership Award. Frost & Sullivan awards recognize companies that demonstrate outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development.