Tutelar Technologies: Easy Upgrade to Digital Manufacturing

Tutelar Technologies

Edward Dickson, President and CEO, Tutelar TechnologiesEdward Dickson, President and CEO
In the pursuit of manufacturing excellence, organizations typically focus on hiring new people and investing in expensive equipment. But these strategies do not guarantee the optimum outcome. New equipment brings new problems in understanding how it functions, and human resources frequently move causing time consuming and expensive replacement efforts. These challenges are especially challenging in these current times of resource constraints.

This is where Tutelar Technologies steps in.

Tutelar Technologies has created a plant-floor manufacturing software solution, Ujigami, for companies wanting to take the digital leap to re-energize their manufacturing operations. Ujigami software contains the manufacturing rules and intelligence coupled with direct connection to existing devices, machines, and people. This advanced capability ensures proper setup, configuration, and control of all machines and the production system to function as expected. Ujigami’s browser-based interface is intuitive and can be operated by both technical and non-technical staff. Ujigami can intelligently control any equipment, old or new, and monitor its outputs and control its inputs to transform the manufacturing environment into a modern high quality, low cost system. This is a godsend for manufacturers who wish to progress down the path of sustainable improvement.

“The key is for an organization not to wait, but to start now, start small, and build upon small successes. And those small successes will build up, much like a pyramid. One stone at a time, to drive complete success and excellence across the entire plant,” states Edward Dickson, President and CEO of Tutelar.

Leveraging Tech to Enhance Performance

Ujigami is not just a system to digitize aging assets, it is a stepping stone to expanded manufacturing monitoring, control and optimization capabilities.

It is an advanced manufacturing environment that answers the industry’s need for an intelligent, connected plant and product directed manufacturing software. Ujigami delivers a real-time control system that can direct, detect, control, and correct all processes during the manufacturing of individual parts instantaneously as they are being manufactured. Unlike traditional shop-floor systems that limit themselves to simple reporting functions, Ujigami ensures accurate process execution, and safeguards machines and operators from making incorrect decisions during production. This advanced level of mistake-proofing can be implemented on a manufacturer’s existing tools, equipment, and operators, to create technical controls that will ensure high precision part production.

Ujigami is equally applied to new equipment and processes to maximize the return on investment.

Ujigami is easily configured with manufacturing rules from part prints, process flow diagrams and control plan information. Direct real-time connection with devices, machines, and people ensures proper setup, configuration, and operation of all machines, which allows the production system to function as expected.

"Ujigami allows companies to perform better than their competitors by ensuring the highest levels of manufacturing— zero defects, on time, every time"

As an intelligent system, Ujigami constantly monitors the results of all processes and automatically makes decisions to control the current and subsequent processes, whether in-station or at downstream stations. Real-time visual work instructions display information to the operator to guide the manufacture of the specific part in front of them and also guide setup technicians to ensure that the machines are set up correctly to achieve process results that meet specification. Ujigami interfaces directly to automated machines in real-time to select the correct process parameters and control each step of the machine process. These functionalities deliver a highly connected, intelligent manufacturing environment where daily work is translated into a comprehensive, integrated, and robust manufacturing system.

The key really is for an organization to not wait, but to start now, start small and build upon small successes. And those small successes will build up, much like a pyramid. One stone at a time, to drive complete success and excellence

Creating New Value From Existing Functionality

With 30+ years of experience in the manufacturing tech space, Tutelar has helped many businesses adapt to digital production. As an example, a large tier-1 automotive metal manufacturer in Michigan needed improved quality and traceability. The client required the capability to produce goods with zero defects while keeping evidence of what they produced. Each operation had to meet specifications and safety criteria in order to be shipped to the OEM before they could go into vehicles. The company wanted to document all relevant production data. The manufacturer was using an AIDA press from the seventies, predating any ability to directly connect an IT system to collect any valuable data and control the process.

Operators were relying solely on their experience and tribal knowledge, hoping that good parts would come out of the press. But inexperienced operators had allowed bad parts to reach their OEM customer so improvements were required. Tutelar was consulted, and their team worked with the customer’s technical team to configure Ujigami to run atop the press. Tutelar was able to install inexpensive communication bridges to the machine, enabling Ujigami to connect to the sensors and controls of the press.

The result is a series of smart capabilities, which helped the manufacturer ensure that only a certified operator can operate the press, the correct dies are in the press for the part being produced, and each part is sequenced through each cavity. Additionally, Ujigami now tells the operator when the press has produced a good part and manages the packout into the correct shipping container. Ujigami also ensures bad parts are placed in a quarantine container before permitting the press to cycle again. Ujigami makes sure that if the part is bad it is contained, and if it is good it is packed out. Complete traceability of each part produced is maintained on Ujigami’s Birth Certificate.

Due to the success on the stamping press, Ujigami was quickly deployed at the manufacturer’s other operations of welding, CNC, assembly, and testing to ensure good coordination between the stations and good parts in station. The Tier 1 manufacturer witnessed a significant improvement in both productivity and quality that their OEM customers took notice. The client now has the confidence that Ujigami is a differentiating factor and business requirement, as it builds better products and delivers zero defects.

Ujigami thus rescued the client from the risk of losing business due to quality issues. In a do-or-die situation with their OEM customer, they were out searching for the best system that would provide the connectivity and intelligence on their plant floor, and they were pleased they chose Ujigami.

Moving Forward—Creating a Tide of Change

Today, many leading OEMs and Tier one manufacturers in North America are achieving the highest levels of manufacturing performance due to Tutelar’s leading-edge software. The company is helping many of its clients in moving their manufacturing back into the United States to significantly improve the performance of clients’ local manufacturing and avoid supply-side contraints. Tutelar continues to focus on its technical mistake-proofing capability while taking advantage of more advanced equipment capabilities that are being introduced in the marketplace. Besides, Dickson is confident about Tutelar’s ability to help its clients harness innovations in the manufacturing sector. Fortune 500 customers are taking advantage of Ujigami’s flexible architecture, robust performance, and ease of use to standardize their manufacturing operations globally. Tutelar has partnered with a worldwide technical services provider to establish a local presence in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Oceania to support this global roll-out. “Ujigami allows companies to perform better than their competitors by ensuring the highest levels of manufacturing—zero defects, on time, every time,” says Dickson. Irrespective of what the plant floor problem is, what caused the issue, or when a problem occurs, Tutelar’s extended team of experienced professionals will jump in to help manufacturers find the root cause and create a sustainable solution that works.

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