About Danfoss
Danfoss is a global manufacturer of hydraulic, temperature control, and power solutions, with 95 factories and over 40,000 employees worldwide. Their Danfoss Power Solutions segment is a leader in providing sustainable mobile hydraulic and electrification products for various industrial applications, buildings, infrastructure, and the food and cold chain.
To increase its efforts in developing energy-efficient solutions for the future, Danfoss recently merged its heating and cooling segments into a single, climate-focused business entity. This move has allowed them to make more strides toward creating the smart cities of tomorrow that prioritize sustainability and energy efficiency.
Challenges and decision making
Danfoss faced a challenge in optimizing their production equipment efficiency as they struggled to pinpoint where production stops were occurring. Their previous hourly and manual tracking system was unreliable and labour intensive, so they sought a more advanced solution that would centralize all production data in an electronic system for trend analysis.
Since operators were responsible for minimizing waste and production stoppages, they decided to install Blackbird, a manufacturing performance solution that was already in use at their production sites in Denmark.
By leveraging Blackbird, Danfoss successfully reduced waste and tracked performance on an hourly, daily, and shift basis against set targets, all in an intuitive way. This cutting-edge technology allowed them to streamline operations and boost production efficiency by detecting and addressing bottlenecks or inefficiencies in real-time. Overall, it proved to be a game-changer for Danfoss in their drive to continuously improve their production process.
Implementation Phase
During the implementation phase, the system was installed on more than 5 production lines, providing actionable insights instantly.
For me It's very intuitive. I find it very easy to get to grips with, even from, I guess, the more advanced levels of setting up sensors and moving sensors across lines.
Rich Wilson, Operational Excellence Manager at Danfoss Power Solutions
Operators, supervisors, and technicians across the operations function have found the training easy and effective in improving their work processes.
The cloud-based system has become an essential tool for them, thanks to its reliable identification of consolidated lines and daily reports that provide accurate assessments of OEE.
By relying on the cloud-based system, they could quickly identify opportunities for optimization and make informed decisions in real-time, reducing the likelihood of production stoppages and other operational issues that can impact the organization's bottom line.
Application Areas
Danfoss has successfully leveraged Blackbird to track hourly, daily, and shift performance against set targets. The cloud-based system has proven to be powerful, particularly in identifying consolidated lines and generating daily reports, giving them a clear picture of their OEE in their production facility.
The waterfall diagram is really nicely presented, very easy to explain to the operators or to any level of interested party”
Rich Wilson, Operational Excellence Manager at Danfoss Power Solutions
Since productivity is a key metric for Danfoss, trend analysis has been critical in identifying non-production processes, such as batch changeovers, and finding ways to increase value-add time.
I wanted something that stopped that waste. Part of my role was to reduce waste within the operations function and I didn't like the idea of the operator having to stop and count.
Rich Wilson, Operational Excellence Manager at Danfoss Power Solutions
In addition to tracking performance, Danfoss uses the Andon feature extensively to optimize operations on the shop floor. By making an Andon call when they anticipate a product shortage, operators can prevent downtime and keep production running smoothly. With the notification system, communication is streamlined, and manual processes are reduced, enabling Danfoss to improve their production efficiency significantly.
Installation Details: Data collection device: FB Duos
Data Inputs: 21 with a mix of PLC cables and photo-electric
Performance Impact
Danfoss achieved a remarkable improvement in their OEE by leveraging Blackbird's data insights, going from 50% to 70%. With the system's targeted features, they aim to achieve an OEE1 of 85% by reducing unplanned stops, cycle time, and scrap production.
By collaborating with their operators on how to use Blackbird, Danfoss achieved a 60% increase in uptime, resulting in the production of 100 more pieces daily. They developed a method to minimize changeover time, using the batch screen data and estimated time of completion to allow the line feeder to more effectively manage work to the asset, so preventing the operator having to leave the line to find their next job.
Operators are also enjoying the challenge and striving to hit 95%. This way Danfoss was able to reduce standard times and increase profitability, all while empowering employees to take an active role in optimizing operations.