Investing in information

The ability to show real time information not only provides key information for management but helps to encourage competitiveness between operators and/or shift teams. The information can also be used as an incentive to operators when linked to productivity bonus schemes. A typical display will include time and date, target, actual and performance, usually shown as a percentage. More complex displays include ‘takt’ times and the previous shifts performance figures. The displays incorporate wide viewing LED technology either in single or tri-colour formats. A common feature on most displays is to have a single line of text available to allow for important messages to be displayed throughout the factory at the touch of a button. Applications for Production Displays range from food manufacturing and printing operations through to heavy industrial environments such as steel or slate works. The enclosures used by Vision Text, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of intelligent electronic LED displays, are designed to suit specific applications, although most applications are designed in an IP65 enclosure providing protection from water used in the cleaning process. Installation of the displays is made simple by the choice of communications available, which include Serial, IP Ethernet or Wireless Comms. Input data can be taken from a simple closed contact, extracted from a database or driven from a PLC connected to the production line. Vision Text has over the years established an enviable record in the manufacture and installation of displays for many blue chip companies in the UK and testament to this is in the number of repeat orders they receive from companies such as Cadbury Bournville, Denso Manufacturing, Honda, Rolls Royce, Welsh Slate, Solar Glass and Acorn Offset Print.